This season, though, things are starkly different.
Half the team is gone, among them Christian Cabatu, Mika Vainio, Cholo Villanueva and the injured BJ Manalo. Also gone but not forgotten is Willy Wilson, whose abrupt departure not only from La Salle, but also from its PBL team ICTSI, has been overlooked by many. Some simply assumed Wilson was part of a group of Green Archers who threw away last year’s championship in exchange for money. "I’ve never been offered," he said. "No one even came up to me and said oh! will give you this or will give you that, I’ve never been presented with the chance, so that came to me as a shock when I found out about that game-fixing or game-selling or whatever you want to call it."
Nobody really explained to Wilson when he was suddenly sent to Sunkist-Pampanga. He was simply and coldly told that he would be moving within a week. "They said they had to make room for the younger players of La Salle to help them improve or whatever they need to improve with so I don’t know if they were shopping me around to trade me to another PBL team or what. But I ended up being released by ICTSI."
Perhaps, the most painful–the arrow through his heart-was the lingering scent of the accusations that he is a game-fixer. Even more damning was the reality that some members of the team believed it, but nobody ever ask Willy to his face. "When I first heard the rumors, I was somewhat shocked but when I started to think about it, I can see why these rumors would come about" Wilson realized. "Because of the way I was playing towards the end of the season my numbers were falling and my minutes per game were also falling specially in the game three of the finals. I mean what can you say I really played a bad game."
In slow, measured tones the Fil-Am forward expresses his pain for the first time in this exclusive with The STAR. He dreamed of being the first in his school to win five straight UAAP titles. Instead, he experienced betrayal, abandonment and loneliness. His greatest lesson is one of mistrust. "I don’t put so much trust in people because you can be with somebody, around someone for five whole years, and then the last year...they can just turn their back on you. Someone you could’ve considered a father figure to you... someone could’ve considered your guardian but somebody that you felt that was close to you–and basically you look up to–they can just turn their back on you...do a quick 180 and not even look back on it."
With the surprising number of eligible Green Archers having left the team, one wonders what is going on. Then again, all of these questions will be swept away like leaves in the monsoon rain as long as De La Salle remains successful. But not Willy Wilson’s emotional scars, or his shattered memories.