"We just had to come together," recalled team owner Mikee Romero. "You could see it in practice. You had the Ateneo players on one side, the La Salle players on another side, and the rest of the players. And we couldn’t force them to be together. It just had to happen on its own."
It came to the point that, during one particularly physical session, two of their frontline players actually came to blows. One of them landed a punch that produced a black eye, the other fought back with a karate chop that left the recipient gasping for breath.
"All of us on the coaching staff were rugged players, too," laughed team manager Rafa Dinglasan, a former De La Salle Green Archer. "So we let them go at it, get it out of their system. They weren’t going to kill each other."
True enough, after the emotions died down, the two giants apologized to each other and became close friends. That helped the team with the transition to winning.
"With superstars like LA Tenorio and Joseph Yeo, we knew it was just a matter of time," says Romero, who also plays for a three-time champion team in the La Salle alumni league. "It was going to happen. We just had to give them the right mindset, one game at a time."
So they won one game then another, and another, with the players slowly learning to trust each other. Instead of one hogging the ball, the guards started helping each other to score. Head coach Jorge Gallent’s system started falling into place.
"He (Gallent) was very down," Romero reveals. "I was in the States, and we spoke. I told him, just give me what you can. You can do it."
As the team started to develop its chemistry, the personal issues of some of the players had to be addressed. Aside from the spectacular array of guards, one of the keys was the rebounding of Fil-Am Robbie Reyes.
"He would get impatient when he didn’t get the ball," Dinglasan confirmed. "And when we were losing, he would complain. But we told him, on this team, we don’t need you to score. Just give us ten rebounds, and we’ll be happy."
One of the adjustments some of the players had to make was the physical play in the PBL. Even some of the former pros had to make the adjustments.
"I remember Gec Chia, when he first came over, was getting bumped a lot, and it hurt his game," Romero adds. "But he came alive in the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. He really helped."
To climb to the top, Harbour Centre had to survive the quarterfinals, and beat the top two teams in the league, the Montaña Jewels and, in the finals, the Toyota Otis Sparks. Neither was an easy task.
"We realized that, when you spread the ball around, you win," Dinglasan concurs. "Now, they were purposely looking for each other. And even when we had smaller players, they were outrebounding the other teams.
Tenorio, Yeo, Reyes, Mark Isip and Chico Lanete are bound for the PBA Draft, so the challenge for the Portmasters is to maintain the winning with a brand-new team next season, which starts in October.
"I like that challenge," says Romero. "I think that would be fun. We have to scout players really well. But I think we can do it."
Now, with a title under their belts, doing it again won’t seem so formidable a challenge.
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The PBL Unity Cup finals will be on tomorrow’s edition of The Basketball Show, at 2 p.m. over RPN 9.