SMB ‘Slam’ bid big focus on Austria

Can San Miguel Beer complete a Grand Slam this year? Judging from the way the Beermen won the PBA Philippine Cup, they seem capable of doing it.

They have the material to begin with.

It has June Mar Fajardo, the most reliable center the league has ever discovered the last three years or so.

Already, Fajardo has won the last three MVP Awards. Pundits insist a fourth MVP is a foregone conclusion by the end of the ongoing season.

With Fajardo as SMB’s main hub, everything flows around him like a faultless fulcrum.

One big thing going for Fajardo is, he is equipped with the most lethal backup in Arwind Santos (power forward), Marcio Lassiter (the sweet-shooting wingman), Alex Cabanot (the deadliest off- guard SMB has ever acquired) and Chris Ross (the king point guard with back-to-back Finals MVP across his name in the last two All-Filipino series).

So powerful is SMB’s First Five that this assembly has become the undisputed Best Five since Crispa’s famously murderous Main Stringers in Abet Guidaben, Philip Cezar, Bogs Adornado, Atoy Co and Bernard Fabiosa from the 70’s to the 80’s.

With this quintet, coached by El Maestro the late Baby Dalupan, the Redmanizers grabbed the PBA’s first two Grand Slams in 1976 and 1983.

San Miguel Beer became only the second team to win the “Slam” in 1989, with Norman Black as coach and, yes, with Guidaben also on board SMB after Crispa had disbanded in 1984.

Coach Leo Austria appears to have built SMB’s sturdiness with his winning formula: “Live and die with my First Five.”

Three of his last four crowns for a perfect 4-for-4 Finals appearances were scored with Fajardo & Co.—the fourth with AZ Reid.

Austria’s Charles Rhodes is his 6-foot-8 import in the Commissioner’s Cup firing off on Friday (March 17). Rhodes’ records appear handsome: 23.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per game, besides being the second all-time shot blocker in the Korean Basketball League.

Well, let us see if Rhodes could blend with Austria’s deadly First Five.

Most often, an import could disrupt, if not derail, the rotation of a team’s starting five. For, historically, since imports rule every foreign-laced tournament, play virtually centers around them.

That’s where the guile and adeptness of the coach come in.