Last Sunday, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel suffered its fourth straight loss 87-69 in the hands of the Alaska Aces. As a diehard fan, it was a painful sight to watch. A team that has the reigning MVP, a spitfire point guard, two promising rookies, and several other young guys being blown off the court. Being a follower of the team for ages, I knew something was missing-- there was no passion, no heart, more importantly, the "never say die" spirit that endeared the team to its millions of fans was likewise absent. As I saw the team being badly beaten, a lot of questions entered my mind but one thing was clear: something was wrong.
Ginebra was one of the most aggressive teams in beefing up their line-up during the offseason. They got two impressive rookies in the draft in the person of Chris Ellis and Keith Jensen, then they traded away John Wilson and KG Canaleta in order to get LA Tenorio. On paper, they had one of the deepest bench in the league which all the more made me excited about the upcoming season.
They opened the new season with a 20-point blowout of Global Port then got payback against Rain or Shine. Then that's where the slide came. It all started with Meralco and Barako-- two teams that they used to beat easily. Then came their loss to Petron. In that game, it all boiled down to the very last play when MC47 missed a potential game-tying three pointer. The Alaska game was one of the most forgetable games for me as a fan.
Looking around the different social media sites, one cannot really seem to decipher what's wrong with the team? Chemistry perhaps. Gone are the old players and the Ginebra team now is composed of a mix of young and veteran players. Some say it's the system. From a defensive team, Ginebra is returning to its roots of being a run-and-gun team. Most put the blame on the coach due to his poor rotation of players.
I know I am not an authority on this but adjustments need to be made in order to turn things around for Ginebra. Four straight losses is alarming but it's never too late when it comes to Ginebra. they're a "never say die" team for nothing. It's still early in the conference and I know as a long-time follower of the team that they can still bounce back.
So if you ask me. Don't count out my Ginebra team yet. Yes, they may be down for now but not out. All it takes is one breakthrough game to get them going.
