Baby Dalupan through the eyes of coaches and players
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 19 Oct 2015
Brilliant, disciplinarian, a great leader of men, a great coach and yet so humble.
That's how former PBA commissioner Chito Salud, two fellow coaches -- Tim Cone and Norman Black. former coaching arch-rival Dante Silverio and former players describe basketball guru Virgilio "Baby" Dalupan, who will celebrate his 92nd birthday on Monday, as a coach.
"How can someone be so self effacing yet loom so large in the consciousness and esteem of the Philippine basketball community? How can someone who seemingly operated largely on the basis of feel, touch diskarte and intuition be so successful in such a highly competitive sport?" Salud, now the president and CEO of the country's only pro-league said in a text message to this writer.
Legendary Filipino basketball coach Baby Dalupan.
"The answer is because he is Baby Dalupan," Salud added. "His understated ways, his uncanny feel for the sport and for the players as well as his enuring humility will always serve as a reminder and lesson to all of us that the sport of basketball need not be complicated. Thank you, coach Baby."
Cone, now calling the shots for popular club Barangay Ginebra, who broke Dalupan's 15-title conquest in the PBA alone, believes the man they call "The Maestro" could have been a great coach in any era "because he is just a great leader of man. What a great man ... what a great daughters he raised. such a loving family. "
Cone, who spent his first 20 years on the bench with Alaska Milk and the only man, so far, to capture two Grandslams, was referring to Baby's and Nenang's angels Louie, Binky, Ebing, Tina, Ann, Joe and Cecille whose joint efforts caused the publication of a book in honor of their father, which will be launched in a meaningful ceremony on, Oct. 19, highlighting the celebration of his 92d birthday.
"Nenang," of course, is Baby's wife Lourdes (nee Gaston) sister of former Ateneo teammate Jose Maria (Pepet).
"Rarely a day goes by that I don't think about him. I'm excited for his book and for his legacy being revisited by a younger generation," Cone of a man he idolizes.
"Coach Dalupan is a good, decent person," Robert Jaworski, Dalupan's pupil while playing for the UE Warriors in the 60s, for his part, said. "He's someone worth playing for, because of his passion to win was always on high mode."
"Moreover, he was also humble. May God Bless him wih great love from whose relations he treasures. I wish him peace of mind and heart and better health on his birthday onward to many more birthdays," Jaworski, "the Big-J," or "Jawo" to is fans and local basketball's living legend, said.
"Baby was always a gentleman deserving everyone's respect, considering his unparalleled skill and record as a basketball coach, " Cepeda, axt one time assistant manager at Crispa's arch-rival Toyota during the PBA's infant years, said evn as he, likewise, relayed Silverio's birthday greetings.
Silverio, on the opposite bench of Dalupan in the manny battles for PBA supremacy in the early years of he pro-league, incidentally, celebrated his 42nd last Oct. 17.
Other former players William "Bogs" Adornado, Atoy Co, Ramon Fernandez, Jimmy Mariano and Alvin Parimonio also paid tribute to Dalupan's greatness.
"Like many other players who played under Coach Baby, I consider him very brilliant in all aspects of basketball," Adornado, whose two of three PBA MVPs he won came under the tutelage of Dalupan, related. "Ang galing bumasa ng situwasyon at dumiskarte lalo sa pagpaasok at pagpalit ng tao."
"We at Crispa then, we didn't have a regular starting five. Pipili na lang si coach ng starters nya pag nakita ang first five ng kalaban," he attested. "For several times nga, he started me as a point-guard. and I couldn't do anything but to play well in that position."
Black agreed, saying coach baby is a master of players' substitution. "His high standard of coaching is what all the present coaches like myself are trying to achieve."
"I played for coach Baby in 1983 and he, not only was so good of motivating players, he was also solid with the X and Os as well." Black, who is now directing plays for the Meralco Bolts, attested.
Co, Patrimonio, Mariano and Patrimonio, a Purefoods mainstay in Baby's last year in coaching, on he other hand, swore to have been witnesses to their coach's strict disciplinary measures.
"Coach Baby is no. 1 on my list (as coach)," Fernandez, Jaworski's long time teammate at Toyota, remarked.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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