Amazing sweet sweep ignites Alaska upgrade

IF you were not amazed, didn’t ooze with praise, over the way Alaska defeated Barangay Ginebra, I surmise you must be a zombie, maybe?

Alaska scored a socalled sweet sweep over Ginebra, completing a rare 3-0 victory in the best-offive title playoffs for the Cebuana Lhuillier-PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Even the predominantly pro-Ginebra crowd of a record 23,436 spectators at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, watched unbelieving at the clinical precision with which Alaska administered the destruction of the country’s lone darling in basketball.

Wiping out a crown contender in three straight games – in almost the same fashion in each of the three games yet – is one of the hardest to achieve in team play.

Alaska did just that and I can’t blame Ginebra if it continues to wonder what went wrong.

Ginebra had survived stinging struggles on the way to the Finals, using its patented killer instinct each time to eke out improbable victories.

Sadly, however, there was not even a fraction of Ginebra’s fabled never-saydie spirit in the Finals. It just disappeared like a bubble that burst even before it could go full bloom.

And it didn’t help the King’s cause any that Ginebra’s import, Vernon Macklin, was virtually a non-factor in the so-called moment of truth.

In all three routs incredibly crafted by Alaska (8770, 104-90 and 104-80), Macklin was thoroughly overpowered by a local, the Fil-Am Sonny Thoss.

It was but fitting, therefore, that Thoss, who averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds a game, was voted MVP of the Finals while brilliantly shackling Macklin, who had only 15 attempts in Games 1 & 2.

In Game 3, Macklin had a measly 12 points in a far cry from the 27 of Alaska import Rob Dozier, who also had 22, 20 and 20 rebounds in Games 1, 2 & 3, respectively.

I must also salute the youthful coach Luigi Trillo, who gave Alaska its first crown in only his second year at the saddle after Tim Cone plucked all the first 13 crowns as Alaska mentor from 19862011.

Is a new era is born for Alaska, the Grand Slam champ in 1996?

The signs are there, but it’s still too early to say.