The Mighty Mouse is back, and he’s about to take on the big cats of the Philippine Basketball Association: Tim Cone, Chot Reyes, Leo Austria and Yeng Guiao.
All Jimmy Alapag has to do to feel a shiver down his spine is look at their résumés.
With a combined haul of 53 PBA championships, these kings of the jungle will be waiting for the newly appointed NLEX Road Warriors head coach with bared fangs and open claws, ready to pounce.
One thing is certain: by the time Alapag squares off against each of them, all four veteran tacticians will have whipped their players into a frenzy. Armed with suffocating defensive traps, relentless full-court pressure and dizzying offensive sets, they’ll be eager to give the former Sacramento Kings player development coach the rudest welcome and fiercest baptism imaginable.
After all, nothing delights seasoned competitors more than handing the new kid on the block a proper beating and sending him back to the dugout with his head bowed and his tail between his legs.
That’s another certainty. Unless…
Watching Alapag face members of the print and digital media—many of whom were still in grade school when he was drilling three-pointers from well beyond the international arc during the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Seville, Spain—you couldn’t help but notice a quiet confidence that made you wonder whether the league’s winningest coaches might actually be in for a surprise.
Part of that confidence may have stemmed from what NLEX team official Virgil Villavicencio shared. In fact, Villavicencio could best serve the Road Warriors by sitting beside Alapag during games, providing another experienced voice for quick exchanges of ideas.
Villavicencio spoke of the immediate impact Alapag had on the players when they first met Tuesday morning, just before the press conference at Dave & Buster’s in Opus Mall, Quezon City. His remarks suggested the Road Warriors are already prepared to run through a brick wall for their new coach.
Behind oversized square-rimmed glasses, Alapag projected knowledge, leadership and authority—with aplomb but never bombast. He smiled often throughout the Q&A, switched effortlessly between English and Tagalog while making his points, and graciously posed for selfies with everyone—from sportswriters and restaurant staff to early afternoon diners.
It was in his voice. In his demeanor. In the way he carried himself throughout the press briefing, his young family a few tables away.
It was reminiscent of the same poise he displayed while leading Gilas Pilipinas during the FIBA World Cup 12 years ago, when he scored 18 points in the Philippines’ dramatic 81-79 overtime victory over Senegal—the country’s first World Cup win in 40 years.
Cone, Austria and Guiao will soon be reminded of those qualities when the PBA Governors’ Cup tips off on July 10.
Reyes, however, already knows them well. He was Alapag’s coach in Spain.
