Despite winning 10 championships in the Philippine Basketball Association, including the grand slam in 1996, future Hall of Famer Jojo Lastimosa has his own collection of setbacks, those whom he considers as the ones that got away.
While sharing his Journey, a special video interview @Pinoystep.com, Lastimosa made a list of heartbreaking finals losses that deprived them of increasing their championship collections.
His setbacks at Purefoods were the ones considered by Lastimosa as standouts.
“There were a lot,” Lastimosa said. “Sa Purefoods namin, there were a lot, especially in the first two years namin. We were in the finals, five, six times before we won for the first time.”
“Sobrang dami lang kasi ng mga runner-ups namin, pero ang naiiwan sa akin yung Game 7 na talo namin against Great Taste (Presto Tivoli). I think that was 1990.”
Purefoods was heavily favored to win that 1990 All-Filipino best-of-seven championship series, especially after then season Most Valuable Player Alan Caidic was sidelined by a fractured hand that forced him to miss Game 7.
But Arnie Tuadles had a spectacular game and the rest of the veteran-laden Tivolis stepped up to negate the absence of ‘The Trigger Man’ as they stunned the Hotdogs, 115-96.
Tuadles knocked in 33 points in that game as he became the scourge of the Hotdogs defenders.
“Injured pa si Alan nung time na yun. It was a battle. They would win and then we would counter in the next game. Paulit-ulit kami hanggang umabot ng Game 7. We lost the first game, lost Game 3, 5 and 7. The experience of being in that series, up to this day, hindi ako nakatulog talaga noon, I was so anxious.”
“Going to Game 7, hindi ako makatulog, hindi ako mapakali sa bahay. Halu-halo emotions ko during that time.”
But nothing is more painful than the heartache of losing another championship.
In the franchise’s first two conferences, Purefoods came close to completing a Cinderella Finish.
The Hotdogs lost to the San Miguel Beermen in a dramatic seven-game series.
Norman Black and the core of the Northern Consolidated Cement team which boosted the Beermen deprived the Hotdogs of winning a title in their very first conference as they battled back from a 2-3 deficit and won Games 6 and 7 to complete the comeback and win the 1988 Open Conference.
In the All-Filipino Conference, controversies hounded the Hotdogs as then franchise player and former playing coach Mon Fernandez was benched for the most part of their best-of-five championship series against the Robert Jaworski-mentored Añejo Rum 65ers and lost to them in four games.
The Hotdogs cracked the 1989 All-Filipino finals, but lost anew to the Beermen, this time bannered by Fernandez, who was traded for Abet Guidaben in the third conference of the previous season following disagreements with Purefoods management.
In the 1989 Third Conference, the Hotdogs once again put themselves in a better position to vie for a championship, but they were abandoned by controversial import Dexter Shouse on the eve of their knockout semifinals encounter with Añejo.
Outside of Purefoods, Lastimosa recalled the Game 7 loss at the hands of Sunkist in the 1995 All-Filipino finals series, a game which he believed they could have won.
Lastimosa was then playing for Alaska, serving as the Milkmen’s team captain.
“There was one, before we won the grand slam. I would consider this worse than the ones I’ve experienced with Presto kasi nag-celebrate na kami,” said Lastimosa. “Our fans were already celebrating because we were already up against the team of Vergel (Meneses), Sunkist, coached by Derrick Pumaren.”
“They were already throwing the confetti, and then, Sunkist was able to pull off that win in Game 7. Yun, masakit talaga yun.”
The Juicers squandered a 13-point lead earlier and was even up, 73-69, then Meneses drilled in a basket with shot clock winding down, then Yoyoy Villamin came through with the game-tying basket and leveled the count at 74-all.
Johnny Abarrientos missed a potential game-winning buck in regulation and the Juicers found the resolve to win in the extra period as Bonel Balingit and Ric-Ric Marata connived to give Pumaren his first championship in the PBA.
Photos (Retro PBA 80s and 90s Facebook)
