Everyone’s gunning for Ginebra

This writer has been making the rounds of PBA team practices, both to find stories for The STAR and features for The Basketball Show. And it is no surprise that the consensus among the teams is that Barangay Ginebra is the team to beat, what with their acquisition of Billy Mamaril, Rafi Reavis and Rudy Hatfield. One coach even looked at me with utter incredulity, as if it weren’t even a question.

But, talking to the Gin King’s head coach Jong Uichico, you get the sense that he still has a lot of work to do, and not much time to do it in. After spending the better part of 13 years with San Miguel Beer’s franchise, he’s slowly getting used to putting on a different uniform when he goes to work. He is literally starting from scratch, although he has a heck of a talent pool to start with. But there are some things that may take a bit more time.

"First is building relationships with the players," Uichico reveals. "We’ve built relationships with the players of San Miguel for the past 8, 9, 10 years. Second is the style of play. The style of play that Ginebra is used to and the style of play that San Miguel is used to are two entirely different styles. We’re trying to strike a balance, without taking away Ginebra’s strength."

Since Ginebra started practice earlier than most other teams, they’ve got a head start in terms of teamwork and conditioning. Uichico says that they’re in pretty good shape physically, but are still trying to build their chemistry while adapting a new system.

"The trip to Brunei helped us a lot, discovering our weaknesses and our strengths," Uichico says. "It helped them adjust to me as a coach, and helped me adjust to them. We’re taking this pre-season tournament of the PBA to get to know everyone better, and see how they’ll play with each other."

Although the general impression is that he basically just has to roll out a basketball and watch his powerhouse team steamroll the competition, it’s far more complicated than that. Each player has to understand how to participate in the process of winning. Ginebra knows that a star-studded team is fertile ground for intrigue and complaints about playing time and scoring opportunities.

"First and foremost is for me to find the players’ niche in the system," the champion coach of San Miguel Beer explains. "Second is the sacrifice of the players. Because we’re overloaded in certain positions, one or two have to sacrifice until we find the right rotation and right role-playing. Basically those are the two most important things I have to tackle first."

On another matter, Uichico denied rumors that the Gin Kings are trying to unload center Romel Adducul. According to team management, they don’t know who started the rumors, but they haven’t made any moves in that direction.

"We’re not initiating anything. I’ve talked to Romel, and he doesn’t want to be traded," Uichico declares. "Just because we seem overloaded in certain positions doesn’t mean we want to trade anybody. Why would we want to trade Romel, when he’s the only legitimate center we have aside from Eric Menk who can score inside?"

At least three teams – Talk ’N Text, Air21 and Welcoat – have reportedly expressed interest in acquiring the 6’6" former Asian Basketball Confederation All-Star. But Uichico says nothing concrete has come up, more so since some teams think that they can get Adducul for a song since his team is loaded with quality players.

"We’re just standing here, and they’re the ones approaching us," he elaborates. "But for us to even think about it, it would have to be something really tempting. If not, don’t even think about it."

Uichico is in the unenviable position of steering the league’s crowd favorite. And with the abundance of talent that he has, describing his position as "the hot seat" is an understatement.

"There’s much pressure for me to win right away," Uichico admits. "Especially because it’s Ginebra. Not because it’s me, but because anyone who coaches Ginebra is expected to win right away. Yun lang. It’s part of the job, and we just have to do what is called for."

But what may be called for is a championship, immediately. And that is definitely the biggest difference in coaching Ginebra these days.