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    Will it be a one (championship)-and-done PBA career for Asi Taulava?

    Aside from Asi, there's another member of PBA 40 Greatest who won just one title in his career
    Apr 25, 2020

    BELIEVE it or not, Asi Taulava has only won one championship in a storied PBA career that is about to wind down.

    Yes, the veteran center who's been a staple of the league since 1999 has only reached the top of the mountain once - in his MVP season in 2003 when Talk 'N Text beat Coca Cola to claim that year's All-Filipino championship.

    Taulava, a four-time Mythical First Team selection, did make it to the finals thrice more in his career - all with the TNT franchise, but never got a chance to lift the trophy again in the pro league.

    He did win a title in his lone ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) season for the San Miguel Beermen in 2013, where he also won the Local MVP award. But championships proved elusive for him in the PBA.

    As the many-time national team banger approaches the twilight of his career at NLEX, he certainly would love to add another ring to his gaudy trophy case before he hangs his sneakers for good.

    After all, he's the only past PBA MVP who only has one ring to boast.

    But Taulava is not the lone member of the league's 40 Greatest Players who only has one championship in his collection.

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      Joining him in the one-time PBA champion club is Manny Paner, whose solitary taste of the title came in the 1982 Invitational Conference.

      Paner, the University of the Visayas product, veteran of the 1972 Munich Olympics and part of the league's inaugural Mythical Team, spent his first three seasons with Royal Tru Orange (now San Miguel) before signing with Great Taste and later on, CDCP (Galleon Shipping).

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      For a while, Paner was the league's highest-paid player, but it wasn't until 1982 when Paner returned to the San Miguel franchise that he finally achieved success as an integral part of the Tommy Manotoc-coached Beermen side led by import Norman Black and soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Marte Saldana.

      That San Miguel side, which also featured Yoyong Martirez and Biboy Ravanes, delivered the franchise's second crown after beating the famed Crispa side, bannered by Atoy Co, Philip Cezar, and Abet Guidaben, in three games in the finals.

      The closest Paner ever got to a championship again after that was in the 1983 Open Conference, where the Beermen nipped Gilbey's Gin in three games to wound up with the third place trophy, before retiring in 1986.

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      At least, it's not too late for Taulava to win another one. Once this lockdown is over, the 47-year old has the Philippine Cup, or perhaps another import-laced conference, to win that second one before he calls it a career.

      Here's wishing the Ageless One good luck.

      Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph

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