Through The Eye of the Needle

Once again. Ginebra is through the playoffs. After another fine start at the beginning of the season, the Kings went sputtering again in the homestretch of the eliminations. If not for their huge win against the Aces, Ginebra would have been in a deeper hole. Luckily, they find themselves with a twice-to-beat advantage in the first round of the playoffs against Global Port Batang Pier.

One win is all the Gins need to advance to the next stage of the quarterfinals where they will be facing the Talk n Text Tropang Texters. Ginebra defeated the Texters in the opening game of the season but it will be a different game this time around. Aside from that, the Texters ended the eliminations with a bang beating the Aces and the Beermen in succession to finish as the fourth seed.

So it looks like Ginebra is going to have to do it the hard way once again. It's the King's 23rd consecutive playoffs appearance. If I am not mistaken, they have beaten the record of the legendary Crispa Redmanizers in terms of playoff appearances. Throughout that streak, they have made it to the Finals only once during the 2013 Commissioner's Cup where they were swept by the Alaska Aces. During that year, they had to endure two do-or-die games. The most memorable one was when they climbed from a twice-to-beat disadvantage against Rain or Shine.

The road to their 9th title is indeed going to be tough for Ginebra. Should they manage to hurdle both the Batang Pier and the Texters, standing in their way is sister team San Miguel Beer, who is the conference top seed. San Miguel themselves is hungry for a title after years of futility. So if that series should happen, it's really going to be a war.

But if there is one team who can overcome tremendous odds, it's Barangay Ginebra. Millions of fans have been witnesses to numerous come back wins by the Kings. Who would ever forget the acrobatic shot of Rudy Distrito in 1991 that sealed the comeback win of Ginebra? How about the fight back of Barangay Ginebra in 2001 against San Miguel? Down 0-2 in the series, the gritty crew of the Kings led by Mark Caguioa, Jayjay Helterbrand and Eric Menk stormed through the next four games to win the series 4-2.