ACCORDING to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wilt Chamberlain holds the all-time record for most points in an NBA game by a rookie at 58 which he did twice during his 1959-60 freshman season with the Philadelphia Warriors.
In the PBA, that record is held by Denis Abbatuan (yup, Denis, not Dennis; reason why in a while) when he scored 51 for Tanduay in Game 2 of the best-of-5 battle for third place vs Northern Consolidated Cement in the second of two all-Filipino conferences during the 1984 season which the Rhum Makers eventually won, 2-1.
(Why 2-1 only? That was because the finals, also a best-of-5 series, between Great Taste and Beer Hausen ended in a sweep by the Coffee Makers hence Tanduay was automatically awarded the second runner-up trophy. Since then, the battle for third became only a best-of-3 if the finals was best-of-5 and best-of-5 if the finals was a best-of-7. But that is already another story.)
FLUKE OR MIRACLE?
Abbatuan’s career-high 51 points were probably a fluke of some sorts. Why? For the rest of Abbatuan’s eight-year career in the pros where he played for six teams, the last with Pepsi in 1991, he never scored even half of that in a game from then on.
His best after that was a 23 in a game with Shell during his sophomore year in 1985.
Abbatuan’s PBA career scoring average was actually just 4.6 in a total of 212 games.
But for the Cagayan Valley-born native, now 58, that unexpected performance is what he’d like to call a “blessing,” and probably a miracle.
Abbatuan didn’t actually plan to play in Game 2 of that series because of diarrhea. He had already called head coach Renato “Sonny” Reyes about his condition.
But on that fateful October 30, 1984 morning, while outside his residence near the railroad tracks in Alabang, he saw a boy, about 9 or 10 years old, covered in mud and grease.
“Baka anak ng mga taong grasa,” said Abbatuan, who took pity on the boy and asked him if he wanted to wash and clean himself up in their backyard ‘poso.’
The boy didn’t answer but went with him to the back of their house where Abbatuan helped him clean up. He even gave the boy some clothes to change into. But when he offered him food, the boy refused. Even the money he tried to give was politely refused by the boy. Abbatuan attempted to put money in the boy’s pockets directly to no avail as the boy just shoved his hands away.
Minutes after the boy hurriedly left, Abbatuan suddenly felt his weakness because of diarrhea disappear into thin air.
“Parang lumakas ang pakiramdam ko,” he said.
So he went to the Araneta Coliseum later that day and decided to play instead, to the surprise of Reyes.
Once dubbed the second coming of Yoyoy Villamin, Abbatuan was also surprised with his strength in the game and the way he played.
“Ilang beses akong nagbanyo nung umaga na yun pero ang lakas ko talaga sa laro saka bawat bitaw ko ng bola halos pasok lahat,” he narrated of his performance en route to Tanduay’s 127-95 rout for a 2-0 series lead.
Abbatuan remembers Tonichi Yturri, Yves Dignadice and the late Alfie Almario as the ones who took turns defending against him in that game against NCC, with no success.
Nine-time PBA champion coach Jong Uichico was also part of that team and recalled guarding Abbatuan in that game unsuccessfully, athough the latter doesn’t remember if he actually was guarded by him.
“Baka nung na-syutan ako ni Denis, nilabas na ako agad ni coach, kaya hindi niya maalala,” said Uichico, who added NCC head coach Ron Jacobs was so angry at them for not being able to stop the 6-2 Tanduay rookie center-forward.
“Galit na galit si coach Ron sa amin sa larong ‘yun. Bakit daw namin hindi mahinto si Denis. Hindi pa uso three-point shot nun. Puro poste and jumpshot lang si Denis pero wala talaga makapigil sa kanya. Kaya tambak kami nun,” recalled Uichico, whose NCC team curiously just got a combined two points from Fil-Ams Jeff Moore and Chip Engelland in that game.
Whenever Abbatuan recalls that game, his performance and his encounter with the boy in the morning, he says elders and religious friends tell him it was probably the Sto. Nino who appeared to him and rewarded him with the strength and ability to score 51 points.
By the way, he says, Denis never saw the boy again and just prays to the Sto Nino and to God to thank him for his blessings.
FAMILY LIFE
Aside from that 51-point career game, Abbatuan says he also has been blessed with a beautiful and loving family, and a good life after his basketball career.
He got married in 1986 to Maria Lucila, a pediatric doctor and graduate of UST who migrated to England in July of 1996 before Denis together with their three daughters, aged 5, 7 & 10, followed suit three months later.
Currently, Dra. Abbatuan is among the frontliners attending to Covid-19 patients at the Basildon University Hospital in England.
Abbatuan worked as an auxiliary nurse for three years in the same hospital as his wife but retired early in 1999 because of eyesight issues.
His eldest daughter Karen Gayle is now a lawyer, Kathryn is an advertising manager while youngest Katrina is an emerging artist who has had her acrylic paintings on canvas exhibited already in England, Germany and Singapore.
Denis often returns to the Philippines specially during the cold winter months in England.
“Made in the Philippines kasi mga tuhod natin - limang beses na naoperahan kaya namamaga sa lamig sa England. Kaya lagi ako pinauuwi ni misis sa Pinas,” Abbatuan explains.
His family has a modest vacation house in Antipolo where he is often a visitor of the PBA games at the Ynares Center.
DENIS, NOT DENNIS
Yes, “Denis” is the correct spelling of his name, not ‘Dennis’ as it has always been in the PBA when he was still playing. And even in the rare times he gets mentioned in sports articles after he retired.
He says he only discovered the correct spelling of his name when he needed to get a birth certificate before he got married in 1986 and never bothered to correct it.
“Hindi ko na inintindi. Wala naman nagrereklamo. Kaya okay lang,” he says.
This writer only noticed the different spelling in his Facebook account through which I reached out to him for this piece.
IN GREAT COMPANY
Abbatuan’s 51 is the second oldest all-time individual single-game record in the PBA right now. It comes next only to Abe King’s all-time most two-point field goals attempted in a game of 53 which the former Toyota big man recorded in 1979 en route to a career-high 60 points.
Many players have come and gone in the PBA for the last 35-and-a-half years but no rookie has surpassed Abbatuan’s feat, not even the wave after wave of Fil-foreign player arrivals which began in 1999.
Abbatuan, who finished in the Top 3 in the race for Rookie of the Year honors in 1984 won by Crispa’s Willie Pearson, is actually also one of only nine rookies in my list who have scored at least 40 points in a PBA game.
The rookie who came closest to breaking Abbatuan’s record was Benjie Paras who scored 50 points twice in a game for Shell en route to winning a historic Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year double in 1989.
MOST POINTS IN A GAME BY A PBA ROOKIE
51 Denis Abbatuan, Tanduay, 1984
50 (twice) Venancio “Benjie” Paras, Shell, 1989
48 Allan Caidic, Great Taste, 1987
46 Ricardo “Ricky” Brown, Great Taste, 1983
43 Paul “Bong” Alvarez, Alaska, 1989
43 Eric Menk, Tanduay, 1999
42 Matthew Wright, Phoenix, 2016-17
40 Zandro “Jun” Limpot, Sta. Lucia, 1993
40 Romeo “Romy” Dela Rosa, Shell, 1989
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