WILL the third time be the charm for Jordan Heading?
The Fil-Australian gunner was not yet part of the Tropang 5G during their back-to-back championship celebration in the PBA’s 49th season after coming in from Converge via trade for Mikey Williams ahead of season-ending Philippine Cup.
Since then, Heading has reached the finals, but the Tropang 5G had fallen short, losing to San Miguel twice - first in that all-Filipino conference, then in the succeeding Philippine Cup for the 50th Season.
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Now, he as a shot at getting over the hump in the midseason tournament after the Tropang 5G forced a sudden death against Barangay Ginebra with a 98-90 win in Game Six on Sunday night at the Big Dome.
“Really thankful that we could push a Game Seven,” Heading said. “Obviously, the last two conferences we lost in six, so we're thankful exactly to get the opportunity to fight in Game Seven.”
“And we're bringing the exact same mindset: we got nothing to lose, we got no time to second think anything. Once again, we just got to go after it and play our game,” he added.
Even outside the PBA, the 30-year-old combo guard has come close to championship glory, but has let it slip.
In his first pro stint, he was supposed to be part of a title-worthy lineup with Justin Brownlee at Alab Pilipinas in the Asean Basketball League, but the pandemic abruptly cancelled the 2019-20 season.
Taking his act to Taiwan’s T1 League, Heading led Taichung to the finals, but they finished runner-up in the 2021-22 season.
Then the TNT heartbreaks three years later.
And he’s eager to flip the script this time – against the Gin Kings team led by the import he was supposed to team up with in his first professional run.
“I've yet to win a professional championship,” Heading admitted. “We were going to do it with Alab when Justin joined us and then COVID cancelled that, so I've been fortunate enough to be in a lot of championship series and hopefully we can get it this time.”
Heading, who had 19 points and missed a double-double by an assist in Game Six, is hoping the Tropang 5G has an answer for his former teammate in Brownlee.
“He's pretty incredible, but hopefully not incredible enough in Game Seven,” Heading said with a chuckle ahead of Game Seven on Wednesday at the MOA Arena.
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