The Meralco Bolts won their first ever championship in the Philippine Basketball Association at the expense of powerhouse San Miguel Beermen, while the Boston Celtics are back atop the NBA totem pole after they gentlemanly swept the Dallas Mavericks.
It's a championship 24 long years in the making for Meralco, the second son of the MVP Group that took over from the defunct Sta. Lucia franchise in 2010 and endured many heartbreaks at the hands of my favorite team, Barangay Ginebra, before finally hitting paydirt this Philippine Cup.
To be honest, I thought the Junemar Fajardo-led Beermen, the premier franchise of the SMC Group, would run roughshod over the Bolts, a team that finished third in the eliminations and had to beat sister-team NLEX Road Warriors in the quarterfinals before vanquishing the Gin Kings in seven games in the semis, just to get a crack at the highly favored Beermen.
But lo and behold, the Bolts of head coach Luigi Trillo (or is it active consultant Nenad Vučinić?) proved more than a match against coach Jorge Gallent and San Miguel that boasted of three possible starting five rotations.
However, just like the philosophy in the kitchen were too many chefs can spoil the broth, too many good players mean not enough time for everyone and as a result player atrophy sets in resulting in once go-to-guys relegated to the end of bench.
Such was the case for San Miguel were marquee players like Jeron Teng and Vic Manuel, who both led the disbanded Alaska franchise to great heights as cornerstones, became bit players and sometimes outright cheerleaders for the Beermen.
In contrast to the Trillo-Vučinić-Trillo three-headed monster at Meralco (Luigi's brother Paolo is an assistant coach) which managed to get the best out of its middling roster whose big names outside of Gilas mainstay Chris Newsome is former Gilas center Raymond Almazan. They do have Rodman clone Cliff Hodge and Purefoods rejects Chris Banchero and Allein Maliksi, but whoever heard of Jansen Rios, Norbert Torres, Bong Quinto, and playoff revelation Brandon Bates?
The dreaded Adamson trio of Jericho Cruz, Don Trollano, and Rodney Brondial also became dreadful for the Beeemen this series with my man, Saipan-bred Cruz, easily had his worst playoff performance in Asia's first play-for-pay league.
As for the Celtics, let's give them their flowers as they've gone ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers for the most Larry O'Brien trophies on their cabinet with 18 as opposed to the 17 championships the Purple & Gold has, including the Mickey Mouse championship in 2020 (and yes, the 2024 In-Season Tournament tiara doesn't count).
The Mavericks put token resistance in Game 5 to essentially gift-wrap the 2024 NBA championship to the boys from Beanwtown as Kyrie Irving found the road to another championship not necessarily flat, but as rocky as his career after ditching big bro LeBron and the Cavaliers backs in 2017. Luka Doncic should also work more on his defense and less arguing his fouls and perceived non-calls to the referees.
In all, the Celtics lost only a total of three games in the playoffs enroute to the championship, which makes the Miami Heat's win in Games 2 of their first-round clash more impressive, considering coach Erik Spoelstra and company faced a complete Boston team with "Mr. Glass" Kristaps Porzingis and South Beach minus Jimmy "Play-in" Butler and former Celtic Terry Rozier. The Cavaliers' Game 2 win and Dallas' last hurrah in Game 4 were the other two losses absorbed by Boston this postseason (sorry Edwin Sallan the Pacers got swept).
The only pleasure I got from the Celtics winning the NBA championships this year is at least Mark Cuban didn't win. Would've worked either way though. Always a win for Team Petty!
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