Source: GMANEWS
Manila Electric Company (Meralco), a company with rich basketball tradition, has expressed interest in joining the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
A source from the company, who requested anonymity, disclosed that the group of businessman/sportsman Manuel V. Pangilinan had already announced to some key company employees its plan to participate in the PBA.
Pangilinan’s PLDT group owns majority of the shares of Meralco, the Philippines’ largest power distributor.
Pangilinan is also running the affairs of Talk ‘N Text in the PBA and if ever Meralco enters the pro league, it will become a sister company of the Tropang Texters.
“Mr. Pangilinan already made the announcement [of the intent to field a team in the PBA]," the source told GMANEWS.TV.
“Of course, Meralco isn’t new to the sport being one of the most popular teams in the old Micaa [Manila Industrial Commercial Athletic Association]. Aside form basketball, the company also has different groups involved in sports, particularly running," the source added.
Whether Meralco, champion in the 1971 Micaa wars, will enter as an expansion team or buy one of the existing franchises in the PBA remains a big question. The PBA is planning to expand its participating squads from 10 to 12 by 2011.
Out to relive basketball glory
Meralco used to be a household name in local basketball, particularly in the pre-PBA days.
Then known as the Reddie Kilowatts, Meralco was the fierce rival of the fabled Crispa Redmanizers and predecessor of the Komatsu Comets, who would later be known as the Toyota Comets, the team that would carry the tradition of the squad until it entered the PBA in 1975.
The most popular figure of the Meralco squad was none other than Robert Jaworski, who drew both praises and flak in his stint as a Reddie Kilowatt. Other prominent members of the team included Francis Arnaiz, brothers Alberto and Tino Reynoso, Orly Bauzon, Alfonso Marquez, Jimmy Mariano and Larry Mumar. Handling the team was Lauro “The Fox" Mumar.
In 1971, Meralco won the MICAA championship, but its darkest moments also came that same year when two of its leading players – Jaworski and Big Boy Reynoso – were banned for life by Basketball Association of the Philippines president Lito Puyat and the Micaa for two years.
The two figured in an infamous mauling of referees Joe Obias and Edilberto Cruz in the game against the Floro Redmanizers in December 1971.
In his chronicle on the site MYPBA, basketball historian Jay P. Mercado recounted that the mauling of referees Obias and Cruz started when the former called a “dubious foul" on Reynoso.
“Some of the players were returning after the Philippines placed second in the 1971 Asian Basketball Confederation held in Tokyo, Japan," Mercado, a long-time basketball follower and now working as Human Resources Manager of one of the leading fastfood companies, recalled.
“Then, Crispa and Meralco met and as usual, it was an intense match with Crispa leading, 65-50, entering the final 12 minutes of the second half. Reynoso went berserk after he was called a dubious foul by Obias, who got sideswiped by Jaworski near the Meralco bench. A mini-riot then occurred."
Meralco disbanded in the aftermath of Jaworski and Reynoso’s suspension, but they were reinstated in 1973 upon the intercession of then President Ferdinand Marcos’ assistant Gimo De Vera.
Jaworski and Reynoso’s reinstatement proved to be a big boost to the Philippine men’s basketball team as the Filipinos were able to reclaim the ABC crown over Korea in the 1973 tournament held at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. - GMANews.TV
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