Be careful Mr. Uytengsu Extra motivation para sa Mixers yan. ALASKA owner Fred Uytengsu wants nothing more than to see his ballcub take on grand slam-seeking San Mig in the finals of the PBA Governors Cup. And he wants the Aces to play the spoilers role. “Absolutely (we want to stop San Mig), Uytengsu bared to Spin.ph on Tuesday night moments after Alaska beat Rain or Shine, 104-94, in Game Three to move a win away from a place in the PBA Governors Cup Finals. Alaska, of course, was the last team to complete a sweep of all three conferences championships, pulling off the feat in 1996 with a team led by Johnny Abarrientos and Jojo Lastimosa and coached by Tim Cone. Cone and San Mig are now four wins away from becoming just the fourth team to complete a grand slam. They lead Talk N Text, 2-1, in the other semifinal series of the season-ending conference. An Alaska-San Mig finale offers intriguing possibilities are last team Cone took to a grand slam will now be tasked to stop him from completing another one with a rival franchise. Cone also ended his almost two-decade partnership with Uytengsu at Alaska under acrimonious circumstances back in 2011. But for Uytengsu, the biggest motivation is to preserve Alaskas status as the leagues last grand slam team. “Of course we want to be the last team that has won a Grand Slam,” he said. In the 39 years of Asia’s first ever play-for- pay league, only three franchises ever accomplished a three-conference sweep of an entire season. The legendary Crispa Redmanizers, behind cage greats Bogs Adornado, Atoy Co, Abet Guidaben, and Philip Cezar, Freddie Hubalde, Bernie Fabiosa, and famed coach Virgilio `Baby’ Dalupan first did the trick in 1976. Crispa repeated the achievement in 1983 under coach Tommy Manotoc still behind the core of Co, Guidaben, Cezar, Hubalde, and Bernie Fabiosa, with celebrated import Billy Ray Bates in tow. In 1989, Mon Fernandez, Hector Calma, Samboy Lim, Ricardo Brown, Franz Pumaren, and Alvin Teng steered San Miguel to a grand slam with coach Norman Black at the helm. Follow the writer on Twitter: @meilinspin -PS15
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:39 +0000
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