Jaworski lifts Toyota past archrival Crispa

by Agnes R. Cruz

Senator Robert Jaworski in uniform

MANILA: It was, indeed, a night to remember. Toyota beat archrival Crispa by the skin of their teeth in a classic reunion match that brought back memories of the good, old days of their rivalry in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). In what could well be a script rich in nostalgia, drama, action and suspense, the fabled Toyota-Crispa rivalry came to life once more and provided an ending worth telling and retelling.
For 48 minutes, they revived an era long gone and showed why it was such an enduring rivalry. Thanks to two of the greatest Filipino basketball players of all-time—Robert Jaworski, now a senator of the republic, and Ramon Fernandez—Toyota emerged victorious.

Playing for the first time in a long, long while, Jaworski hit a three-point shot off an assist from Fernandez that capped Toyota’s 65-61 victory over arch-nemesis Crispa in the reunion match between the two rival teams that highlighted the start of All-Star weekend at the full-packed Araneta Coliseum.

Indeed, nobody else could get bigger than Jaworski, the heart and soul of the Toyota ball club during their heyday in the 70s and 80s. So when the game was on the line, the acknowledged Living Legend of Philippine basketball gallantly took the shot—his only basket of the game—that won the game for Toyota and sent the 6,725 paying fans in uproar. Truly, the reunion match lived up to all the media hype. It was actually the front act of the PBA All-Star weekend, but after the fun and thrilling finish, it looked like it would be a hard act to follow by the contemporary stars of the pro league.

And just like in countless times, Jaworski hit the shot that mattered most. His booming triple came with 23.3 seconds remaining, icing the final score. Bogs Adornado, the league’s three-time MVP, who earlier buried a triple to make it just a 61-62 count, sealed Crispa’s doom with a missed triple of his own on the other end.

Fernandez’s assist brought back memories of the 1989 All-Star game when Jaworski hit his former rival and teammate with a pass that led to the basket that won the game against the Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors Team. Interestingly, that was the last time the two PBA pioneers played side-by-side under coach Dante Silverio, their mentor when Toyota bagged the first ever PBA back-to-back crowns in 1975.

Jaworski still thrilled the crowd simply by doing calisthenics in the sidelines. He made the crowd wait agonizingly before finally checking into the game at the 6:33 mark of the third quarter.

What followed instantly after the Jaworski basket that the crowd was aching to see all night long was virtual pandemonium at the Big Dome—the site of numerous Toyota-Crispa titular showdown.

It was as if the Big Dome had been transplanted to another era. The crowd erupted in frenzy, and the Big Dome’s foundation shook seemingly beyond salvation. Right from the start, when Atoy Co danced his way into the pre-game introductions, electricity cackled in the air. When Fernandez and Jaworski were introduced one after the other, the crowd roared like their lives depended on it.

“It’s just fitting that I returned the favor. I wanted to draw his man to keep him open and just like the Big J of old, he hit the shot,” said Fernandez, said of his Toyota teammate for eight years before parting ways after the disbanding of the Tamaraws.

That was the lone attempt made by Jaworski in 10 minutes of action. The 1977 MVP awardee pulled down one rebound and committed one foul for his other stats.

Crispa coach Baby Dalupan approached Jaworski after the game and told him: “I was right, I knew you’ll take one hell of a shot, but the boys didn’t believe me.”

The players from both Crispa and Toyota may have been slowed down by age, but the passion for the game remained intact.

Throughout, it was a see-sawing battle, rugged and physical at times dished out by the Tamaraws and the Redmanizers, old and slowed down by the years but spirited as ever.

The atmosphere was no different from an era long gone—a huge crowd roaring at the Big Dome—with both teams slugging it out with so much pride, passion and enthusiasm.

The spirit of the rivalry was still there.

As in their skirmishes in the good old days, elbows were thrown here and there, bodies flew all over the court and not a few times a fight nearly marred the game. Shoulders slammed into chests, legs flailing when somebody fell to the floor.

In the second period, Co tried to go for a loose ball racing to the sidelines, but Ulysses Rodriguez slammed him off with a football-like shoulder block, sending the Fortune Cookie crashing hard into an advertising board that was torn into pieces upon contact.

And in the tradition of a Crispa-Toyota game, Co got back in the third quarter, shouldering off Rodriguez when the latter tried to block the baseline path.

Then there was the original “bad boy” of Philippine basketball making his presence felt. Oscar Rocha, the first player fined and suspended in the PBA, had his moments with Abet Guidaben late in the fourth period. Rocha and Guidaben engaged in a physical tussle before cooler heads intervened in the third period.

Rolly Marcelo, the wiry guard, had physical confrontations with Bernie Fabiosa and Mon Cruz. At one point, Marcelo elbowed Cruz on the head and the latter got back immediately.

Then, in another play, Marcelo pointed at Fabiosa like a bully, although it was hard to picture Marcelo—who looked like he would crumple in a messy heap if he got hit by a Jaworski baseball pass—as a bully challenging another in a schoolyard tiff. *

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