MANILA, 7 February 2003 — Alaska has quietly completed revamping its team in the off-season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) after releasing its homegrown talent and acquiring the services of Fil-Am players.
Yet, the multi-titled Aces coach Tim Cone believes his team will still be one of the favorites this season.
Obviously, the Alaska Aces franchise is the only team in the professional league which has more Fil-Ams than local talent in its formidable lineup.
While defending his lineup Cone, at the same time, denied that Alaska management has a bias against local players.
“There was never any deliberate intent to have Fil-Ams in place of homegrown players in our team,” said Cone who wards finished runners-up in the All-Filipino Cup last year. “It just kind of worked out that way. We’re committed to putting together the strongest team that we can on the floor and that’s why we made the changes in our team.”
Erstwhile franchise player Kenneth Duremdes was traded to the Sta. Lucia Realtors for draft picks. Jojo Lastimosa retired, while Rodney Santos, Eric Reyes, and Alvin Teng were released without compensation.
In their places the Aces drafted Fil-Ams Mike Cortez, Brandon Lee Cablay, and Eugene Tejada, as well as local Stephen Padilla. They also acquired veteran Don Camaso from the Talk ‘N’ Text Phone Pals.
The new players join Fil-Ams Don Allado, Mike Arigo, Miguel Noble, Jon Ordonio Ali Peek and Robert Duat, as well as Fil-German EJ Feihl, in the team.
Feihl inked a 9.3-million-peso deal spread over the same number of years with the Aces.
Cone himself signed a lucrative pact with the Aces to hold on to his coaching job.
Alaska team manager Joaqui Trillo refused to divulge any details but reports claimed the contract Cone, signed made him one of the highest paid sports personalities in the country today.
Cone piloted the Uytengsu franchise to 10 PBA titles, third in the all-time list.
“It is a very lucrative contract and everybody is happy,” said Trillo.
Trillo bared it was the first time Cone and Alaska agreed to a written contract and also the first time Cone agreed to a deal for more than two years since joining the team in 1989.
“We wanted him to feel happy, secure and safe with us, that’s why there was no hesitation on our part in making him the offer,” Trillo explained.
Alaska also signed Cablay to a three-year pact worth 8.7 million pesos.
Management was so impressed with Cablay that he was given the same pay as top overall pick Cortez despite the former being tabbed at No. 5 in last month’s Rookie Draft. The Aces made Cortez the top overall pick.
Actually, the selection of the flamboyant guard from San Jose, California, did not come as a surprise because Cone has been consistent with his pronouncements saying he needed a good decision maker on the hard court and Cortez fitted the description aptly.
Cone said Cortez may well bring Alaska back to the days of old.
“We missed Johnny (Abbarientos) so much. That’s why we picked Cortez. He’s an MVP caliber player and he’s also a champion player, having won several titles with De La Salle,” said the brilliant American mentor.
The Aces pulled off the biggest surprise in the off-season as they traded Duremdes to Sta. Lucia Realty in exchange for their first and second round picks this year.
Duremdes is still one of the best players today, and, indeed, the move had the Uytengsu franchise yielding the final piece of the Alaska dynasty in the 90s.
The flashy forward was one of the remnants of the Alaska ball club that dominated the league in the 90s.
He joined Alaska in the middle of the 1997 season — a year after the squad completed only the fourth grand slam in PBA history — in exchange for Dwight Lago after spending his first two years with then Pop Cola, which picked him third overall in the 1995 Rookie Draft.
Aside from winning four championships with Alaska, the highlight of his career came in 1998 where he bagged the MVP award. He was also a member of the 1998 Centennial Team in the Bangkok Asian Games under Cone and the 2002 squad in the Busan edition last year.
Two years ago, the Aces also unloaded Abarrientos, Poch Juinio and Bong Hawkins to start what Cone said as “a rebuilding process.”
Indeed, the surprise move to ship Duremdes, an eight-year PBA veteran with one Most Valuable Player (MVP) award tucked under his belt, hogged the limelight.
The former Adamson Falcon had reportedly asked management to ship him to there ball club because he was “no longer happy with the Aces.”
Actually, Cone knew nothing about Duremdes’ plan to move into a new team and only made know by management during the off-season after the Aces lost to Coca-Cola in the All-Filipino Cup finals, three games to one.
Eventually, the Aces settled the issue as they sent the 6-foot-3 forward to Sta. Lucia Realty which agreed to assume the remaining six years of Duremdes’ blockbuster eight-year, 48-million pesos contract running up to 2008 which he inked with Alaska before the start of the 2001 season.
Lastimosa, who is turning 39 in March, has finally called it quits, ending his playing years with Alaska, the team he helped become the 90s winningest and one of the most successful ball clubs in the league’s 29-year-old history.
For the coming 29th PBA season, Lastimosa said Cone is still working out his inclusion in the Aces coaching staff.
“He (Cone) is still ironing out some kinks for me to be part of the coaching staff. So for now, I’ll just have to relax and enjoy my time with my family,” said Lastimosa, whose team lost to Coca-Cola in last year’s season-ending All-Filipino Cup finals, 3-1.
So far, teams are “moving heaven and earth” in an ambitious bid to restructure their respective lineups for the coming PBA season.
They are overhauling their lineups as they leave their doors open to trades put into context plans to make covert off-season moves.
The league will introduce an innovative format starting this season to make the PBA more dynamic.
It will have a two-conference, one-invitational tournament format beginning this season, replacing the traditional three-conference schedule of the oldest professional basketball institution in the country.
It includes a prolonged All-Filipino Cup, a battle between top PBA teams and Asian squads in an Asian Invitational tournament, and an import conference that could mark the return of the handicapping system for teams. The new tournaments are a drastic departure from the PBA’s traditional practice since 1975 when it was inaugurated where two of the three conferences feature imports. The only exemption is the 1984 edition where two All-Filipino championships were staged.
According to commissioner Noli Eala, who took over from Jun Bernardino as PBA boss early this year, the All-Filipino will be a five-month tournament with 18 elimination round games per team, down from the 22 earlier broached.
The 2003 PBA season will kick off on Feb. 16 featuring the prestigious All Filipino Cup, where the 10 teams are set to see action in 18 elimination games before the playoffs.
The 10 teams will be divided into two groups. A team will square off twice with members of their bracket and twice with teams from the other group for a total of 18 matches.
Only two teams will be bumped off heading into the quarterfinals, which will have the top four teams in each group squaring off in separate best-of-three duels.
The crossover semifinals will be best-of-five affairs to decide the protagonists in the best-of-seven finals.
The All Filipino Cup will run until the second week of July or roughly five months, giving the teams more leverage as far as television exposure is concerned.
In the past, four months were long enough to stage an entire conference.
Barely two weeks after the All Filipino Cup, the Asian Invitational will be launched. The top five teams in the All Filipino will advance in the invitational while the rest will fight for the last remaining slot.
