By JONAS TERRADO
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Japeth Aguilar and Rain or Shine’s Gabe Norwood have strong chances of reaching the 5,000-point club in the 45th PBA season that is currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An unofficial count revealed that Aguilar has compiled 4,641 points in 362 career games with Burger King/Talk ’N Text/GlobalPort and Ginebra while Norwood accumulated 4,657 points in 533 games for Rain or Shine, his only team since being selected first overall in the 2008 Draft.
Barring any injuries or a dip in production, Aguilar and Norwood will be able to achieve the 5,000-point mark sometime after the PBA Philippine Cup.
Eighty-seven local players and five imports have joined the 5,000-point club since the PBA opened shop in 1975.
Twenty-one are currently active, notably Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa (10,071), San Miguel’s Arwind Santos (9,334), NLEX’s Asi Taulava (8,530) and the Beermen’s June Mar Fajardo (6,213).
The foreign cagers who made the club are current Meralco coach Norman Black (11,329), seven-time Best Import Bobby Parks (8,955), Alaska great Sean Chambers (8,225) and Lew Massey (5,386).
San Miguel’s Marcio Lassiter and Magnolia’s Paul Lee were the recent players to join the exclusive club when they pulled it off in last season’s Commissioner’s Cup.
Getting to 5,000 will likely be cherry pickings for Aguilar if Ginebra continues to go on deep playoff runs in all three conferences like in the past two seasons.
He produced 1,616 points in 104 games in 2018 and 2019 which saw Ginebra win two championships during that stretch.
Norwood, on the other hand, needs to go a bit beyond the scoring production he had in 2018 and 2019 in order to reach the milestone this season.
The member of George Mason’s 2006 US NCAA Final Four run had averages of 322.5 points and 44 games the previous two years.
A long shot to reach 5,000 this season is Magnolia guard Mark Barroca, who has 4,260 points after his team’s lost to San Miguel in the PBA Philippine Cup opener last March 8.
Sol Mercado is also closing in on 5,000 but is currently without a team after being released by Phoenix Super LPG, which acquired the veteran guard in an offseason trade with NorthPort.
Mercado has 4,883 points in 439 career games with Rain or Shine, Meralco, GlobalPort/NorthPort, San Miguel Beer, Barako Bull and Ginebra.
