Yap for Lee swap a win-win situation
Losing
a franchise player was like losing the team’s identity. Such case happened to Star when it traded its marquee player James Yap, who was shipped to Rain or Shine for talented guard and former Gilas Pilipinas standout Paul Lee a few weeks after the recent PBA season ended.
Many people perceived that Yap and the old Purefoods franchise, a team he helped to seven championships, including a grand slam, is inseparable, just like Alvin Patrimonio, who started and ended his career playing for just one team.
To date, Patrimonio is still attached with the Purefoods franchise being the team manager.
Yap’s departure was quite similar to that of Jerry Codiñera, also one of the all-time best the franchise has ever produced. His partnership with Patrimonio produced the squad five championships.
While Patrimonio thrived in offense, which enabled him to win four Most Valuable Player awards, Codiñera made a living doing the dirty job like defending the opposing team’s best big men, getting the rebounds and making life easier for his front court partner.
Codiñera ended up his career as a member of the league’s All-Defensive Team, the most by any player in the league.
But there’s this sad day happened for the Purefoods community when news broke out that Codiñera was being wooed by Mobiline then being coached by his former mentor, Eric Altamirano, who had just led the Hotdogs to a championship in the All-Filipino the previous year.
The offer was tempting with Codiñera being groomed as one of the cornerstones of the squad.
But it was never been the same again for Codiñera, who would find himself having a decline on his game and found himself being traded to FedEx in 2002 until he retired two years later.
Like the other Purefoods greats, Yap was well-loved, adored and worshiped by their legions of fans and the pride of Escalante, Negros would emerge as the franchise’s new hero, earning him to win two MVPs.
It wasn’t surprising to see the diehard fans heartbroken and devastated by his departure.
We could only hope Yap won’t suffer the same fate as what happened to Codiñera when he transferred to another team.
The good thing is, Yap will be joining a team not strange to him. Welcoat, the mother brand of the Asian Coatings company which owns Rain or Shine, was his former team in the amateur league and joining the group was like a reunion of sorts.
People within the Rain or Shine group believe Yap has a few more good years left in him and they won’t mind seeing the most popular player in the league winding up his career with them.
For Star, the move to get Lee is one way of stabilizing the backcourt. With Peter June Simon, another talented big guard already there, the team felt it could let go of Yap and get a marquee player in return.
At first glance, you would think it was a big loss, but it was actually a big gain as Lee would join a talent- laden backcourt that has Mark Barroca, Simon, Justin Melton and prized rookie acquisition Jiovanni Jalalon.
Yap was coming off his least productive season ever and the team took notice of that in the same way the squad was able to release Alex Mallari, who was injured for most part of last season and RR Garcia, whom Star felt was just a redundancy to the guard-heavy lineup of the team. They were able to unload them and got Aldrech Ramos in return, which was definitely a good ploy.
The move was like a win-win situation. It would take some time before fans could move forward to what happened in the off season. But life goes on to these stars whom we wish nothing but success playing for their new teams.