(Editor’s Note: With the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters making it to the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup semis, now is the perfect time to take a look back at the last time the franchise won a title: back in 2016, in the Commissioner’s Cup no less. That championship, incidentally, was won today, May 18, which means it’s been 10 years since the Elasto Painters, one of the PBA’s true independent teams, last won it all.)
Nobody saw it coming. Not with four import changes. Not with a hobbled star. Not against the most dominant franchise in the league. And yet, when the confetti fell at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on May 18, 2016, it was the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters standing at center court—champions of the 2016 PBA Commissioner’s Cup, their second title in franchise history.
It was one of the most improbable championship runs the PBA had ever seen. And it saw Rain or Shine go through the proverbial wringer.
An Import Carousel Nobody Wanted to Ride
Rain or Shine entered the Commissioner’s Cup in February with Wayne Chism—a familiar face, back for his third stint with the franchise and carrying the weight of previous success. The plan was simple: let Chism do what he had always done for the Painters, and let the guards run.
The plan lasted exactly a week.
On February 17, Chism came down hard in a game against the Meralco Bolts and suffered a partial hamstring tear. He was gone. In came Antoine Wright, a former NBA player, as the replacement.
Wright lasted less than a month. By early March, he too was out, replaced by Mo Charlo.
Charlo lasted longer—but not long enough. As the playoffs approached, Rain or Shine made one final move, bringing in Pierre Henderson-Niles, a hulking 6-foot-8, 270-pound big man who could match up with the league’s behemoths—Greg Slaughter and June Mar Fajardo, in particular, and a few other bigger reinforcements. Henderson-Niles arrived around April 10, just in time for the postseason. He wasn’t asked to be a hero. He averaged just 9.6 points in 13 games. Rain or Shine, it turned out, had other plans for who would carry the load.
“Sino naman mag-aakala na makakarating kami ng semis ngayon conference?” Paul Lee said before the semifinals. “Ang daming nangyari, na-injury si Wayne tapos palit ng palit ng import.”
He had a point. Nobody expected Rain or Shine to still be standing, let alone contending.
Four Times a Bridesmaid
Before 2016, Rain or Shine had been runners-up four times. Four finals appearances that ended in heartbreak. Four times they had gotten close and come away with nothing. The championship drought stretched back to 2012—the Governors’ Cup, the franchise’s first title—and in the years since, the Painters had built a reputation as the PBA’s great underachievers: good enough to get there, never quite good enough to win it.
Lee himself embodied that frustration. The sharpshooting guard had been battling a nagging left knee injury for most of the season, partially tearing his lateral meniscus in the Philippine Cup and aggravating it twice more before the Commissioner’s Cup playoffs even began. He had missed Rain or Shine’s first championship in 2012, injured early and unable to contribute when his teammates marched to the title without him. Now, finally healthy enough to play meaningful minutes, he carried something extra. He needed this.
“Sobra yung struggle ko kasi ‘di ko alam kung ano mangyayari sa akin,” he later said after Rain or Shine won it all. “Babalik ako, tapos hindi pa pala magaling. Madidisgrasya ulit. Nagtiyaga lang ako.”
He pressed on.
Slaying Giants
Rain or Shine finished the elimination round 7-4, tied with the Alaska Aces and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel but ranked fifth after tiebreakers. That meant a quarterfinal date with fourth-seeded Ginebra, with a twice-to-win disadvantage working against them.
The Elasto Painters swept Ginebra in two games—88-84 in Game 1 on April 17, and 102-89 in Game 2 on April 19—and moved on to face the team they had never been able to beat when it mattered: the San Miguel Beermen, the conference’s top seed, a team that had eliminated the Elasto Painters in back-to-back semifinals the two conferences prior.
Yeng Guiao refused to pretend otherwise.
“We’ve been very consistent getting to the semis. But the more times you try, the better your chances are. Yung lang inaasahan namin—law of averages.”
Law of averages. As it turned out, it was something more than that.
Rain or Shine stunned the Beermen from the opening tip of Game 1 despite trailing by 18 points early—rallying behind Jeff Chan and Maverick Ahanmisi to steal an improbable 98-94 win. They survived a near-miss in Game 2 when Marcio Lassiter’s potential game-winning triple was just a beat too late, the Painters escaping 98-96. San Miguel salvaged Game 3, but Lee finished the job in Game 4—going 6-for-9 from the field for 18 points and dishing off 5 assists in a 124-99 demolition that announced that this Painters team was, in fact, going all the way.
“It’s a great feeling to be back in the finals,” said Guiao, who had finally cleared the Beermen hurdle in their third straight playoff meeting. “All we want to do is keep trying.”
The Finals: One Last Stand
The championship series against the Alaska Aces at the Smart Araneta Coliseum was supposed to be a dogfight. It became something else entirely—at least for three games.
Rain or Shine roared out to a 3-0 series lead, winning Games 1 through 3 by margins of 8, 2, and 4 points, respectively. Game 2, in particular, was Lee at his finest: a game-winning jumper in the dying seconds, capping a night of 17 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. It was the shot of someone who had been waiting years for exactly this moment.
Then Alaska clawed back. Game 4 fell 111-99 to the Aces. Game 5 went 86-78 their way. What had been a coronation suddenly had the look of a collapse.
Cinderella Run Completed
Game 6 arrived on May 18 like a reckoning. Rain or Shine were not interested in a seventh game. Lee erupted for 17 points in the first half alone—going 6-for-6 from the field in the first two quarters—and by the time the third quarter ended, the result was no longer in question. The Elasto Painters Painters won 109-92, the Coliseum bathed in colours, the confetti falling, the wait finally over.
Lee finished with 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting. Jericho Cruz fired 21. Raymond Almazan added 15. Henderson-Niles, the fourth import in a four-import season, chipped in a quiet 7. It was exactly the kind of win that defined the entire campaign—the locals carrying the weight, the import doing just enough, the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Lee was named Finals MVP, averaging 15.7 points on 41% shooting from three, with 2.2 assists and 2.3 rebounds for the series. He accepted the trophy at centercourt, teammates tapping his shoulder, rubbing his head, hugging him. He raised his hands and howled.
“Sobrang tamis ng championship na ito, unang-una natapos ko yung series,” he said.
Guiao, in his own way, was more measured. “We are not the most talented team, but we are the most consistent,” he said. “Whether we have injuries or lose some players, it’s not just the system but the culture that carries the team. It’s the core of our existence.”
That culture has remained through all these years, and yet Rain or Shine has never replicated that dream run in 2016. Now, though, fate appears to be tilting the Elasto Painters’ way. They’re not the most talented top to bottom. They’ve lost players to injuries.
But they’ve already slayed mighty San Miguel. Next up his Ginebra.
The parallels are striking. Only the final result is needed.
