For members of the PBA Press Corps covering the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals between TNT Tropang 5G and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, which has come down to an all-or-nothing Game 7 today, Wednesday, the work is no backbreaker.
Crammed along the baseline press row for nearly two hours, shooting video clips of the game, attending the post-game press conference with the winning coach and top player, beating deadlines for their game stories, then rushing to interview the losing coach and key players—including the imports—and writing follow-up reports, all is part of the routine for sports scribes.
Now they haul their laptops, gadgets and mini-tripods to SM Mall of Asia Arena from the Smart Araneta Coliseum and go through everything all over again as the two teams engage in sudden death at 7:30 p.m.
While the job is hardly a walk in the park, it is nonetheless not the kind of work that keeps them awake at night.
Something else does, at least in this championship series: deciding who deserves the Ramon Fernandez PBA Finals MVP trophy once a champion is crowned.
Invited, along with Phil. Star sports editor Nelson Beltran, to join their post-coverage discussion after Game 6 on Sunday—which TNT won to level the series at three games apiece—I had the pleasure of sitting down with the current batch of PBA media practitioners, a mix of traditional and digital sportswriters led by Press Corps president Vladi Eduarte of Abante, and listening as they wrestled with that question.
Among those who stirred the debate were Jonas Terrado of the Phil. Daily Inquirer; Gerry Ramos, Reuben Terrado and Christian Jacinto of Spin.ph; Delfin Dioquino of Rappler; Bryan Ulanday of Phil. Star; Karlo Sacamos of Sports Beat PH; Justine Bacnis of Tiebreaker Times; and PBA chief statistician and Daily Tribune columnist Fidel Mangonon.
Without delving into the merits of the spirited discussion, it became apparent that the Press Corps would have faced a difficult task choosing among several Kings players had Barangay Ginebra, which held a 3-2 series lead, closed out the championship in Game 6.
Among the leading candidates were rookie RJ Abarrientos, the consistently productive Troy Rosario, and the usually explosive Scottie Thompson. Even Justin Brownlee’s name was tossed into the mix because of his spectacular performance throughout the series, although history would have worked against him. No import has ever won the Finals MVP award since it was first handed out to Alaska’s Jojo Lastimosa during the 1996 PBA All-Filipino Cup.
As fate would have it, however, TNT — behind the monster performance of Chris McCullough, who erupted for 53 points and 22 rebounds — forced a decider with a 98-90 victory, allowing RR Pogoy, Jordan Heading and Rey Nambatac to enter the conversation. Calvin Oftana, TNT’s best shooter, would likely have been a strong contender for the El Presidente trophy had a calf injury and a big toe infection not sidelined him in Game 6 and, quite possibly, Game 7 as well.
The consensus among the PBA scribes is simple: everything now boils down to who delivers a singular performance in the game that matters most.
Who will approximate the brilliance that Jalen Brunson displayed for the Knicks in the NBA championship? Who will rise to the challenge in front of 20,000 screaming fans? And who will withstand the immense pressure of a winner-take-all Game 7?
Jonas Terrado kept the Ramon Fernandez Finals MVP trophy, named after the four-time Most Valuable Player and 19-time PBA champion, for safekeeping after Game 6 last Sunday.
Tonight (Wednesday night), the most deserving player gets to take it home.
