CHICAGO - Since he was taken as the 17th overall pick in the 2015 PBA Rookie Draft, Simon Enciso has put on six different jerseys, stops and swaps of allegiances which he calls special for the relationships that it had allowed him to nurture.
This morning while practicing for his seventh team, surrounded by faces that were both foreign and familiar, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound playmaker felt like heaven.
He is now with San Miguel Beer, in a state of sheer ecstasy.
"I'm super excited," he told me in a telephone interview.
But he ain't just hopping on for the free ride.
"They have a winning culture here and I'd like to immerse in that environment while trying the best I can do to help win the chip," said the tenacious backcourt bulldog as he pointed out how ready he is to "work with all these great players."
As recently as four days ago, the 30-year old Enciso had no inkling that he was going to be shipped elsewhere after he was packaged from Blackwater to Terrafirma in exchange for Rashawn McCarthy last September 28.
"I practiced with Dyip for two weeks and was told that they were not looking to move anybody," he revealed.
Enciso did offer that assistant coach Ronald Tubid joked around that he might indeed be headed elsewhere.
Per my league sources, though, the Enciso deal had been marinating for the past three weeks. It was supposed to include former No.1 pick Roosevelt Adams in the swap for Alex Cabagnot, who saw his 12-year stint at San Miguel end with his reassignment to Terrafirma.
All the Beermen had to do to sway the league's trade committee, I was told, was give up a 'little more' to make the deal 'fair.'
BUT THE BEERMEN, SURPRISINGLY, DID NOT PULL THE TRIGGER.
Hence, the one-on-one Enciso for Cabagnot barter.
And for the San Francisco-born Enciso, who once brightened gloomy Blackwater, where he was an unstoppable serial scorer during his brief tenure there, it's Christmas in November.
He joins San Miguel at a time of roster upheaval when the Beermen are aggressively re-tooling in the hope of arresting a three-conference title drought, an unacceptable burst of futility for the league's richest, winningest franchise.
That violent winds of roster change have since swept longtime mainstays Cabagnot, 38, and 40-year old Arwind Santos.
Enciso, meanwhile, is already relishing the thought of playing alongside a dominant big, June Mar Fajardo, and running the lanes with his "guy" Marcio Lassiter, a fellow San Francisco transplant.
He's like a kid about to unpack a box of chocolates.
I mean, what's not to like in a roster that is loaded with crazy talents in the like of the versatile Terrence Romeo, defensive doberman Chris Ross, and the recently-added veteran big, Vic Manuel.
Being in San Miguel also paves the way for Enciso's reunion with some of his D-League coaches and former teammate Mo Tautuaa, a 6-foot-8, 245-pound star in the making.
Changing uniforms and locker rooms can be uncomfortable for any player in any sport.
It means needing to adjust to another workplace, adapt to a different system, and trying to get long with new playmates.
This time, though, Simon says the change is not just good.
It's great.
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