Source: GMA News TV. They stuck with their team colors for so long, determined to make it cooler than teal, hotter than red, I was actually beginning to like Pantone 3435. On second thought, even on what might be their uniforms’ last appearance in a PBA game, I give Sta. Lucia 1000 bonus points for staying true to team colors I thought only Army Rangers would prefer.
Sta. Lucia’s uniform colors reveal a mindset that isn’t swayed by public opinion. While other PBA teams were run by companies that sold beer, gin, hotdogs, electronic load and milk, the Realtors were bankrolled by a company that sold land. It has always been a mystery how fans could relate to a team that was out to market real estate. The uniforms, I’m sure, didn’t make the proposal any more attractive.
Still, in the final minutes of a lost cause, in their final moments in the 2010 PBA Fiesta Conference, and possibly final game of their PBA existence, Sta. Lucia’s mean green jerseys finally had powerful value – a sentimental one.
Like most affairs in Philippine sports, fans are often left to read between the lines. The way Sta. Lucia stripped its team bare, the way they shipped out every championship-caliber player they had, suggests that the team, or its new owners, couldn’t wait to start renovation work. The weaker the team, the sooner they could bring in the wrecking ball and begin change.
PBA teams, by the way they trade players and conduct business, have a knack of not just tickling the imagination but making fans’ imagination work overtime. While the Realtors labored against the Coca Cola Tigers in the fourth quarter of knock-out game that couldn’t wait to end, we wondered if this served as the final curtain call.
As Michael Jackson put it, “This is it!"
Is this it for the team with the cartoon hardhat on its jerseys? Is this it for the team that, for a decade, housed the PBA’s 6’9" kili-kili-shot-shooting enigma named Marlou Aquino? Is this it for the team that won two PBA championships?
One by one, Sta. Lucia’s bankable stars, the same players who recently placed the team back on the map, same players who successfully gave the franchise a heartbeat so loud, we were beginning to say the words Realtors, basketball and pulsating all in one sentence, were sent elsewhere.
In the end, the only certified PBA star left on this team was former PBA Chairman and Team Manager Buddy Encarnado. Yet even the continued presence of Boss Buddy’s well-manicured moustache, his bigote-nonpareil, is up in the air.
Sources of sources say Sta. Lucia is on its way out and Meralco is on its way in. The final buzzer hollered inside the Big Dome. Coca-Cola won. The Realtors were done. This is the part when teams normally say, “Wait ‘til next year." However, if I read between the lines correctly and my imagination doesn’t fail me, Sta. Lucia’s farewell from the tournament has the unmistakable taste of permanence. -- Mico Halili, GMANews.TV
Sta. Lucia’s uniform colors reveal a mindset that isn’t swayed by public opinion. While other PBA teams were run by companies that sold beer, gin, hotdogs, electronic load and milk, the Realtors were bankrolled by a company that sold land. It has always been a mystery how fans could relate to a team that was out to market real estate. The uniforms, I’m sure, didn’t make the proposal any more attractive.
Still, in the final minutes of a lost cause, in their final moments in the 2010 PBA Fiesta Conference, and possibly final game of their PBA existence, Sta. Lucia’s mean green jerseys finally had powerful value – a sentimental one.
Like most affairs in Philippine sports, fans are often left to read between the lines. The way Sta. Lucia stripped its team bare, the way they shipped out every championship-caliber player they had, suggests that the team, or its new owners, couldn’t wait to start renovation work. The weaker the team, the sooner they could bring in the wrecking ball and begin change.
PBA teams, by the way they trade players and conduct business, have a knack of not just tickling the imagination but making fans’ imagination work overtime. While the Realtors labored against the Coca Cola Tigers in the fourth quarter of knock-out game that couldn’t wait to end, we wondered if this served as the final curtain call.
As Michael Jackson put it, “This is it!"
Is this it for the team with the cartoon hardhat on its jerseys? Is this it for the team that, for a decade, housed the PBA’s 6’9" kili-kili-shot-shooting enigma named Marlou Aquino? Is this it for the team that won two PBA championships?
One by one, Sta. Lucia’s bankable stars, the same players who recently placed the team back on the map, same players who successfully gave the franchise a heartbeat so loud, we were beginning to say the words Realtors, basketball and pulsating all in one sentence, were sent elsewhere.
In the end, the only certified PBA star left on this team was former PBA Chairman and Team Manager Buddy Encarnado. Yet even the continued presence of Boss Buddy’s well-manicured moustache, his bigote-nonpareil, is up in the air.
Sources of sources say Sta. Lucia is on its way out and Meralco is on its way in. The final buzzer hollered inside the Big Dome. Coca-Cola won. The Realtors were done. This is the part when teams normally say, “Wait ‘til next year." However, if I read between the lines correctly and my imagination doesn’t fail me, Sta. Lucia’s farewell from the tournament has the unmistakable taste of permanence. -- Mico Halili, GMANews.TV
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