Talk ‘N’ Text coach Chot Reyes said the other day Ryan Reyes could’ve been a third co-MVP with Jimmy Alapag and Jason Castro in the recent PBA Philippine Cup finals because of the heart that he displayed in playing his guts out despite grieving over his younger brother’s death.
“I know it’s never happened before, choosing three co-MVPs, but not to take anything away from Jimmy and Jason who deserved the honor, Ryan could’ve been cited, too,” said Reyes. “He came off the plane to play 38 minutes in Game 4 and would’ve finished on the floor if not for cramps. The guy who comes closest to my mind in playing like Ryan did is Rudy Hatfield – their spirit, relentlessness, willingness to sacrifice their body. Ryan was unbelievable in the finals. My most memorable finals moment was when he tipped in a shot over Dondon Hontiveros late in the fourth quarter of Game 4.”
Reyes said the team dedicated the title series to the Texters’ guard whose brother Alan was killed in a car accident in Anaheim three days before Game 1. “Our brother lost a brother,” said Reyes. “We didn’t want Ryan to experience another loss.”
Reyes, who captured his sixth PBA title and second with the Tropa, singled out three factors that sealed the Philippine Cup championship over San Miguel Beer in six games. “First was our defensive pressure,” he said. “Second was our stamina. We had younger legs. We were in good shape. Our conditioning was excellent. And third, we did the little things that mattered. Kelly (Williams) was willing to sacrifice his scoring to defend Jay-Wash (Jay Washington) and rebound. Aaron Aban coming in with six seconds left in the quarter, getting an offensive rebound and giving us another possession to score. Harvey Carey diving for the loose ball. Ryan switching to defend Arwind (Santos) at the three spot. Those little things made a difference because it meant everybody contributed to the team effort.”
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Reyes said while Game 5 was clearly the turning point, winning Game 2 was crucial. “After we won Game 2, I was convinced the series would go to a Game 6,” he said. “Our goal was to lengthen the series because we knew we had the advantage in a long finals. When San Miguel tied it at 2-2, I wasn’t too worried. I felt we could’ve won Game 4, if we didn’t make two bad decisions in the last two minutes, if we made our free throws, if Ryan didn’t cramp. When I coached Coca-Cola, we were up 2-0 against Talk ‘N’ Text then got swept. The same thing happened when I coached San Miguel against Ginebra. But I was also down 0-2 against Alaska then we swept the next four games. So I wasn’t worried about history.”
Reyes, 47, said playing B-Meg in the semifinals provided a lesson for the San Miguel series.
“Against B-Meg, we proved that we could withstand the scoring onslaught of a big scorer in James Yap if we took care of the others,” said Reyes. “I thought we did a good job of limiting P. J. Simon in the semis. Against San Miguel, we knew how difficult it is to contain Jay-Wash so we concentrated on stopping Alex Cabagnot and Arwind. We saw how Arwind was so effective when San Miguel won Games 3 and 4. So in Game 5, we made a key defensive adjustment to put Ryan on Arwind. We did the same thing in Game 6. We played Jimmy, Jason and Ryan together a lot starting in Game 5. We knew San Miguel wouldn’t be able to keep up with their speed. We were down 10 or 12 points early in Game 5 and I thought of playing that card. I was saving that adjustment of playing three guards. We wanted to pick up the pace. The series was all about adjustments.”
Reyes said the Texters were inspired to win by team owner Manny V. Pangilinan.
“After Game 5, Mr. Pangilinan took the team out for dinner,” related Reyes. “We were a win away from clinching but you didn’t hear anything from him about it. No pressure. It was typical MVP. All he asked was how he could help the team, what we needed. He didn’t want us to stray from our focus. He just wanted to tell us that he’s always around to do what he can for us.”
Alapag, Castro and Reyes averaged a combined 38.7 points, 14 assists and 12.7 rebounds in the finals. As a threesome, they shot .414 from the field, .738 from the line and .391 from three-point range. Their impact was significant as they averaged 31 minutes each throughout the title series.
Reyes missed Game 3 to attend his brother’s funeral in Los Angeles but returned to average 13.7 points the rest of the way. Reyes wound up averaging 12.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 31.6 minutes in five games during the finals.