Looking back at the career of Jawo
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 07 Mar 2014
Fans no longer see him holding the basketball. Never see the grinning sentinel circling the defenders around, dribbling the ball like a yo-yo then suddenly execute a behind-the-back, no look pass to an open teammate for a jumper or unopposed under goal stab.
Two years ago, Robert Jaworski?s famous no. 7 jersey was retired by Barangay Ginebra, the team he piloted to four Philippine Basketball Association championships as a playing-coach, one All-Filipino and three import-laced conferences.
On his 68th birthday, his legion of fans, who followed his playing career as a 6-foot-2 guard of the University of the East Warriors in the UAAP, Yco and Meralco in the MICAA, Toyota in the PBA, who can also play all positions can also reminisce his kind of game, his intensity and incomparable never-say-die attitude that earned for him the honor as basketball?s ?Living Legend.?
Jaworski, the most popular players Philippine basketball has produced, who is also one of the most recognizable athletes one these shores, will also be remembered as a member of the Philippine Senate in the Eleventh Congress, have authored Republic Act No. 9064 otherwise known as the ?National Athletes, Coaches and Trainers Benefits and Incentives Act of 2001,? or ?Sports Benefits and Incentives Act of 2001. ?
Jaworski is to be remembered, too, as the man who thought of establishing and making into law RA 8757 or the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame, which is supposed to enshrine Filipino athletes, coaches and trainer who have distinguished themselves in their particular field of sports. The act, signed into law by then President Estrada on November 25, 1999, is yet to be implemented though.
The man, who answers to so many nicknames as ?Sonny,? or ?The Big J,? or ?Jawo, but who will forever be dubbed as ?The Living Legend, ? played and gave basketball the popularity like no other, which until now, 17 years after hanging his basketball uniform, the sport his countrymen love most, still carries.
That Jawo loves basketball, in particular, and sports, in general, he displayed when, shortly before his term as a senator ended, filed a bill creating the Philippine Sports Institute, which according to him, could have partly addressed what was lacking the current Philippine Sports Commission.
The proposed bill was, actually, a part of another bill establishing the Philippine Sports Authority aimed at replacing the PSC. The PSA, however, could only reach as far as the third reading, leading him instead to file separate bills that gave birth to the Athletes and Coaches Incentives Law and the Hall of Fame.
From the sandlots of Pandacan, the charismatic, Baguio City-born Jaworski first wanted to play for the Far Eastern University and actually tried out for membership of then coach Peping Yee?s quintet that was already filled with talents as Engracio ?Boy? Arazas and Turo Velenzona. Top mention a pair, in the guard position.
In what turned out to be a welcome twist of fate, he landed a berth in coach Baby Dalupan?s U.E. Warriors, but only after spending a year?s residency sine he was already enrolled at FEU. From UE, which he led to UAAP title conquests from 1965 to 1958 besides gifting, too, the Dalupan family-owned institutions a number of intercollegiate crowns, the rest was history.
After graduating from college, he played for Yco-Tanduay, leading the Elizade franchise to four championships out of six finals appearances before transferring to Meralco where he was involved in an inside the court melee when he and teammate Big Boy Reynoso punched a referee in what he later said ?for fairness and fair play.?
Living among Manila?s poorest in Pandacan thought the Big J how to succeed in life.
?That was the most significant moment in my life. Living among the most indigent sector of our society for it taught me the real meaning of discipline, hard work and sacrifice, besides learning, too, to do my best in whatever undertaking I involve myself in to succeed,? he once told this writer.
Basketball, actually, was not the sport Jawo had in mind to indulge himself in. Being a small boy at the Roxas High School, he played softball and baseball, besides trying his hands, too, in swimming and track and field.
?Before finishing high school, I started to grow up, so my interest shifted to basketball,? he related.
Self-disciplined and determination to bounce back from one adversity to another marked Jaworski?s career as a basketball player. Twice, as an amateur, his career was nearly cut off. First was when he suffered a bad fall head first in a game. The other was when he and Reynoso were banned for life by the Basketball Association of the Philippines because of that punching incident.
?That punching incident, well, pinagsisihan ko na yun. Mali. Hindi dapat mangyari. I accepted the verdict but appealed my case. We were even hailed to court,? he recalled. ?The ban was lifted eventually, good.?
?But what I resented was 36 other players were suspended for game-fixing. Yet, their suspension was lifted ahead of me. Eh hindi naman ako nandaya. Hindi naman ako yumari ng laro. Unfair, di ba?? he rued.
?Anyways, my only consolation was that while those game-fixers went to complete oblivion, I remained in the basketball scene and our people?s consciousness up to now. Bagamat nagkamali ako, hindi naman ako kinamuhian at iniwasan,? he said.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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