At 74, Fortunato “Atoy” Co continues to set records—medical records, that is, this time.
Throughout his stellar career as one of the greatest players in Philippine basketball, the Fortune Cookie established milestones that set him apart from most of his peers.
In the PBA alone, where he played for 13 seasons, Co was the first in league history to reach 5,000 points in 1979—before the three-point shot was adopted—and 10,000 points in 1984, demonstrating his offensive prowess early in the pro era, when extremely physical defense was the norm.
He won 15 PBA titles, majority coming from two Grand Slams with the legendary Crispa Redmanizers, in 1976 and 1983. He punctuated his best season by being named Most Valuable Player in 1979.
A nine-time Mythical First Team selection, Co was named to the PBA’s 25 Greatest Players in 2000 and inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2005.
He patented the famous fadeaway shot, kicking off the floor as he took a jump shot away from the basket to create separation and distance from a shot-blocker.
He could pull up and swish it in from anywhere — even from 18 feet in transition during a fast break, as his former Crispa teammate and buddy Philip Cezar once swore. His sure-footed nimbleness also allowed him to slip past defenders along the baseline for a reverse shot off the glass.
Nowadays, however, the Fortune Cookie takes his time getting up after sitting for a long while, walks slowly and with considerable effort, and waits for his doctor to give him the green light to undergo replacement surgery on both knees.
“It could be in October,” he said Thursday night during the wake of the mother of MediaQuest vice president Sienna Olaso at Heritage Park in Taguig.
Co would be celebrating his 75th birthday that month, but he made no mention of it. Instead, he said he preferred to have the procedure over with by Christmas so he could move around more freely.
Having already decided on the surgeon and the hospital, the operation would have been done earlier this year, followed by rehabilitation therapy, Co said. But a routine stress test revealed “irregularities” in his heartbeat. An angiogram confirmed the problem, leading to a minimally invasive medical procedure called angioplasty.
How many stents—small wire-mesh tubes—were used? Co raised five fingers on one hand and an index finger on the other.
Every now and then, Co would put a hand over his chest, almost by instinct, although he said he felt fine—even before the procedure, in fact.
To think that only last March, the former Mapua King Cardinal had stones removed from his urinary bladder in what he described as surgery, followed a few months later by an angioplasty. It seemed almost unthinkable that Co is now lined up for reconstructive surgery on both knees—or possibly Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy abroad, if it could be arranged.
“Sunod-sunod in one year,” he said, laughing when it was suggested in jest that he might have gotten bad knees from taking all those fadeaway jumpers. “Malamang nga doon ko nakuha.”
