For a franchise so used to winning championships, six years without one qualifies as a drought already—a period of futility, a time of nothingness. The TNT Tropang 5G, winners of four titles in four years this decade, went on that dry spell once upon a time, and it actually happened fairly recently.
In the first half of the last decade, from 2010 to 2015, the Tropa won at least one PBA title nearly every season—the 2010 Philippine Cup, the 2011 Commissioner’s Cup, the 2011–12 and 2012–13 Philippine Cups, and the 2015 Commissioner’s Cup. Then, just like that, nothing. That dreaded title drought befell the proud and mighty franchise of the fabled MVP Group.
Not that they didn’t have their chances because they certainly did. In fact, TNT made the Finals of the 2016–17 Commissioner’s Cup and the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup, only to be frustrated both times by another proud and mighty franchise, the San Miguel Beermen. The Tropa also made it all the way to the championship finale of the COVID-shortened 2020 PBA Philippine Cup but was turned back by Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
Neither was TNT short on talent all those years. Each season the team had a core of prime Jayson Castro; veterans Harvey Carey, Kelly Williams, and Ryan Reyes; and upstarts Troy Rosario and RR Pogoy—with Ranidel de Ocampo, Jay Washington, and the Semerad twins—Anthony and David—suiting up for the Tropa at one time or another as well.
So, no, the Tropang 5G didn’t have a talent problem in those lean years. What they did have was a coaching carousel of sorts as the Tropa replaced Jong Uichico—the last coach to steer TNT to a title at that point—with Nash Racela in 2016 only to replace him yet again in 2018 with Bong Ravena. Both Racela and Ravena proved to be good coaches, but either they weren’t ready to lead TNT to the Promised Land or were just that—good coaches but not good enough to be champions.
In short, for whatever reason, TNT just couldn’t get the job done.
Chot Reyes Returns, Mikey Williams Arrives
If coaching was the problem in those lean, championship-less years, then TNT addressed it big time in 2021 by bringing back the franchise’s winningest coach in Vincent “Chot” Reyes, who was the architect of four TNT titles during his tenure from 2008 to 2012. He was at that point an eight-time champion coach as well and was widely regarded as among the Philippines’ best tacticians.
The Tropa didn’t stop there. They signed rugged forward Glenn Khobuntin to shore up the wings. Then, with Reyes’s help, they also recruited Kelly Williams back to the fold after he announced his retirement in 2020 at the height of COVID. TNT also added big man Poy Erram in a three-team deal with the Blackwater Bossing and NLEX Road Warriors and the fourth overall pick of the PBA Season 46 Draft in a separate three-team deal with the same two teams.
That fourth overall pick turned out to be one Mikey Williams.
Just like that, Reyes had a veteran and talented core of Castro, Pogoy, Reyes, Rosario, and Kelly Williams reinforced by the defense-first duo of Khobuntin and Erram and a wildcard by the name of Mikey Williams. The Tropa had reloaded, and they were ready for the championship chase.
Fully Charged, Full Speed Ahead
TNT wasted no time proving it was the real deal, racing out to a 10-1 record in the single-round eliminations and beating every team except the June Mar Fajardo-led San Miguel Beermen (a.k.a. the yardstick of any all-Filipino tourney where The Kraken plays).
Even more impressive, TNT’s point differential was +12.7 as they recorded seven double-digit wins, including five by at least 15 points. And for the most part, it was stingy defense that propelled the Tropa as they held opposing teams to just 78.9 points, giving up over 85 points just once and surrendering at least 90 only one time as well.
Finishing atop the standings, TNT was able to secure a win-once advantage in the quarterfinals. Reyes and his squad didn’t need it at all, making quick work of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, 84-71, in the quarters to arrange a duel with San Miguel, who had previously won five straight Philippine Cup titles with Fajardo at the forefront.
Surviving San Miguel
There’s an axiom in the June Mar Fajardo Era that all roads to the Philippine Cup title lead to San Miguel. With the now eight-time MVP virtually unguardable in a battle of all locals, that axiom proved true more often than not. And now, in the 2021 Philippine Cup semis, here were the Beermen standing front and center in TNT’s march to the all-Filipino crown—like an inevitable roadblock to any grand goal.
