SMBeer’s PBA Philippine Cup dynasty ended
By Eddie Alinea of The Manila Times
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 16 Nov 2020
The inevitable happened!
The San Miguel Beer dynasty in the PBA Philippine Cup has ended. And the man, who helped the Beermen attained that status as the best All-Filipino aggrupation in the land became, too, the guy behind its fall.
Coach Norman Black and his Meralco Bolts, on a cold Sunday night at the Angeles University Foundation Sports and Cultural Center in Pampanga, home of the on-going Philippine Cup bubble, dealt the undermanned Beermen a masterful 90-68 beating.
The triumph denied the Beermen of what could have been its six straight title conquest and Coach Leo Austria his as many All-Filipino titles.
Black, who has made the Philippines his home since arriving here 39 years ago, had actually gifted the Ramon S. Ang-owned San Miguel Corp. franchise its first taste of the most prestigious tournament the country’s first play-for-pay league has, except in few cases, regularly been offering annually for the last 45 years in 1989.
It was also that year that the Beermen ruled all three Conferences in the PBA 1989 calendar, becoming only the second team then, outside of the legendary Crispa Redmanizers to romp off with a Grand Slam.
Coach Norm, who is married to former Filipina singer Benjie Davila in a union that produced a son Aaron, a PBA rookie, and a lawyer-daughter Dominique, duplicated that feat two more times in 1992 and 1994 although he is credited with six more championships of SMB’s all-time overall total 27 Conference plums.
Besides his three All-Filipino titles, the former Detroit Pistons mainstay in the U.S. NBA , likewise, stashed away with the 1987 Reinforced Conference crown, 1988 Open and 1988 Reinforced Conferences diadems, 1989 Open and Reinforced crowns as well as the 1993 Governors’ Cup banner.
Black, who played for three different PBA teams before turning to mentoring, also coached eight teams in the PBA, including Sta. Lucia Realty, which he gifted with the 2001 Governor’s Cup pennant.
As a player, local media men gave him the moniker “Mr. 100%” because of his penchant to always give his best every time he saw action.
During the 1985 season, while playing for the Magnolia Quench Plus, a SMB subsidiary, he averaged 43.5 points per game and highlighted by a career high 76 points in one game.
Born Norman Augustus Black, he celebrated his 63rd birthday with his boys last Thursday, November 12 in one of the Quests Hotel’s dining places in the absence of his family.
Meralco’s conquest of one of the semifinal slots, brings to two the teams of the Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) in contention for the title abandoned by the Beermen in what could serve as signal, too, of the Group’s bid to finally end the RSA Group’s six-year domination of the sport Filipinos’ love most.
The last time a team financed by the MVP business conglomerate won a championship was in 2014 when the then Katropang Texters, then handled by ex-SMBeer coach Jong Uichico, won that season’s Commissioner’s Cup.
Hostilities in the Final four start on Wednesday with the Tropang Giga playing the Fuel Marters at 3:45 p.m and the Bolts taking on the Ginebra Gin Kings, the same team that deprived Coach Norm and his Bolts the Governors’ Cup thrice AT 6:454 P.M.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea of The Manila Times.
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