During the Media Day of the PBA’s 50th Season, it is revealed that LA Tenorio is, on paper, labeled as the Magnolia Hotshots’ “Playing Head Coach”.
A New Tactic to End the 7 Year Championship Drought
The former Barangay Ginebra San Miguel guard has confirmed the news, as in the paper submitted to league officials, which indicates the 15-Man Lineup of each team, Tenorio’s name is under the Injured/Reserved list.
Each squad is allowed to have 15 players in its roster with 1 player in the Injured/Reserved List, which allows the ball club to keep the rights of that particular player.
However, despite this revelation, the newly appointed Head Coach bared to the media that he’s number one goal to the team is on the sidelines and not play actual minutes on the court.
“From time-to-time, sumasali ako ng practice. You’ll never know. I’m part of the line-up. I’m part of the injury list. We’ll see. It depends on the management.”
Interestingly, it appears that LA didn’t have a say in this tactic by the Magnolia management and he is as surprised as the fans who are learning about it today.
“I’m not focused on that. My rights is with Magnolia now. I saw the final line-up that we submitted the other day and I was on the injury list. So I have a chance. May chance. But we will see.”
This move by the Hotshots is certainly out of the box, but if this is what it takes to end the 7-year championship drought, nothing is too wild at this point.
Can he do it like “The Big J” Robert Jaworski?
In the last 50 years of the PBA, there have been only a few, and I mean very few people, to take on the role of “Playing Coach”.
The most popular has to be Robert “The Big J” Jaworski for the crowd darling, Brgy. Ginebra from 1985 to 1999.
Not only was he iconic because of his “Never Say Die” mantra that he gave to Ginebra, but he was the 1st ever Playing-Coach to win a championship in the PBA during the 1986 Open Conference.
He then followed it by winning 3 more titles in the 1988 All-Filipino Conference, 1991 First Conference, and 1997 Commissioner’s Cup.
Despite such big achievements, Jawo also had to suffer big challenges. Such as the 1995 Governor’s Cup, where he ended the elimination round winless, going 0-10.
In the case of LA, Magnolia fans shouldn’t get their hope too high of LA doing the same thing.
However, Tenorio won his first-ever PBA title in just his 4th year in the league, playing for the Alaska Aces in the 2010 Fiesta Conference.
He then won his second-ever PBA championship in the 2016 Governor’s Cup when Brownlee made magic.
Aside from not getting their hopes way too high on LA subbing into the game to hit the clutch 3-pointer to win the game, there’s still a possibility that Magnolia would again finish a season without winning a title.
There have only been a few people to win a championship in their 1st season or conference with the team. And for Head Coach Tenorio, the idea of that doesn’t seem illogical at this point.
His roster must adjust to the kind of play style he’ll bring, and so as his player, he’ll handle it for the 1st time.
But what fans should anticipate is whether their Playing-Coach can bring them to the Finals at the very best this season?
