Vic Villafranca offered his insights on
the Crispa-Toyota brawl in an article published by Sports Weekly
Magazine a week after the incident.
A RUMBLE AND TUMBLE LEAGUE: TOO EARLY
TO COUNT CHICKENS
THE LINE
By Vic Villafranca
Sports Weekly Magazine
Published April 28-May 6, 1977
For displaying conduct unbecoming
professional basketball players and adults presumed to know the
difference between right and wrong and an act of violence from a love
tryst in the park, the nation's two celebrated ballclubs – Crispa
and Toyota – got hit last week by a full cycle of punishments that
from here on should make the more volatile members of both teams
think twice before raising their hands. Even if it's only to go to
the little boys' room.
It all began, a no doubt you might have
heard from your favorite boxing promoter, when obviously, as a result
of what transpired between them on the hardcourt in the closing
minutes of their tense ballgame, the players of both teams went
almost for each other's jugulars on their way to their respective
dugouts.
What ensued was a full blown rumble,
you know, the sort of thing one only sees in bar rooms and cowboy
flies, in Hell's Kitchen and OK corals, in dead end streets and dark
alleys and in those Friday night smokers that were once the bread and
butter of Merting Besa's promotions at the Besa Arena.
Up to now, almost two weeks after it
happened, it's not really clear which side took the first step
leading to mayhem, although predictably, when first confronted with
the corpus delicti, both camps were quick to look at the ceiling and
wash their hands off the messy affair.
As if rumbles, like the babies of old,
were offshoots of visits from the stork and not tempers that have
gone out of kilter.
Or, if you are to go along with the
earnest protestations of innocence piously intoned by the coaches of
the two clubs – Baby Dalupan for Crispa and Dante Silverio for
Toyota – as if the injured players got their lumps and their bruise
while trying to get out of their sweat-drenched playing suits.
**********
In any case, the pained disclaimers
notwithstanding, the authories were quick to pounce on the incident
as a case where both clubs stood guilty of “creating alarm and
disturbing the peace.” Consequently, in accordance with a previous
warning issued by the Department of National Defense against such
disturbances, the military swiftly rounded up the players of both
teams the following morning for detention.
The boys spent one night in the cooler
before they were released – each one of them no doubt chastised by
the experience, particularly those who never seen the inside of a
detention cell or have never gone to bed without an airconditioner or
without brushing their teeth, as in the case of those who forgot
their toothbrushes.
Two days later, the PBA itself, came up
with its own version of a knuckle rap on the two erring teams, this
one in the form of P5,000 fines which the league, through PBA
commissioner Leo Prieto, slapped on Crispa and Toyota.
And for allegedly saying something to
Referee Estefanio Bernos which in the view of the PBA should never be
said out loud even in a fit of anger and more so in front of little
old ladies and children, Toyota coach Dante Silverio got hit with a
P1,000 fine.
**********
The fines are not expected to hurt both
clubs where the PBA figyres they will hurt most – the pocketbook –
but lest both clubs feel they got off lightly, Prieto served notice
that similar acts of rowdysm will be dealt with more severely in the
future.
Add to this the military's
determination to clamp in the stockade any basketball player who
allows his hot temper to run amok and one begins to understand why
more and more, the after-the-rumble PBA games are beginning to assume
the character and flavor of unadulterated acts of brotherly love.
Why, would you believe that even Oscar
Rocha, the one-time “bad boy” of the pro league, smiles at the
referee these days? Or that Presto's Johnny Revilla, the original
“enforcer” of the Crispa team of old, now acknowledges a foul
calls – even a borderline one – with all the meekness and ardor
of a kid receiving his first Holy Communion?
Whether in the end these acts of peace
and understanding in the PBA would mean tamer pro games only time
will tell. But it certainly must have come as some kind of a comfort
to the country's basketball fans that these days, even kindergarten
kids and nice old nuns can take in a PBA game without any need for
parental guidance.
**********
At this stage in the PBA first
conference, it certainly is too early to count chickens or send out
an order for vintage champagne.
Still, to hear Presto team manager
Chino Marquinez talk about the chances of the Flavorites to make the
finals of the circuit, why, one gets the impression that in so far as
Chito is concerne, it's all over but the actual trip to the pennant
playoffs for Presto.
Take for instance Chino's assessment of
Presto's chances against Toyota, which along with Crispa, has been
heavily predicted to win a slot in the showdown series for the first
conference title.
Two days before last Sunday's
Presto-Toyota game in Baguio, Chino had it all figured out – how
Presto will fare against the Tams on a man-to-man basis, hardly
considering the fact that basketball isn't anything like dancing the
tango where the name of the game is one-on-one.
**********
Crispa manager Danny Floro, who seldom
says much even when jawing on television with Joe Quirino, has come
out spewing with what for Danny must seems like a cascade of words in
his bid to stop any of his boys from getting involved in any violent
incident on and off the hardcourt.
From here on, says Danny, any Crispa
player who is found guilty of starting a fight on and off the court
will be ousted from the club.
“I fully guarantee,” says Danny
after meeting with his boys. “that no Redmanizer will start any
court rhubarb, and furthermore, none of them will retaliate even if
attacked.”
In short, don't expect any Crispa
player to hit back even if rapped on the cheek. He might react, but
only – as per the word sent down by Danny – to turn the other
cheek.
**********
When Tanduay went up agains Toyota
Thursday last week, there were not a few basketball fans covered
their eyes and wondered out loud whether there's still room at the
PBA morgue. All obviously frightful anticipation of the massacre
likely to befall the Distillers.
The feat was anything but unfounded.
For man to man, Tanduay looks like a perfect match for Toyota in the
same manner Chuck Wepner was comically considered the man most likely
to give Muhammad Ali a bad night.
“I hate to look,” said one fan when
the Distillers filed into the court for their match with the Tams.
As things turned out in the game, he
should kept his eyes open. For not only did the lightly-regarded
Distillers drag the Tams to an overtime, there were times when it
seemed as if they just might make Dante Silverio wish he had not
listened to the advice of friends that coaching winning basketball
isn't as nerve-fraying as tooling around a grand prix track or
picking a tie that will go with a Denim outfit.
Toyota eventually pulled through but
not after Dante had gone through a wringer and looking, especially
during the closing seconds of that last quarter, like a drag racer
who had blown a tire going into a hairpin turn.
**********
QUOTES UNQUOTES
“I've been gentleman enough to admit
in the past whatever I've said. But this time, I vehemently deny
having uttered unprintables.”
– Toyota Coach Dante Silverio
“i had always abided by all decisions
of the Commissioner, even if some of them were detrimental to my
team's interest. But this time I will appeal his decision.”
– Crispa Owner Danny Floro
“A thorough evaluation of the whole
situation constrains us to pin the balance of responsibility not on
individuals but on teams.”
– PBA Commissioner Leo Prieto
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