It ain’t no way to treat a hero, but LA is okay

HE had just starred in the Jones Cup and yet, he still got the boot. Without him, we might not have won the Jones Cup, one of Asia’s toughest basketball tournaments.

He was the smallest in Taipei, only 5’8,” where his fellow point guards from opposing teams stood an average height of 6’2.” Yet, he was chosen the Most Valuable Player in the Jones Cup.

Why, because he stood 10 feet tall and shouldered home the championship trophy for the Smart Gilas-Pilipinas—the country’s fourth title since 1981 in the 34-year-old Jones Cup.

Just days after he flew home, his mother team gave him a rude welcome by tossing him out of the organization.

Your own son returning a shining star, and you throw him away just like that?

How can one have the heart to treat a hero like that?

Indeed, life is not always a bed of roses.

You win, but it does not assure you of champagne corks popping all the time.

Not all victories are toasted. Not all awards are celebrated. Not all medals are appreciated.

Even medals of valor sometimes are a mere dime a dozen.

Man is a nice work of nature but man can also be as cruel as Mother Nature gone mad.

Remember Ernest Hemingway’s classic essay on a war medal being sold by an impoverished soldier?

The price for it could not even buy the poor soldier an ice-cold beer.

If that heart-rending story of his had contributed to Hemingway’s depression and led to his suicide—Hemingway himself being a war hero—I wouldn’t be surprised one bit.

And now, this: Alaska gave away LA Tenorio to Ginebra when it should have kept the ace guard in its fold. The decision defied logic, if not common sense. It shocked everybody—almost. Not me. LA, despite the Jones Cup’s MVP, is but another example of how players, not only here but also all over the world, are treated: All puppets on a string.

Again, the classic from Francis Arnaiz comes to mind: “We are all por kilo here in the PBA.” He’d said that after he found himself traded without his knowledge.

Sometimes, sporting heroes aren’t what they really are. You don’t have to look far. LA’s at your doorstep.