Games 1 and 2 of the semis showdown between TNT and San Miguel served notice that this series would likely go seven games, with the Tropa eking out an 89-88 win in Game 1 and the Beermen pulling out a 98-96 thriller in Game 2. The series see-sawed from there, with the two mighty and proud franchises trading haymakers and blowouts in the next four games as the series reached a 3-3 stalemate after six grueling games.
With a Finals spot on the line, TNT got a first half boost from the Williamses—one drafted by Reyes and one who came back because of Reyes—who powered the Tropa to a 30-13 second quarter to turn an early 25-13 deficit to a 45-36 lead at intermission. In the second half, the ever-reliable Pogoy took over, hitting timely baskets that kept the Beermen at bay until Rosario and Erram joined the fray in the fourth to preserve a 97-79 victory over the five-time Philippine Cup champions.
As had been the case all tournament long, the Tropa got contributions up and down the roster, with Pogoy firing a game-high 27 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the arc, Mikey Williams adding 20, and Rosario and Kelly Williams chipping in 12 and 11, respectively. Erram added 9 markers, while Reyes and Castro combined for 15 more.
The biggest hurdle to the title had been overcome. Now, TNT was four wins away from the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup title—and four wins away from ending six years without a championship.
Mowing Down Magnolia
Surviving San Miguel earned for TNT a shot at the Magnolia Hotshots, a formidable adversary no doubt but arguably a notch below San Miguel—and maybe even TNT for that matter.
Two early wins in the Finals–an 88-70 pummeling in Game 1 and a 105-93 rout in Game 2—proved as much as each time the Tropa seized control right in the first half and never looked back. Magnolia got on the board with a 106-98 victory in Game 3 to briefly stop the TNT onslaught. But it turns out, it merely delayed the inevitable. The Tropa regained control in Game 4 with another beatdown, 106-89, then finished the job in Game 5 with a 94-79 blowout to clinch the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup title—the franchise’s sixth all-Filipino crown, eighth overall, and first in six long years.
At the center of it all was one Mikey Williams, a super rookie in every sense of the word. The 6-foot-2 Fil-Am averaged 19.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists in Season 46 en route to earning Rookie of the Year and very nearly winning season MVP as well (a double so rare only Benjie Paras has achieved it). As good as Williams was all season, his five-game stretch against Magnolia in the Philippine Cup Finals was Mikey at his most amazing best—locked-in and pretty much unstoppable.
Put simply, Williams destroyed Magnolia, toying with arguably two of the best, most physical defenders the league has ever seen in Mark Barroca and Jio Jalalon. It hardly mattered who Chito Victolero threw at the rookie or what type of defense he ran. Williams was just too good. In five games, he averaged 27.6 points and scored over 20 each game—including a 21-point, 10-rebound, and 5-assist masterpiece in Game 1 and a 28-point and 6-assist masterclass in Game 2. Even in TNT’s sole loss in Game 3, Williams was still singularly brilliant as he fired a series-high 39-points on a PBA Finals record 10 triples.
Ushering in the Golden Years for TNT—Again
That 2021 PBA Philippine Cup title turned out to be a portent of great things to come for the TNT franchise. A season later, in Season 47, the Tropa added their ninth PBA title by clinching the 2022–23 PBA Honda Governors’ Cup at the expense of Ginebra, who was then 6-0 in the Finals with Justin Brownlee in the lineup.
Now, in Season 49, TNT is four wins away from a PBA Philippine Cup title, just as it was four years ago in 2021. Only this time, the Tropang 5G are four wins away from making history, not just breaking a championship drought. After winning the Governors’ Cup and Commissioner’s Cup titles, TNT is on the precipice of a prestigious Grand Slam, a feat so rare it’s only been done five times and by four teams—Crispa Redmanizers (1976, 1988), San Miguel (1989), Alaska Milkmen (1996), and San Mig Coffee Super Mixers (2013–14).
This has been a golden run for TNT to say the least. And it all started with that title in 2021.
