PBA fans were far from pleased with the lack of competition shown by Crispa and Toyota in their second semifinal meeting in the 1979 PBA All-Filipino Conference, as written by Bulletin Today sports editor Lito Fernandez in his column.
A PBA black eye
THE NEUTRAL CORNER
By Lito P. Fernandez
Bulletin Today
Published Saturday June 23, 1979
Some 10,000 fans at the Araneta Coliseum — plus thousands of televiewers — had expected another titanic battle between arch-rivals Crispa and Toyota Thursday night. But there was so battle — just a drab scoring exhibition — and the fans were terribly disappointed.
Said one irate Toyota fan while watching the game on television at the office:
“I stayed on instead of going home early just so I could watch the game on TV. But what did I see? This? It’s disgusting.”
“Lokohan lang pala ito (They’re just fooling us,” said another angry fan as he stood up and left in a huff.
Reports from people who were at the Big Dome that night said that many of those who watched the game in the bleachers section (general admission) wanted their money back.
“What they paid to get in was hard-earned money and I think they have a right to demand their money back,” said one.
He added that the people were mad at the Philippine Basketball Association for allowing this to happen and at the two teams for not playing seriously.
Indeed, the two teams just went through the motions of playing the game and in so doing, forgot all about defense. This resulted in a virtual shooting contest with Abe King of Toyota and Crispa’s Atoy Co staging a scoring duel.
King, the power-leaping former San Beda ace, knocked in 60 points to break the season record of 51 points set by Antonio Torrente of Royal Tru-Orange in the eliminations.Co, the league’s scoring leader, missed tying the old mark by just one point when he shot 50. Co, the first PBA player to score 5,000 points, now has a career total of 5,239 points.
At least three other scoring records were set as the Redmanizers and the Tamaraws engaged in a free-wheeling contest that will go down in PBA history as the dullest Crispa-Toyota game ever.
Toyota, which had clinched a finals slot last Tuesday when the Tamaraws beat Filmanbank for their fourth straight victory, reported without Ramon Fernandez, the leading candidate for the Most Valuable Player award. Francis Arnaiz and Jesus Sta. Maria. Arnaiz, a former MVP himself, showed up in street clothes while Fernandez and Sta. Maria were reportedly down with the flu.
Games like this erode the public confidence in the PBA. It is incumbent upon the association to institute measures to protect the public.
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