Curtain call for The Skyscraper?

When Marlou Aquino first came into basketball prominence in the early 90s, he wasn't sporting the "Kareem Abdul Jabbar-look" just yet and appeared more lanky at 6"9 than menacing. But then, he represented the country in international meets as an amaetur and quickly established himself as the most dominant center in the now defunct Philippine Basketball League with a still unmatched four Most Valuable Player citations.

This led to Aquino being selected first overall by Robert Jaworski Sr. of Ginebra San Miguel in the Philippine Basketball Association draft class of 1996 after gambling on 7"0 project E.J. Feihl the previous year (picking him 2nd overall and over future PBA stars such as Kenneth Duremdes and Jeffrey Cariaso). Aquino's addition quickly transformed the "Never-say-die" yet "never-a-contender" Gin Kings to a solid team to reckon with with his almost unguardable and signature "kili kili shots" and baby hooks.

The league soon recognized Aquino's abilities and awarded him Rookie of the Year in 1996 as well as PBA first team selections while leading Ginebra/ Gordon's Gin to three straight finals appearances ('96 Governor's Cup, '97 All Filipino and '97 Commissioner's) that resulted in a title. Aquino was so good, that he was considered as one of the cornerstone's of the PBA's 1998 Centennial Team that landed a bronze in the Asian Games.

In 1999 however, the PBA landscape took a massive change with the entrance of Fil-foreigners such as Asi Taulava (who would become Aquino's rival at the center position), Eric Menk and later on bigs such as Davonn Harp, Mick Pennisi and Dorian Pena.

Aquino led a couple of concerned locals in the fight versus Fil-fakes, but somewhere along those lines also seemed to lose his passion for playing competitive basketball. The 6"9 Pangasinan-born superstar soon found himself being dangled to other teams with expansion squad Red Bull and Santa Lucia at the forefront.

With Santa Lucia, Aquino formed the "Twin Towers" with fellow RP Youth standout Dennis Espino but failed to live up to huge expectations winning titles only twice in a span of more than five years. While there were still instances or flashes of brilliance (usually when his contract is up), it became pretty obvious that Aquino started slacking off and was going through the motions.

Say what you will, and I'm pretty sure that Aquino himself would dismiss such reports, but being a Santa Lucia fan for the longest time-- we all know that it took a lot out of the Realtors' coaching and even management staff to get Aquino to focus on the task at hand. Sure enough, when Santa Lucia disbanded and was bought by Meralco, SLR heads had to lobby hard for Aquino.

How low has Aquino fallen you ask?

When head coach Ryan Gregorio came on board, his first task was to try and get a big man (who turned out to be an equally aging yet still servicable Asi Taulava). That in itself shows how much confidence the Meralco management had on Aquino.

Recent reports have it that Aquino was released by the Bolts' this offseason and is looking for one more shot at glory. Question is, who would want a 6"9 slacker with a long history of off-court politicking?