TNT will retire the No. 33 jersey of Ranidel de Ocampo at halftime of Game 3 of the PBA 50th Season Philippine Cup semifinals on Friday.
De Ocampo had a storied nine-year career with TNT from 2008 to 2017. Acquired from the FedEx/Air21 franchise, the St. Francis of Assisi College product won six championships with Talk ‘N Text, two of which had him capturing Finals MVPs.
Incidentally, De Ocampo closed his career with Meralco from 2017 to 2019 before coming back to TNT as an assistant coach.
According to RDO, it was TNT team manager Jojo Lastimosa who spearheaded the move to retire his jersey number. For Lastimosa, the jersey retirement is well-deserved.
“We want to retire the jersey of Ranidel because he is a TNT legend just like Jimmy Alapag and Harvey Carey,” said Lastimosa.
The No. 3 jersey of Alapag and No. 4 of Carey were also retired by the franchise.
“We want to honor him and raise his jersey so that no one else would use his jersey again,” said Lastimosa.
Aside from his impact with TNT, Lastimosa said De Ocampo’s contributions with Gilas Pilipinas were immense. Among his notable appearances with Gilas Pilipinas were the 2013 and 2015 FIBA Asia Championship in Manila and Changsha, China respectively where the team won silver medals, and the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
“We are so proud of him. He is a legend. We are so happy for him. All the things that he contributed to the franchise and of course, Gilas, it’s a long time coming,” said Lastimosa.
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