Crispa-toyota rivalry remembered

MY exciting adventure as a sportswriter was definitely blessed with the best and the brightest things to cover.

Moving from basketball to golf to boxing to motocross or whatever my then editors—vic Villafranca and Tito Tagle of Sports World, and Sim Sotto of Sports Weekly—assigned me to, I was fascinated with basketball rivalries’ best.

I was too young to cover the YCO Painters and the Ysmael Steel Admirals when they duked it out gloriously in the basketball battlefields of their era. But I was already a bright-eyed and bushy tailed female sportswriter when the next big rivalry seethed in Philippine basketball.

Crispa and Toyota were made for each other like Muhammad Ali was born to tangle with Joe Frazier. Or Nikola Tesla with Thomas Alva Edison. Or Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader.

In the pre-pro basketball era of the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), Crispa was the most dominant and the most hard to beat team. Locked in a rabid rivalry with the Meralco Reddy Kilowatts in the early 70s, the Danny Floro-owned team lost its reason for being when Meralco disbanded. Not long after, the Komatsu Comets barged into the MICAA like dazzling white knights to challenge the dominance of the Crispa Redmanizers.

And that was how the most storied rivalry in Philippine basketball began. When both the Redmanizers and the Comets quit the MICAA to join the fledgling Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), they carried on their fresh feud into the young pro league and gave it its “watchability.”

Unused to the new ways and values of a play-for-pay league, basketball fans still ached somewhat for the MICAA games and had a hard time adjusting to the new unfamiliar teams.*

But the new Crispa-toyota rivalry that blazed so brightly even in the dying days of the MICAA, provided basketballhungry Filipinos with familiar fodder to sink their teeth into. Changing their name to Toyota Comets in the pros, the Silverioowned franchise stood up to the reigning kings of local basketball and became the main reason for the PBA’S early success.

It was a classic match-up after all. Before Toyota came into the scene, Crispa had been the most pampered team in the history of Philippine ball. Provided with the best equipment and classy duds, supported by a team of trainers and fed with juicy steaks, the Crispa team even had its own quarters in old Manila to ensure that the team was solely focused on their game.

But Toyota did not just live up to Crispa’s standards, it even outdid its rivals in some areas. Pampered with the same training tools and talents, the Comets were just as well-fed, maybe even better funded, and lived in a well-furnished house with all the amenities in swanky Bel Air in Makati.

If Crispa had Bogs Adornado, Atoy Co, Philip Cezar, Joy Dionisio, Jun Papa, Abet Guidaben, Freddie Hubalde, Johnny Revilla and later Padim Israel and Bernie Fabiosa, among others, Toyota had Sonny Jaworski, Francis Arnaiz, Ramon Fernandez, Abe King, Orly Bauzon, Ompong Segura, Arnie Tuadles, Emer Legaspi and the first PBA Rookie of the Year, Gil Cortez, at one time or another.

Even the coaches were a match to watch. Wiry Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan, a wise and wily genius of a coach, was quiet and lowkey. Dapper Dante Silverio, equally well-known in international racing circuits as he was in the basketball court, was chatty, sophisticated and people-friendly—the perfect foil.

Team-wise, it was glamour versus grit. It was rough-andrugged basketball moves versus elegance and cerebral plays. But always skill versus skill.

Crispa and Toyota faced each other in six consecutive finals and 10 PBA finals in all. Their final trip to the championship was in 1981 for the Open Conference Finals where Toyota defeated Crispa, 103-97. All told, Crispa won six of the ten finals against Toyota, and Toyota won four. As far as cumulative games played, Crispa leads the tally, 65 to 58.

This Saturday, February 18, the Toyota Team celebrates its Golden Grand Reunion in a private party that will rock the scene. Organized by Gil Cortez and Coach Dante, the event will bring back Toyota teammates from other parts of the world to commemorate their achievement-studded 50 years.

Maybe next time, Crispa and Toyota will celebrate a big reunion together, says Gil Cortez, now a respected sports official. But for Saturday, it will just be Toyota in a night of fun, food, gags, music and grand nostalgia.

Let the memories roll!