Stand Defiant

Forty-one points.

Photo: Rappler.com

Not bad for a 37-year-old — once an eccentric superstar, now a role-playing journeyman who not too long ago seemed destined to fade out of the league.

Of course, Calvin Abueva’s lingering star power still carried enough weight for the PBA board to greenlight the trade that sent him from Magnolia to NorthPort — in exchange for a supposedly rising star (who has since chased greener pastures).

Let’s be honest — at the time, it felt like a banishment. NorthPort has long been seen as a kind of basketball purgatory, a place where once-vibrant careers go to quietly fade away. You’ve seen the pattern: from being heavily used, to mysteriously injured, to racking up DNPs until — poof — off the roster by the next conference. Just ask Willie Miller, Sol Mercado, Mac Cardona, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot.

If you’ve followed the league long enough, you’ve probably noticed the trend. NorthPort or Terra Firma often ends up as the final stop for aging or underperforming San Miguel Corporation players, while Blackwater plays that role for the MVP group.

So when Abueva was shipped out, it looked like the endgame.

This was the Beast, after all — the fiery forward from Pampanga whose boundless energy once reignited fans’ passion for the PBA during a time when collegiate and amateur basketball were stealing the spotlight. He was raw, emotional, sometimes uncontrollable — even suspended at one point for letting his emotions boil over. But he was never dull. He was alive.

Now at 37, Abueva’s shot at another championship seems slim. His current team, the debuting Titan Ultra Maxx Giant Risers, probably won’t bring him back to the mountaintop. But that doesn’t mean his story is done.

What he can do is control his own destiny. Keep playing with the same ferocity, the same reckless energy that made him unforgettable in the first place.

Because for a player like Calvin Abueva, the real victory has never been about the championship banners.

It’s about defying time, expectations, and the slow fade into obscurity.

It’s about standing defiant — still the Beast, still burning.