Return of Captain Hook soon
There was a time when Mac Cardona has been regarded as the top gunner in the PBA. He averaged 20 points per game during the 2008-2009 season, the best in the league that time. It was also the same year when he won a PBA championship with the Talk ’N Text Tropang Texters, who defeated the Alaska Aces in seven games of the Philippine Cup finals.
Known as a winner during his collegiate playing career with La Salle, the former UAAP Most Valuable Player didn’t have much problem adjusting to the PBA brand of play.
Picked No. 5 overall by the Air21 Express in the 2005 Rookie Draft, Cardona was shipped to the Tropang Texters on Draft Day.
With Talk ’N Text, Cardona immediately became a rising star and in just his second season, he was able to average 18.1 points per game. He was a key player during the team’s magical run to the finals, but the team lost to the Aces in the import-laced tournament.
He played an MVP season, but lost to Jayjay Helterbrand of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
When Cardona moved to the Meralco Bolts, sister team of TNT, the five-time PBA All- Star quickly became the team’s star. In all three seasons he played for the Bolts, he has averaged in double figures, the most productive was in 2010-2011 season where he scored 18.7 points every game. In 2011, Franz Pumaren, his old coach from La Salle, took over the coaching chores at Air21, and Cardona got his wish to be reunited with the mentor who also served as a father figure to him. He continued to play with the franchise until it was sold to the NLEX Road Warriors in the 2014-2015 season.
But last season, Cardona hit rock bottom as domestic problems affected his playing career. The player known for his physical and mental toughness inside the playing court was rushed to the hospital due to drug overdose in an attempt to commit suicide.
Cardona has been away from basketball for a year, but he is now making a comeback attempt.
He had a brief stint playing in the PBA D-League when he played for Zark’s Burger last July 18.
Now getting his mind- set back in basketball, Cardona is trying to make a return in the big league via the GlobalPort Batang Pier, a team being coached by his favorite mentor, Pumaren. He is still trying out for a spot in the team centered on guards Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle and although there’s no reserve position for him yet, it would only be a matter of time before the six-foot veteran find himself in the roster.
The Captain Hook deserves a second chance and Pumaren wants to give him one. We might see Cardona taking those unorthodox one handed, medium range jumpers and three-point bombs once more.