The biggest storyline of the 2024–25 PBA Philippine Cup is the TNT Tropang 5G’s ambitious attempt at nailing just the sixth Grand Slam in league history. That goal got off to a rocky start, with the Tropa starting the tournament 0-3 as their trademark swarming defense seemed to crumble and their offense couldn’t get untracked. But months later, the Grand Slam dream is alive and well and very much possible.
The question, it seems, is how did TNT turn around its once crumbling Grand Slam bid?
Chot Reyes knows the answer fully well, and it starts with the Tropa keeping their eyes on the prize.
“Even with that bad start, all we wanted was to give ourselves a chance. Our objective after the 0-3 start was to just get to the playoffs,” Reyes told the media after TNT clinched a Finals slot with a win over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Sunday. “We were not even thinking of getting a twice-to-beat advantage. We just wanted to get into the playoffs, and we figured that whoever it is that we need to beat, we need to beat twice, then so be it. That’s the first thing, we kept our eyes on the prize.”
Indeed, TNT fell out of the top four and into twice-to-win territory. And yet, it never looked like the Tropang 5G was out of it—not in any way.
TNT Bands Together, Rises as a Team
TNT ultimately finished the eliminations with a 6-5 record and the sixth seed—and the right to play the third-seeded Magnolia Hotshots, who held a win-once advantage. The Hotshots were a formidable foe to say the least, more so with the mid-conference addition of Will Navarro, and simply keeping their eyes on the prize wouldn’t have been enough. TNT needed more. They needed to rely on each other.
“Number 2, we just came together. We always have a saying in our team, when adversity strikes, sometimes we have the tendency to go our own ways, and I said it’s the opposite. When adversity strikes, we have to team, we have to team more,” Reyes said. “We have to battle adversity with our teamwork. And that’s what happened, everyone chipped in [and] stepped up. We went on six-game winning streak and then, like I said, we had to beat somebody twice to get here…”
The Tropa did beat Magnolia twice, both by a solitary point. Things didn’t get any easier for TNT in the semis as they lost RR Pogoy to a hamstring injury in Game 2 and Kelly Williams to an ankle sprain in Game 4. What’s more, Rain or Shine matched TNT’s physicality and seemed poise to stretch the Grand Slam-seeking Tropang 5G to a seventh and deciding game with another inspired effort in Game 6.
But as they’ve always done this conference—and, really, this entire Season 49—the Tropa banded together to finally dust off the Elasto Painters with a series-clinching 14-2 run in regulation of Game 6. Jordan Heading and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser led that late-game breakaway, but TNT got contributions up and down the roster, from Glen Khobuntin putting up 16 points and 12 rebounds to Kim Aurin adding 13 markers to Brian Heruela hounding Rain or Shine ace Adrian Nocum.
Teamwork. Belief. Focus. Resilience.
There’s been plenty of that to go around for TNT. And now they’re four wins away from another title and that coveted Grand Slam.
