No room for the Hook?

Hay brad, ano pa ba kelangan kong
gawin para masali sa Gilas?

The way things are going, the Meralco Bolts’ franchise player- MacMac Cardona needs to go on a scoring binge ala KKS Bataan Bomber Gary David to ever be considered into the National team training pool. 

In 2009, Cardona made a case for a spot in the National team (that ultimately went to Cyrus Baguio who then proceeded to make a superstar out of himself in FIBA play) by going berserk for the Talk ‘n’ Text Tropang Texters. They weren’t the dominant team that they are the last two years, but they were damn good with Captain Hook proving to be an elite scorer in the PBA. 


Fast forward to 2012 and Cardona still faces the same old demons that have plagued both his amateur and professional careers— haters have repeatedly called him out as a ballhog, arrogant, unable to play in a system, one-dimensional and so on. 

Ironically though, those same things can be said about a player who is revered by most because of his style of play and attitude. That player is no other than Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa. 

Though the dribbling skills will always and undoubtedly sway in Caguioa’s favor, him and Cardona are but cut from the same cloth—scorers in every sense of the word. The NBA PR team calls such guys “Closers” or those who can dilly-dally in the first two or three quarters but eventually take over games with a “take no prisoners” mentality come the fourth. 

Yes, this writer agrees that with the current crop of players being considered for SMART Gilas 2 duty, Cardona may not be at the top of the list at the SG position. But that shouldn’t take away from him being one of the league’s best scorers this day and age.