As the players and officials of Talk ‘N Text wallowed in misery at center court during the formal awarding rites late Friday night, Jimmy
Alapag took the time to console and cheer up the members of his former team.
It wasn’t exactly easy but Alapag, now one of San Miguel’s assistant coaches, felt he had to do it.
Alapag have just emerged from San Miguel’s dressing room looking radiant in the Beermen’s championship shirt, looking a bit odd considering that he had been on the other side of the fence
celebrating many times before.
Alapag tried hard to shrug off questions about how it felt to beat his former team, whom the Beermen dealt a stinging 102-90 defeat in Game 6
of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“I don’t look at it like that. I mean, it’s obvious that with the amount of time I spent there. But again my whole focus is kahit sino yung kalaban, just trying to help these guys (win),” said the 41-year-old Alapag, who won six titles with TNT during his heyday.
In fact, Alapag acknowledged his championship days with TNT, stressing that he had fond memories with some of the players his new team handed
a heartbreaking loss.
“There’s just a job to be done. As I have said before the series, my time there, it doesn’t change what we have accomplished while I was
there, the six, seven championships,” said Alapag, who retired as a player in 2017.
“The memories that I had with the guys especially with Jayson (Castro), Harvey (Carey). Nothing changes that but I am here and there’s a job to be done and like what I said on Day One I am going to
help these guys in whatever capacity that I can to win. They played really well and they got the job done.”
Joining the San Miguel group shortly after his storied TNT stint as head coach of Alab Pilipinas in the ABL, Alapag was then given a spot
on San Miguel’s coaching staff owing to his long list of accomplishments.
Still, Alapag admitted that he wasn’t totally sold that San Miguel could win it.
“I really felt that it could have gone either way,” Alapag said, noting that, save for Game 6, “the majority of the series came down to
the last few minutes.”
“But these guys have a ton of championships experience. Both teams do. I think their experience in the end game being able to make plays down
the stretch in a close game was the big difference.”
Over at the KaTropa backyard, the mood was sullen.
Even the team’s No. 1 backer, telecom tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, hurriedly left the venue, his security staff escorting him to a black
luxury sedan that waited nearby.
Pangilinan didn’t even glanced at the reporter who walked beside him hoping to get a quote.
Instead, Pangilinan, looking distraught, didn’t say a single word and
just proceeded where his gleaming car stood, hoping to leave the place that had the feel of a wake. (NICK GIONGCO)
