By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine’s retro night goes beyond simply wearing the old Welcoat Dragons jerseys.
For Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao, it was an opportunity to pay tribute to the franchise which built the team from ground to what it is now – all while preserving its own values and character.
“It feels good to wear yung ganitong jersey and maraming nagco-comment na gusto nila yung Dragons, yung history ng franchise. Kaya rin ako siguro nagsi-settle sa franchise na ito kasi it protected its good name all throughout,” said Guiao.
“Inalagaan nila yung pangalan nila na they will play by the rules, that they play fair and that they will be ethical,” added the fiery mentor who steered the franchise to its two PBA championships on six Finals appearances.
Ever since the Asian Coatings franchise joined the league in 2006, the values and integrity of the franchise remains the same until to this very day – even through the name change to Rain or Shine in 2008 or the series of players and personnel changes through the years.
“It’s a good way to recognize ng mga tao na dito nanggaling iyan Welcoat sila, ngayon Rain or Shine and ethically, the character of the team di naman nag iba. There are ups and downs but yung character and values ng team hindi nag iiba,” said Guiao.
And current ROS players also made sure to honor that legacy.
On the night when the franchise decided to pay homage to their humble beginnings, Beau Belga, Andrei Caracut and Shaun Ildefonso all had career nights while ROS recorded its most lopsided victory in the Philippine Cup since 2017 after the 110-90 win over the Converge FiberXers.
Belga recorded his first career triple-double with a career-high 25 points, 12 rebounds and career best-tying 10 assists. He became the first to achieve the feat this season and also the first local player to do it in the ROS franchise history.
Caracut, on the other hand, had a career-high of 13 assists to go with his 15 points for his third career double-double while Ildefonso finished with a career-best 15 points.
“Pinapaalala lang sa amin ng mga boss namin kung paano nagsimula yung team namin as a franchise dito sa PBA, yun nga yung Welcoat Dragons. Kumbaga sa amin gusto namin manalo wearing this jersey talagang pinilit namin tonight to get the win,” said Belga.