SHARING the spotlight with San Miguel Beer’s weekend escape act is the news of PBA’s return to the Cubao Big Dome on Wednesday, December 15, 2021.
The Beermen barely breezed past the NorthPort Batang Pier on Sunday, December 12, salvaging a scary 91-88 victory in the infant PBA Governors’ Cup ushering in the return of imports in two years.
The breakthrough win after two successive losses was a huge ego-saver, coming at a time when the Beermen’s powerhouse reputation was seriously being put in doubt.
That came about as a result of SMB’s move to release 2013 MVP Arwind Santos and top-notch point guard Alex Cabagnot to separate teams that effectively dismantled San Miguel’s starting five famously known to have chiefly engineered the team’s record five-title All-Filipino streak from 2015 to 2019.
Santos was shipped to NorthPort in exchange for Vic Manuel and Cabagnot to Terrafirma for Simon Enciso.
SMB had no big edge in the trade, save for the age factor. Santos is 40 and Manuel 34; Cabagnot is 39 and Enciso 30.
Obviously then, the twin deals were anchored on transforming SMB from older to younger—a pattern that’s been usually favored by spring-chicken driven mentors like SMB coach Leo Austria.
But almost each time it happens, tear ducts burst.
“I cried when I made the decision to release Arwind,” said Austria, who had Santos with him when he won eight of his nine PBA Finals appearances.
Santos again starred with his third straight 20-plus points, finishing with 23 in NorthPort’s losing cause that saw the Batang Pier almost erase a 27-point deficit.
SMB actually struck luck when Robert Bolick and Jamie Malonzo flubbed back-to-back, open-look threes that would have forged overtime.
And with action slowly heating up after hurdling two pandemic-caused bubble conferences in Pampanga in 2020 and the early part of 2021, the league is back in business as it returns Wednesday, December 15 to the Araneta Coliseum, its original home since its birth in 1975.
As an elated PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial put it: “There is no place like home.”
After almost two years of being practically reduced to a venue-hunter, the PBA is getting a huge bonus as well: Fans will be finally allowed at the Big Dome at initially a 50 percent capacity.
It can’t get any better than this.