[Sixth of a series]
Picking a 'best' list is always a tricky proposition. One's choices do not always conform with what others think. And in a country like ours where basketball is what people eat for breakfast, we expect a vigorus debate as we come out with our list of 10 players who we thought ought to be added to the 40 Greatest PBA Players earlier chosen.
Our list is a selection that we will release, one player at a time, while the PBA itself is trying to form its own list of 10 to be selected by a committee formed by PBA commissioner Willie Marcial to complete the 50 Greatest in time for the league's 50th Anniversary celebration next month.
The selection committee is composed of league greats, former commissioners and select mediamen from different outlets.
We assure our readers that our selection is not influenced by what is deliberated closed doors by the committee whose members, including one from SPIN.ph, have vowed not to divulge any part of the discussion or voting procedure.
Here's the fourth installment of our series on 50 Greatest.
1. ARNULFO 'ARNIE' TUADLES
Read Tuadles piece HERE
2. NELSON ASAYTONO
Read Asaytono piece HERE
3. JUNE MAR FAJARDO
Read Fajardo piece HERE
4. RENE 'BONG' HAWKINS
Read Hawkins piece HERE
5. LEWIS ALFRED 'LA' TENORIO
Read Tenorio piece HERE
6. ABRAHAM COLUMBUS 'ABE' KING JR
À PBA Greatest List without a Chairman of the Board?
The first 40 players in the PBA"s Greatest players was missing the name of Abe King Jr. and netizens were freaked out. How can they miss him, said many, when his record of excellence is so obvious.
This one record alone should have been enough to put him in the first 25: 13 PBA championships with three teams in 18 years.
Surprisingly, that's not what King is known for, it's his rebounding, his ability to outhustle bigger rivals in the shaded area, it's why he is called 'Chairman of the Board.' And he's not even a center, he was a power forward.
The OGs of Asia’s first ever play-for-pay league certainly know the moniker belongs to King who played during an era when the position reflected the real meaning of the words.
His forte was defense long before the cliché ‘defense wins championships’ became a byword, something which he brought and specialized in when he joined a stacked Toyota offensive machine as an untested but talented 19-year-old who was deemed big and highly developed for his age.
READ Norman Black names the two toughest PBA defenders he faced
A proud product of San Beda, the now US-based King was considered one of the fiercest rebounders in PBA history, battling players and imports bigger than him notwithstanding that he stood just 6-foot-3.
Though he held his own against some of the best big men in the league, the now 67-year-old forward was unfortunate to have played in the shadows of Ramon Fernandez and Robert Jaworski at Toyota, Allan Caidic at Great Taste, and Alvin Patrimonio at Purefoods - players who almost always sucked all the oxygen when they are on the court.
Three decades since he retired, King hopefully will finally be given due recognition by making it to the additional list of 10 players to the PBA 50 Greatest of All Time. For now, however, SPIN.ph is picking him before the PBA does.
Despite being almost always overshadowed by Toyota’s feared starting unit of Fernandez, Jaworski, Francis Arnaiz, and the late Arnie Tuadles, he is credited for having contributed substantially to the seven championships Toyota won from the time he joined the franchise in 1977.
But let us also not forget that he could also hold his own in the scoring department such as when he exploded for 60 points during the 1979 All-Filipino conference game against Crispa which unfortunately Toyota lost, 172-142.
That output is No. 6 in the highest individual scoring record among locals as King became the first big man to put up 60 points in a game.
In rebounding, his total of 5,222 put him at No. 10 in the All-Time list, including 10th for most defensive rebounds (3,280), and seventh in most offensive boards (1,942).
Perhaps his two-way impact was what convinced Gold Eagle (now San Miguel) and Great Taste to take him in following the disbandment of Toyota in 1983.
With Great Taste, he won four more titles, providing steady presence and leadership along with Philip Cesar and Atoy Co to a team then bannered by Ricky Brown and by Caidic later on.
The league didn’t name an All-Defensive Team unit until 1985 where King was part of the first batch ever recognized, an honor he could have done more had the award been institutionalized earlier.
King's ability was so respected by his peers such that when the Great Taste franchise disbanded in 1992, Patrimonio, by then already an MVP and the rising superstar of the league, asked Purefoods management to get the services of the veteran power forward who he said, had been a thorn in his side during their matchups.
He played two seasons with the franchise, then owned by the Ayala family, where he won two more championships before finally fading into the sunset.
King, whose full name is Abraham Columbus King Jr., went out as a champion, and here’s wishing he gets to relive that feeling again as part of the PBA’s 50 Greatest List.
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