Wonderful Iron Man Tenyente LA Tenorio
By Eddie Alinea of The Manila Times
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 23 Dec 2020
LA Tenorio.
The first thing to establish about LA Tenorio is that there really is one.
Tenyente is 5 feet 9, weighs 152 lbs., has five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot and a nice smile. He’s quite mortal and made up of about 87 cents’ worth of iron, calcium, antimony and whatever base metal a human being like the rest of us is composed of although in his case, it’s put together a little better than us.
All this is important to know in talking to basketball people because when you mention Tenyente LA to them, several things happen. Listening to them, at the very least, you think they’re describing one of their own hallucinations – a combination of Hector Calma, Allan Caidic and Alvin Patriminio.
LA Tenorio is so good the other players don’t even resent him. They have had his name in Philippine Basketball Association’s Hall of Fame since he wore a PBA for the first time.
He was drafted by San Miguel Beer during the PBA Rookie Draft in 2006, from the amateur ranks. He played for Magnolia and Alaska before landing a spot with Barangay Ginebra in 2012.
LA has never missed a single game since the Beermen chose him as a fourth overall pick and, after 13 years as a pro, inscribed his name in the play-for-pay’s history by emerging the only second man on earth to crown himself pro-league’s Iron Man.
The then 34-year-old Gin Kings’ point guard played his 597th consecutive game one in the 2019 PBA Philippine Cup at Smart erasing from the book former teammate’s Alvin Patrimonio’s previous record.
In Game 5 of Ginebra’s best of seven gold medal series with Talk ‘N Text, where the Gin Kings took the Philippine Cup diadem, Tenorio recorded his 663rd game, the second longest streak in the world and 429 short of A.C. Green’s NBA mark established in 15 years he had seen action in the hardcourt.
And Tenyente, who turned 36 last July 9, can match or even surpass Green’s standard set when the American was 38 years old, two years from now. If he will, still be playing then.
Which he vowed he will.
But did you know that the incredible feat of durability almost didn’t happen?
Tenyente, in an interview with THE MANILA TIMES a week ago, revealed he planned not to join the Kings when they made it to New Clark City for the bubble due to a couple of personal and family reasons.
First, his wife Chesca had just given birth to their fourth child, their first baby girl, and second, he has just gone under knife for an appendectomy days before he had a week prior to the team’s departure.
Only the prodding of PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, SMC sports director and Ginebra governor Alfrancis Chua and Chesca made his change his mind.
“Chesca, especially,” LA told this writer. “She told me ayos na naman ang lahat tapos niyang manganak and like ComWillie and coach Al, she said I owe it to both the PBA and Ginebra fans na nandoon ako.”
“She said I don’t need naman to play long as I had been noong healthy ako. My mere presence in the bench would be enough,” Tenyente recalled Chesca was saying.
“So iyon, nakonsensya ako at naitanong ko sa sarili ko, bakit pa nga ba ako tinawag na Iron Man kung hindi ko kayang gampanan ang big sabihin noon,” he reasoned out.
Lewis Alfred Vasquez Tenorio was born Juy 9, 1984 at the United Doctors Medical Center in Manila second in a brood of three of Arthur, a retired airport supervisor, Iluminada of Nasugbu, Batangas. His to eldest sister is Annie-Lou, while the youngest is Lambert, also played ball at Ateneo.
He and Chesca, sister of former LA Blue Eagle teammate Paolo, were married in 2010 and the union produced three sons -- Santi, 8 years old,; Sian, 7; and Lucas, 3 and only girl Solana Therese.
It was said his life used to be 95 percent basketball and the rest movies. When he got married, the ratio went down. His playing life became only 93 percent and 7 percent family.
Besides being the only man in history to play more than 600 games, Tenyente is, too, a six-time PBA champion, four-time Finals MVP, 2013 Best Player of Conference PBA Best Player of the Conference (Commissioner's Cup).
He, too, is a nine-time All-Stasr, two-time Mythical First Team, two-time Mythical Second Team, 2010 Misat Improved Player, 2007 All-rookie Team, 20`7 Order of Merit, 2012 Jones Cup gold medalist and MVP and 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea of The Manila Times.
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