In honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the PBA, Rebanse will start a series entitled “PBA at 50” which will showcase memorable moments and stories that have made its mark in the history of Philippine Basketball.
The first on our list would be the rivalry of Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel versus the San Mig Coffee Mixers, which is called “Manila Clasico”.
1. Origin Story: Big J versus El Presidente
Similar to the rivalry of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird that made the NBA famous during the 80s, the PBA also had their version as it features former teammates turned rivals of Robert “Big J” Jaworski and Mon “El Presidente” Fernandez.
Before the birth of “Manila Clasico”, there were once 2 teammates that have played for the franchise of Toyota Super Corollas, where the duo of Jawo and Fernandez won a total of 9 championships from 1975 to 1983.
But after the Toyota was bought out by Lucio Tan in 1984, Jawo refused to play for this newly owned franchise and ended up signing with Gilbey’s Gin. While Fernandez stayed with the team with its new name, Beer Hausen.
With the 2 superstars now in new teams, fans of Toyota are divided on which player to support.
The El Presidente hatred towards the Big J was mutual, as it was revealed that Mon actually had issues with the lingering groin injury of Jawo during their last year together at Toyota in 1983.
The feud reached its peak when the two PBA legends met in the 1986 PBA All-Filipino Conference, with Fernandez now playing for Tanduay Rum Masters and Jawo still playing for the Gins.
Tanduay won the best-of-five finals, 3 games to 1. The sports media feasted on the finals match. Then, “Manila Clasico” was born.
2. The Battle for the Face of the PBA: Caguioa versus Yap
Mark Caguioa and James Yap continued this iconic battle from the 2000s to the 2010s.
James Yap, playing for Purefoods, which later gets renamed into San Mig Coffee Mixers, was the star of the franchise. He was drafted in 2004 and won 2 regular season MVPs during 2005-6 and 2009-10. He has also won multiple titles for the Tim Cone led squad, and he even was a 2x Finals MVP in 2009 and 2012.
A lot of fans, even the media, had appointed “Big Game James” as the face of the franchise because of his stardom and scoring outputs.
For the Ginebra side, they were able to draft Mark Caguioa in 2001. He then won Rookie of the Year and led his team to the 2001 All-Filipino Cup finals. Even though they lost against the San Miguel Beermen, Caguioa earned respect amongst his peers. He won multiple championships as well, in 2004-5 and 2007-8. He even won the regular season MVP during the 2012 season.
With all of the accolades that Mark “The Spark” Caguioa owns, there is no doubt that he is now the new face of the Ginebra franchise.
Since there was a long debate among fans and media on which player is actually the face of the league, the 2014 Philippine Cup semifinals was set to end the argument.
3. Battle of Supporting Cast
A best-of-seven series was given to Ginebra and San Mig Coffee and as much as it was about determining who’s better between Caguioa and Yap, it was also a match on which team had a better lineup.
Ginebra had the iconic duo of “The Fast and The Furious”. Jayjay Helterbrand earned him the moniker of “The Fast” while Mark owned the other half. They also had 2 giants in the paint with the six-foot-nine Japeth Aguilar and their seven-foot-tall rookie, Greg Slaughter, which earned them the nickname of “Twin Towers”. Lastly, they had a reliable star point guard in LA Tenorio and the high flying forward in Chris Ellis.
The Coffee Mixers also proved to be a well-balanced team, winning the conference prior. PJ Simon or aka “The Scoring Apostle,” is the reliable guard duo of Yap in the #2 or #3 position. In the shaded area, though a bit undersized, Marc Pingris and Joe Devance were able to deliver when needed the most. Lastly, they also had a steady playmaker in the point guard department, and Mark Barroca was the man for the job.
4. Record Breaking Attendance
All the games were jump-packed with almost 20,000 attendees game after game.
Game 1 had a record of the most attendees in the Mall of Asia Arena with 20,596 fans. In the much anticipated Game 7, which was played at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, it had the record breaking attendance of 24,883. At that time, this was the most in any PBA game in recorded history.
The telecast of Game 7 was also the most-watched primetime program in Mega Manila that night, setting another PBA record then.
Even Ginebra legend Robert Jaworski watched Game 6 and made a halftime speech to the team in order for them to get the much-needed win.
5. Manila Clasico At Its Peak
In all of their matchups, this has to be the peak of the Manila Clasico rivalry.
No teams won 2 straight games, Yap guarding Caguioa, Simon getting a steal against Jayjay, the seven-footer Slaughter getting blocked by the “Pinoy Sakuragi” Pingris?!
Absolute cinema!
These teams have met again in some other future semis matchup and or even the quarterfinals, but the intensity and the popularity of their 2014 semis battle had made an everlasting memory never to be forgotten for Filipino basketball fans.
Ultimately, it was the Coffee Mixers that won Game 7 and reached the Philippine Cup Finals. Statistically speaking, it was an upset since the Gin Kings had the best record entering the Playoffs, and they were the #1 seed while San Mig were the #5 seed.
From the fans’ perspective, it still felt like a match made in heaven as the two teams were equally matched with one another.
