Records are undisputable and without a doubt, San Miguel Beer is the winningest franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association.
It didn’t come as a surprise that Chris Ross, one of the holdovers of the fabled “Death Five” that propelled the Beermen in reestablishing a league dynasty, was honest in his opinion and vocal to say that they need to win at all cost.
“Not only in the all-Filipino, but we feel like every conference, we should win a championship,” said Ross, showing how demanding the team was in trying to win the coveted crown of every tournament. “Anything less of a championship is a failure, especially in the all-Filipino. I think we were the only team to win five straight.”
The Beermen won five consecutive all-Filipino titles from 2015 to 2019. As a franchise, San Miguel had the most number of Philippine Cups with 11.
“That’s a feat in itself. We take this personal. This team is getting better and I felt we’re one of the best all-Filipino teams that had ever played,” added Ross. “There’s been different generations in our team, but we kept on winning. We hope we can win again.”
Ross and the Beermen are bracing for a rematch against TNT, but the veteran guard and the rest of the troops are convinced the Tropang 5G are a much better team than last season.
“They’re healthier. Last season, they were fighting the injury bug, but they’re more healthy now, so we’ve got to be ready,” added Ross.
His teammates could only agree.
“They made some adjustments. They have returning players. It’s going to be more interesting,” said swingman Marcio Lassiter. “They have more shooters. I know they were playing really well. Hopefully, we can see a good series.”
Nine-time PBA Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo believes the reentry of Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and the more active role of Rey Nambatac and Jordan Heading in becoming key contributors of the Tropang 5G had certainly made the team more stacked.
“Andyan na kasi ngayon si Nambatac. Andyan rin si Ganuelas-Rosser. Malalim yung Talk N Text. Paghahandaan namin ito,” added Fajardo.
Although he likes the chances of his team in repeating as champions, San Miguel coach Leo Austria believes redemption will be the biggest weapon of the Tropang 5G.
“They will be different coming into this series because we beat them last time,” said Austria. “Andun yung desire nila to overcome the loss they had last time around. Yung intensity and effort, lalabas yun sa kanila. Pero luckily, we had enough rest for the series.”
