Dethroned

Old timers need some help
(Photo credit to Sports5.ph)

As you get older, there are certain things that you slowly realize:

Your timing is off; your mind knows what you want to do, but there seems to be a split second lapse between judgment and action.

You find yourself needing to exert more effort, to something that you would routinely perform. Be it running, jumping, hustling.

And when you find yourself in front of a wide-eyed youngster, who you know will always go left on a crossover, which he does, and you smile to yourself thinking "I got you!" only to hear the whistle-- or worse, lose your man completely as you turn your around and see him waltzing in for an easy lay-up.

Age. It happens to the best of us.

With yesterday's unceremonious sweep at the hands of the Alaska Aces in the Semifinals of the PBA Governor's Cup, the Purefoods STAR Hotshots find themselves officially dethroned in the 40th season of the league after taking home all three titles just the year before.

Is it time to rebuild?

Here is how the STAR roster looks more or less: Mick Pennisi is 40, Don Allado and Rafi Reavis are 38, PJ Simon is 35, Marc Pingris and Jerwin Gaco are 34, Joe DeVance and James Yap are 33.

The 29 and below group are Mark Barroca, Justin Melton, Ian Sangalang, Alex Mallari, Allein Maliksi, Yousef Taha and Lester Alvarez.

Of the previously mentioned, STAR needs to look for possible replacements for Pennisi, Allado and Reavis who are no longer able to contribute at a high level. Fortunately for them, there's always Barako Bull Energy that has tall kids like Rico Maierhofer, Isaac Holstein (former STAR player), Pat Paredes and Jake Pascual should they look to reload-- with Paredes being the most promising of the bunch.

But the core guys? The Big Four of Yap, Simon, DeVance and Pingris?

Shooters, scorers like Simon age a lot better than the average PBA player. Why? Because they can still shoot it. It never goes away. Defense does, yes, but that's why senior statesmen play less minutes (mostly off the bench)-- which is something Simon is more than accustomed to.

The veteran four is still good to go in limited minutes which is something STAR has consciously done this whole season. The injury to Ian Sangalang was quite telling sure, since it greatly handicapped the 2nd "young" unit, but then that's where their imports were supposed to pick up the slack for both 1st and 2nd teams.

 Blame it on mental and physical fatigue.

And nothing more.

Four straight titles- the number of minutes played, focus, film studied, waking up early in the morning and having that fire inside your belly. Just the last phrase alone, of having that "fire" in you every single God damn day-- that's not something we all could muster even for a three day stretch in a work week! But the Hotshots did it long enough to enter the history books and more.

So give them a break.

They deserve it.

They'll be back next year, with perhaps a younger set of back-up big men and healthier players on the bench.

Sometimes, to regain that old fire of being a champion, you need to lose everything and work your way up again.