Reunion: Crispa, Toyota clash (May 30, 2003)

Crispa and Toyota were bracing a slow-paced but intense encounter in their Reunion Game that kicked off the 2003 PBA All-Star Weekend at the Araneta Coliseum.

Crispa, Toyota clash tonight

Tempo

Published Friday May 30, 2003

Fortunato Co vowed to whip the Toyota Super Corollas. To this Chito Loyzaga responded they will make the Crispa Redmanizers eat their words.

Demons from the past will be resurrected at 5 p.m. today when the Philippine Basketball Association’s legendary ball clubs clash for their reunion game before a huge nostalgic crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, site of these teams’ most memorable battles.

No need for slo-mo technology here. No need for instant replay. No need even for a call from coaches Baby Dalupan and Dante Silverio to walk the ball upcourt.

Co, the Redmanizers’ fade-away specialist shooting guard, will walk it up, maybe attempt to trot it up a little. And Robert Jaworski, the Corollas’ barreling point guard, will half-walk, half-jog possession to the frontcourt.

In retro shorts that hug their thighs and reach up to more than they want to.

But then who cares, especially when Philip Cezar will be the Fortune Cookie’s recipient at the post? And when Ramon Fernandez, flashing across the paint, will get the no-look pass from the Big J?

This one, truly, will be a battle for the ages.

By conservative estimate, no less than 25,000 fans, majority of them choosing to remember those years when one either sleeps well at night or dies a little with every Crispa or Toyota victory, are expected to pack the Big Dome in what could be the biggest basketball event ever since, well, Crispa-Toyota back in the 1980s.

Practically everybody’s who is anybody in Philippine basketball will be there tonight, rooting for Cezar’s stretch, Co’s fall-away, Jaworski’s behind-the-back pass, Fernandez’s elegant shot, Loyzaga’s wide-bodied defense, Bogs Adornado’s head-and-shoulder fake, Freddie Hubalde’s banked shot, Tito Varela’s glittering pate and Itoy Esguerra’s three-point bombs.

Speed will be a rarity here. So will power moves inside and blitzkrieg fastbreaks. But jumpers will rain down. And 3-pointers. And thread-needle passes. And cage-rattling and trash-talking and good-natured ribbing.

Loyzaga, in fact, has issued another warning yesterday.

Asked how he thinks the game would turn out, the son of the Great Difference replied: “Bakbakan ito bukas. Pabilisan ng lakad.”