MANILA, 28 December — A white Christmas, indeed, for Sta. Lucia Realty coach Norman Black
"We finally got the hump off our backs," said the multi-titled mentor moments after steering the Realtors to their first championship in nine years of existence in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The Realtors, at long last, got a taste of winning their first crown and surely not the last after finishing off San Miguel in Game Six of their best-of-seven finals showdown in the season-ending Governors Cup.
Their victory ended a long fruitless campaign that dated back to 1993 the year the ballclub entered the pro league.
And now, the Realtors can boast of a crown they’ve so avidly aspired for all these years.
And it took Black eight long years before coaching another team to another championship.
"Most of us on the team haven’t been here that long, but we still felt the pressure to deliver," said Black, his voice still hoarse from all the yelling and whooping on the hardcourt. Interestingly, Black enabled the Realtors to beat the same team where he bloomed as undoubtedly one of the greatest coaches in the league and, unfortunately, got his last taste of the championship.
"We’re simply on a mission," said Black, one of only two PBA imports to win the 100 Percent Performance award. "This is a very happy moment for every member of the Sta. Lucia organization, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of the way our players performed in this series and the whole conferences."
It was a sort of vindication for Black who, in 1999, virtually pleaded with Sta. Lucia team manager Buddy Encarnado to give him a chance to handle the Realtors.
The Encarnado knowing that Black was still struggling then to cope with his traumatic experience after two-and-a-half frustrating seasons with Pop Cola. But Encarnado must have felt something good about Black’s gesture. So Black was made to don the Sta. Lucia Realty’s green-and-white jersey as a bench taskmaster.
"I thank Buddy for taking a chance on me," said Black with tears flowing down his cheek. "It was one of the lowest points in my life, but now I can’t believe how far we have gone since then."
In clinching his 10th title as a coach in his 14th appearance in a PBA finals, Black earned a share of the second place with fellow American Alaska’s Tim Cone with the second most number of titles behind the legendary Baby Dalupan’s 15.
The native of Detroit, Michigan, also became the fifth coach to win championships with different teams after Dalupan, Tommy Manotoc, Ed Ocampo and Yeng Guiao.
Ironically, Black won his first nine titles in a glorious coaching career that spanned for almost 15 years as San Miguel Beer’s bench tactician from 1986-1996. Likewise, it ended a seven-year title drought that started in 1994, the year he coached the national team to fourth place in the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan.
"It’s been so long for me since I won a championship, and, of course, it’s been a long time for Sta. Lucia management. So we had things that we needed to prove in this particular series," he said.
So the Realtors proved in Game Six that they’re ready to join the elite cast of champions. And what a way to win that elusive title.
Black was not only a proud coach but was also a proud father, step dad to be exact, when he watched his stepson, Chris Tan, hit the biggest shot of his budding career a booming three-pointer in the last 3.3 seconds that put an end to the Realtors’ title famine.
Tan, whose biggest claim to prominence is being the stepson of Black, sealed the Realtors’ win for the season’s third and last trophy with a screaming three-point shot in the dying seconds of a game that could well be a good gist for a suspense-thriller movie.
The 6-foot-2 Tan knocked in a shattering three-point shot with three ticks remaining as the Realtors pulled off a heart-pounding 75-72 win over the Beermen.
Black couldn’t believe on what he saw and who made that possible.
"I really can’t believe he took that shot. A three-pointer from 26 feet in Game Six of a best-of-seven," said Black of Tan’s shot.
Prior to the match, Tan, ironically, shot only five points and went 0-of-8 from the three-point area in the entire best-of-seven series.
But that 26-foot shot by Tan in the waning seconds will go down in history as one of the gustiest shots ever made in the league.
"Chris sometimes has too much confidence and it was not the shot we wanted, but he had enough guts and heart to make that shot from 26 feet. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He just proved to everybody that he truly belongs in the PBA," said Black.
Tan, the former star for the Cebu Gems and Batangas Blades in the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), buried that triple from two steps behind the rainbow area, breaking the final tie forged by import Lamont Strothers’ driving layup with 26.2 second left that all but sparked wild celebrations at the packed Araneta Coliseum bathed in an unrecognizable sea of green from the Realtors fans.
The Realtors wrapped up the series, four games to two and, at the same time, they avenged their defeat to the Beermen for the Commissioner’s Cup finals last year where they were beaten, four games to one.
Tan was unrepentant in taking matters in his own hands even at the last moment.
And he defied all odds and the game plan in taking the shot that mattered most.
"It’s either I die or live again," said Tan. "That shot was not for me. That was nor for my dad. That was for the detractors of this team who doubted its capability to win a PBA championship."
Actually, Tan was fielded in by Black with 22 seconds to go for the exhausted Gerald Francisco whose back-to-back treys gave the Realtors a 70-59 lead halfway in the fourth.
Tan, who played for La Salle in the Universities Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and Cebu Gems in the MBA before joining the PBA last year, had something else to confess about his most daring shot ever.
"My dad (Black) designed the play. We’re actually going to Damian (Owens) but his path was blocked," he recalled. "I should have passed the ball to (import) Damian (Owens) on that play, but when I looked up there was only five seconds left in the shotclock."
Tan found himself free in the Beermen’s defensive rotation that focused on Owens and Aquino. Then he launched the shot from far beyond the arc that swooshed into the net.
That broke a 72-all deadlock and sparked a pandemonium as the Realtors seized the lead at a time when most feared they were about to fold up. Black admitted that, indeed, that last Sta. Lucia play in the remaining 26.6 seconds was not designed for his stepson.
"That was not the shot we wanted but he had enough guts, enough heart to put that shot when the game is on the line, on the sixth game of the championship series for about 26 feet and still make it," he said. "That was unbelievable. I am really happy for him."
And the guts that provoked Tan to take that make-or-break shot came from Alfrancis Chua, the team’s consultant.
"I always tell the guys, just keep shooting. Eventually, it will fall," said Chua, "so when he hit the most important shot of the game and he promptly pointed at me, I instantly heaved a sigh of relief."
The Beermen, who fought back from 14 points down, 50-64, in the fourth quarter mainly on the efforts of Strothers, actually had a chance to force the overtime.
