Taulava loses big stake: his hair

Agnes R. Cruz

MANILA: Hair today, gone tomorrow.

Fil-Tongan Paul Asi Taulava, six-feet-nine, strong and very mobile, and, oh, yes, he with long blonde-and-black curls, has just lost one of his most precious possessions in life.

It is priceless in every sense of the word. It would only take another Paul Asi Taulava to possess it. Only he could rightfully own it.

But make no mistake about it because normally it would only take a few weeks, maybe a month the most, for Taulava to reproduce it.

	Paul Asi Taulava tries to keep the ball.

As a matter of fact, it would not even make him touch his fat bank account if only to replace it. And he would not need at all to hire someone else to search for it.
All he has to do right now is plain and simple: let Father Time take care of it, go about his daily business, and learn to wait for it come back - and wait patiently.

For before he knows it, that God-given treasure could be in his possession again, and inevitably out in the open for the public, particularly his big legion of fans across the country, to see it for themselves - literally.

So what's that priceless possession then, huh?

Well, what else but his hair. Yup, that's right, his blonde-and-black hair.

No thanks to bosom buddy Davonn Harp, Taulava has just paid the price of having to shave his locks off. And right now, all the curls are gone.

Harp knocked in a Hail Mary shot from beyond the three-point arc to beat the buzzer and lift RP Hapee to a pulsating 65-64 win over Taulava's RP Selecta just a while back in the two national training teams' first showdown in the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors Cup.

Truly, it was a thriller of an encounter between the two teams of aspirants for the Asian Games in the Governors Cup eliminations.

So cruel was fate to RP Selecta, which is arguably the odds-on favorite between the two which are using their Governors' Cup appearance as a preparation for the Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea, in September, that it allowed Harp's squad escape with the victory in the most unexpected, if not bizarre, way.

And it was up to Taulava to pay the price.

The mammoth slotman who is largely considered as a shoo-in to the Asiad-bound Philippine team had just lost a big wager, which cost him his fashionably elegant hair.

"He said he would shave off his precious locks if they lost," revealed Jeffrey Cariaso, Hapee's ace slasher who fuelled the team's searing endgame comeback punctuated by Harp's close-to-impossible triple with 1.5 seconds remaining.

"Off with the hair," Andy Seigle kept repeating as he joined a virtual pandemonium on the hardcourt at the sound of the buzzer.

The happy cluster of players after the game ganged up on Taulava who had bet he would cut his hair short if lesser-hyped Hapee would win over his Selecta side, which had consistently won in their scrimmages.

So he lost the bet - and to go with it was his thick hair.

With the bitter consequence all registered on his mind, Taulava took it all in stride, walking off the noisy dugout with an enigmatic smile written all over his massive face.

Actually, it would have been better if anybody had taken the make-or-break trey that arranged Taulava's unscheduled date with the hairstylist.

But, hey, not Harp, who could well be the PBA's own version of Shaquille O'Neal when it comes to shooting bricks from the foul line.

So how would you expect a man who can hardly even make his free throws to have the heart and the guts to take a shot from beyond the trifectaville at a time when the game was on the line, huh?

"There was no more time, and I was not expecting him to make the shot," said Taulava, breaking into a big juicy laugh, "but he did."

Rightly so, Harp himself was surprised to have taken the shot - and made it.
"It was fluke shot," recalled Harp. "I was looking for a foul, but time was running out and I shot it."

Harp never expected to have the leather still resting on his hands with time running down and the crowd holding their breath and growing impatient waiting for what could be the final sequence to the thriller. Worse, Taulava was all over him.
Stuck from way behind the rainbow area, the Red Bull standout leaned back on Taulava, made one chest-high dribble, and pivoted out of the beanpole's reach and, with a fraction of a second left, launched an awkward shot he rarely takes that banged into the rim as time expired.

What followed instantly was wild celebration on the hardcourt. The players of Hapee ganged up on Taulava. Rudy Hatfield doing a piggyback ride on him. Some clambered up Taulava's massively-built shoulders, tugged at his blonde-and-black curls. *

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