AFTER 5,000 POINTS HIS 300TH PRO GAME
ANOTHER BIG NIGHT FOR THE BIG J
By Peter N. Acosta
Sports Weekly Magazine
Published June 20-27, 1980
“If you mean did I toss in my sleep the night before or was I edgy when I woke up that day, thje answer is, frankly, no,” said Sonny Jaworski, laughing.
“One thing, though, I knew that June 12 was Independence Day, it’s a holiday and the kids will get a kick watching the parade on TV.”
It was an hour after last Thursday’s second Toyota-Crispa encounter in the PBA first conference, the 82nd in the running gun battle between the local pro league’s top two ballclubs, and Jaworski, whose brilliant all-around performance in that game had powered the Tamaraws to a hairline 107-105 decision over the Jeansmakers, was being asked how it felt to reach another milestone in his five-year pro basketball career.
The milestone was the 300th game in his career which he reached by playing against Crispa.
Two months earlier, the 34-year-old court general of the Tamaraws had marked another big night by becoming the third man in the league to hit 5,000 points. Recalling that night and June 12, he said the way he felt last Thursday was “almost the same.”
“My main concern was to help the team win,” he said, “and I’m happy that as things were when I reached the 5,000-point mark, we also won last Thursday when I played my 300th game as a pro.”
As to which was more memorable, Jaworski said “I really wouldn’t know, and I leave that up to you fellows who I think are in a better position to analyze.”
The way the boys along press row viewed both events, the consensus was that although that night Jaworski scored his 5,000th point had a lot of dramatic touches, his performance last June 12 in his 300th game was “Jaworski at his best.”
A review of how he performed last Thursday leaves no doubt about the validity of the prevailing view.
That really was vintage Big J that the overflow crowd of 32,000 at the Araneta Coliseum saw as Jaworski played with sustained brilliance and true grit all the way to help propel the Tamaraws to a victory they really didn’t need anymore because three playdates earlier, they had clinched the first berth in the round of four.
Jaworski boomed right off. Finding the range on his way to a 15-point blast that sent the Tamaraws winging to a nine-point lead over Crispa in the first quarter.
He concentrated on assists in the second quarter and only popped once from the field, but Toyota’s score at halftime still showed Jaworski as Toyota’s top pointmaker with 17 points. In addition, he had two rebounds and five assists.
He opened scoring for the Tams with quick back-to-back hits as the third quarter began, and then knocked in another field goal late in the period to up his points total to 23 going into the last frame.
In the fourth, all he had was one field goal, but what a hit it was. The score stood then at 105-103, Toyota up by two. The time? Forty four second to go. Clearly, Toyota needed some kind of insurance basket and this Toyota got from Jaworski when he scored on a layup after fielding a pass from Francis Arnaiz who had earlier stolen from Atoy Co.
But that was not all.
When on the next play, Syslvester Cuyler scored to cut Toyota’s margin to two with only 25 seconds left, Jaworski called the shots in a play that enabled the Tams to run the clock down and wrap up their two-point margin.
Earlier, Crispa Coach Baby Dalupan had sued for a time out to spell out a Crispa pay aimed at giving Crispa a chance to get the ball and come through with a trying, or possibly, even a winning shot.
The gambit was not to press Jaworski once he gets the ball. It seems based more on a gut feeling that Jaworski, if left free, just might be tempted to go for the goal to highlight his 200th game with a grandstand play.
But Jaworski didn’t fall for the subtle trap. Instead of going for a drive, Jaworski passed the ball to Arnaiz, who then passed it back to him. Thus was Toyota able to consume the 25 seconds of that game.
“Mautak talaga,” said Coach Dalupan of his former protege at the University of the East.
When informed of his terse comment by the man who moulded him into what he is today, Jaworski smiled. When asked if he ever was tempted to go for a goal in that last 25 seconds even when he noted an apparent sagging of the Crispa defense to accomodate him, Jaworski again smiled.
That smile said a lot — about the man and his hardcourt skills and crafrtmanship, why, he remains the man they call “the pro’s pro.”
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