Samboy Skywalker in Tiger City

MANILA, Philippines - On weekend mornings at the Dumlao gym along Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City, you can catch Samboy Lim, one of the PBA’s 25 greatest players in the first quarter century of its existence, deep in classes of his eponymous basketball academy, teaching the rudiments and secrets of the game to teens and pre-teens.

Drills and conditioning are a given to any athlete, Samboy says, so what he teaches is something extra, that which gives a player advantage over an opponent.

The boys are 20 to 30 in a class, in two-hour sessions. Saturdays are for beginners, on Sundays are two classes – graduates of the absolute beginners, pre-teens as young as 6 years old, and finally the teenagers and budding players of juniors teams if they aren’t in leagues and school intramurals already.

“This is my passion,” Samboy, 52, says, sounding like he’s found his calling during life in retirement, years after hanging up his high tops from professional ball.

The Samboy Lim Basketball Academy started around a decade ago as a summer basketball camp, then gradually gathered steam, became a regular weekend affair, and summers were so saturated they had to hold classes every day. Dumlao gym was chosen because Mandaluyong is accessible from other cities – “Sentro eh,” says Samboy, who might live nearby.

The academy also offers personalized tutoring, to enable a player to take his game to the next level. “Sometimes, bench warmers come to us asking to help them improve their game so their coach will use them more,” he says.

“There are times when you have to seize the opportunity when the coach fields you in a game, and try to make the most of it, split second decisions when to attack the basket in open court situation or when to pull back to reset,” Samboy says in Tagalog, in between classes and scrimmages with the young army of dribbling dervishes, along with a gaggle of assistants including his younger brother Bon Lim, former point guard of the Letran Knights.

“We teach mindset, preparations, how to approach a game,” Lim, also a former Knight, says, adding the opportunity to impress coach with a game changing move might never come again.

He doesn’t rely so much on pre-game superstition as he does on focus and concentration, as well as technique in actual game situations.

He mentions the game winning free throws of Paul Lee that gave Gilas Pilipinas the bronze in the recent FIBA Asia Cup, an example of tough minded focus. “If he felt even an ounce of nervousness, he would have missed one free throw, or two,” he says.

Gilas is good, he says, because it raises awareness for the game. Even the growing number of teams in the NCAA – where his alma mater Knights are not faring so well of late – and PBA is also good, because that means more players being given a chance to play.

Samboy is himself no stranger to the international arena, having been in the Jones Cup winning championship team of Northern Consolidated in the mid-80s, which featured imports Chip Engelland, Jeff Moore and Dennis Still, and several other players who would also be his teammates in the grand slam winning San Miguel Beer of 1989, like Yves Dignadice, Hector Calma and Elmer Reyes.

Those were high points in his playing career, Samboy says, reminiscing about Northcon’s Jones Cup conquest, the San Mig slam, and the Letran Knights’ own NCAA slam from 1982-84 with teammate Romeo Ang and coach Larry Albano.

“I learned many things from coach Larry,” Samboy says, noting he picked up some precious nuggets of court wisdom and court smarts from his other coaches too, like Ron Jacobs (Northcon), Norman Black (San Mig) and Sonny Jaworski in the silver medal winning Asiad team in 1990.

He himself has not tried his hand at actual coaching since he’s more involved in the basketball academy. His stint on the bench of Ginebra was not as an assistant but as team manager.

As for injuries, which plagued much of the Skywalker’s career, he says that sometimes these are inevitable, “‘di mo rin masabi,” pointing to the recent horrific injury of Paul George who broke his shin in a Team USA scrimmage.

Every player has to deal with it at some point, he says, dare deviltry or no hard court dare deviltry. If not for injuries, it is common perception that Samboy could have easily won an MVP award in the PBA. As things stand, he could be the best PBA player never to have won most valuable player.

Now he is something of a most valuable teacher of the game, with kids flocking around him to learn the secrets of the blow by. Or how to seemingly walk on air, leaving the defense in the dust. The word Skywalker is written on the training jerseys of nearly all participants in this weekend camp.

Was it the late Joe Cantada or Pinggoy Pengson who coined the epithet? It stuck, and became even more associated with Samboy than with the original Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill in the movie Star Wars.

Up next is the PBA legends game abroad, basketball clinics in Dubai, new exposures. The game has changed a lot since his playing days, he says, as it has become more scientific, less oido. Abilidad, however, is on a case to case basis.

“That kid is really gifted,” he says of Ateneo Blue Eagle Kiefer Ravena, son of his old SMB teammate Bong Ravena and a volleyball playing mom. He remembers that Kiefer and the sons of fellow Beerman Alvin Teng – Jeron and Jeric – were just tots when they used to tag along the team’s games and practices, the next generation rising early and precocious in the game.

He has reservations too about the use of imports in the college league, saying even if it’s legal and allowed in the rules, this gives teams an advantage. Letran has consistently opted not to use imports. The academy, on the other hand, has a number of Fil-Am balikbayan enrollees, who might one day make an impact in their respective leagues.

But on this rainy Sunday morning the young skywalkers are alright and eager to shoot hoops with Samboy, no April fool, in the hope that they may be walking on sunshine like their idol someday.