MANILA, 1 June 2006 — The biggest teams with the biggest salaries ended up as the biggest disappointments in the PBA Philippine Cup.
Sta. Lucia and Talk ‘N Text got the door after getting beat up by separate foes last night as both sides doling out the biggest paychecks in the league could do no better than finish in the bottom two positions. Air21 snuffed the life out of the Realtors with a 110-107 victory before Barangay Ginebra, severely depleted because of injury woes, trampled on the Phone Pals, 108-96, at the Araneta Coliseum.
Those victories meant that the Phone Pals and the Realtors will be playing their remaining wildcard assignments for nothing more than pride — if there’s any left — as the identical 8-9 records of the Gin Kings and the Express have become unreachable. It was a total letdown for the two biggest franchises in the league, which really did not make a run at the leaders all-tournament long and whose only chance of advancing to the first round of the playoffs was to dominate the wildcard.
And it was particularly galling for the Phone Pals, who were in the center of a blockbuster trade that involved two other teams just to be able to acquire two marquee names and add them to an already star-studded lineup.
Their exit also marked the first time in 20 conferences since 1998 that the Phone Pals have failed to advance past the eliminations.
Sta. Lucia dropped to 4-13, the Phone Pals are now at 6-11, making the Ginebra vs. Air21 collision on Sunday the virtual knockout match to determine who will join Red Bull, Alaska and the Coca-Cola Tigers in the quarterfinals.
The Aces and the Tigers will square off in one series and the Barako will collide with the wildcard topnotcher in best-of-five series for the right to march on to the semis where San Miguel and Purefoods are seeded.
Salangsang scored a career-high 14 points built around a 3-of-5 clip from beyond three-point region, Sotto more than held his own underneath and Macapagal helped Jay-Jay Helterbrand quarterback the Kings’ offense with efficiency. Nino Canaleta, meanwhile, proved to be the bane for the Realtors, hitting a crucial three-pointer off a broken play that spelled the difference in the Air21 victory.
The reigning slam-dunk champion took matters into his own hands when a play designed for Ranidel de Ocampo was effectively read by the Realtors, draining a cold-blooded triple that broke the collective backs of the Realtors.
Kenneth Duremdes led the Realtors with 27 points and 10 assists. Marlou Aquino played as hard as he could and matched Duremdes’ total, with Dennis Espino contributing 20. They were numbers expected of them, since they are all earning the maximum allowed monthly pay of P350,000, the same as Asi Taulava, Jimmy Alapag and Don Allado for the Phone Pals. Mark Caguioa topscored for the Kings with 32 points. He also dished off six assists.
