ANTIPOLO – Rafi Reavis and Chito Victolero celebrated another championship on Wednesday night - 18 years after their first one together.
Reavis and Victolero were teammates in the San Juan team when the Knights won the 2000 championship in the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA).
“That’s something that I really enjoyed. That’s so fun. I don’t know any other word to describe it,” Reavis, 41, said after Magnolia beat Alaska in Game Six, 102-86, to hand Victolero his first PBA championship as a coach.
“Winning with him, championships. Our first championship was 18 years ago. We were playing as teammates. And now, him being my coach, winning a championship under him, it’s just awesome. Words can’t describe it,” added the 16-year PBA veteran.
The championship was the 11th in the PBA for Reavis, making him the player with the most titles in his PBA career.
He was happy to share the moment with his former teammate turned coach.
“He is a great coach and a great person, first and foremost. It’s just a great feeling to be able to win with him. I’m just so happy,” said Reavis.
Reavis, one of the few holdovers from the grand slam team of 2014, was also thrilled to see the proud franchise bring back the glory days.
“We haven’t had this feeling for a long time. It’s like we are almost there, almost there, we don’t quite make it. To get over the hump and finally achieve it, it is a big weight lifted off my back," said the Fil-Am big man.
"We’ve been working extremely hard. Finally, we are here, we got over the hump. It’s a very nice feeling to finally achieve that goal.”
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