Cardona: Long time coming

When James Yap came into the league, he was groomed as an instant superstar ready to take on the national basketball scene with his F4-worthy good looks, combination of size, shooting and speed. To his credit, Yap was hailed as the best player from the South and so on. It also helped that he was linked and then married (and now separated from) to media-attention whore(for a lack of a better term) Kris Aquino.

What people fail to realize is that his two Most Valuable Player awards are quite dubious (teammate Kerby Raymundo should’ve won the first one, and do-it-all forwards Jay Washington or Kelly Williams the second last year). His shooting percentage is at an abysmal 39.5% and his three point shooting, which people say he is so good at, a mortal-like 31.9%.

It should also be noted that for such a “great” player, he spent most of his UAAP days “cramping up” in the fourth quarter of tight games that his team, the University of the East Red Warriors, needed to win (Ronald Tubid was the best player on that team, Artadi comes in at second in my book).

Now, while all that is happening, people forgot about Yap’s contemporary who was basically the most dominant two-guard in college. Not only could he score at will, but he also played defense like a dog (a very annoying, pesky one at that). Perhaps the credit he deserved was lost because he played for such a prestigious school with a great basketball program. Or because quit simply, his is a face, swagger and attitude that is just hard to love/ accept if you’re not a fan of the game or an alumni.

Yes, I’m talking about Mac Cardona.

When he was taken into the league by Air21 and later on traded to Talk N Text, Cardona had to share the spotlight with Willie Miller. Once Miller was out of the way, Cardona still had to defer to established veterans Jimmy Alapag and Asi Taulava, when Taulava was traded, TNT brought in a slew of scorers which forced MC to defer yet again.

But now that he is with the Meralco Bolts, we are finally able to see who and what Mac Cardona is all about. Forget all the fruity words his new coach Ryan Gregorio says, the career averages don’t lie: in 28.9 minutes per game, Cardona is good for 46.6% from the field and 34.3% from deep.

That’s a huge improvement over Yap who plays more minutes, shoots more and misses more from everywhere on the court (so much for the “Man with a million moves” tag huh?). What Meralco has with Cardona is a proven fighter and winner, someone who isn’t afraid to keep on pulling the trigger, and is a tribute to the scorers of old who are not worried about this new international trend of “pass-the-ball” basketball.

Hell no.

If you’re a good scorer and has a patented shot that can’t be stopped, then by all means, be that guy. Be the new Nelson Asaytono.

But you know what’s good about Cardona (who I always thought was Terry Saldana’s lovechild when he was still bald, with the headband and high socks for DLSU. Lol), is that he has proven time and again that he plays both ends of the court. He is not a great one on one defender, but he is as pesky as they come. To his credit, he also doesn’t gamble on defense and stays locked on his man or at whatever zone he is assigned to.

Now if only other teams could let loose the reigns on Joseph Yeo and Gary David—the other two last “pure” scorers in the PBA.