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| Best Player of the Conference. Hands of fire and yet no rings. |
Some of his draftmates include Top 5 picks Rich Alvarez (Shell), James Yap (Purefoods), Marc Pingris (FedEx), Ranidel de Ocampo (FedEx) and Sonny Thoss (Alaska). This writer shudders to think what would've happened had then Aces' coach Tim Cone opted to build his triangle offense around David instead of Thoss. He'd have the Michael Jordan-type scorer ideal for his Tex Winter-orchestrated system which, paired with David's loyalty and low-key demeanor, would've been flat out awesome to behold.
Enough of the what if's then and back to David's chances of ever winning a PBA title as a prime contributor. Zandro Limpot, Jr. suffered the same fate as David, going through several years posting what would be deemed today as LeBron James-like numbers for Santa Lucia. There was nothing the 6"6 Surigao del Sur native couldn't do on the hard court. He could score from all angles, post-up, play defense, block shots and even handle the ball from end to end.
What he didn't have to show for from being drafted in 1993, traded to Ginebra for Marlou Aquino in 2000, and again in 2004 to Purefoods until 2005 was a PBA championship. He came close a couple of times, but was never smiled upon by the heavens.
Limpot's only title came in 2006, where he was sparingly used by coach Ryan Gregorio at Purefoods in favor of young Marc Pingris, Kerby Raymundo, James Yap, Roger Yap and PJ Simon who were all on the verge of superstardom. He was 35 at the time, much like David is 34 now.
The biggest difference of course, is that Limpot was already at the tail end of his career while David seems to be defying all odds in an effort to capture that which eludes him most. David shouldn't be scoring 30 points a game anymore, with young teammates such as JVee Casio and Marcio Lassiter all but ready to take over. He shouldn't be playing close to 40 minutes a game (considering his age) and yet his head coach Bo Perasol has no qualms about keeping him on the floor over his younger peers (who are proving to be rather injury prone this early in their careers).
You'd think that he shot his team out of the Finals much like Nelson Asaytono did a decade ago with San Miguel and Allen Iverson in 2001 with the Philadelphia 76ers to get his 30 points clip but no. David did it with great efficiency, averaging 34% from deep and 40% from two. Numbers that don't really jump out at you, but still high considering the pressure placed on him to carry the brunt of the Tigers' "all or nothing" offense.
At one point during the conference, David admitted that he even questioned himself-- being the only guy from that FedEx/Air21 team a few years back that couldn't get over the hump. Arwind Santos was traded and won big with Petron. Ranidel de Ocampo was traded and likewise found success with Talk 'n' Text. But how come no one has ever asked for David? How is it that teams seem to be uninterested with arguably the league's best scorer up to this very day? We live in 2011, and if certain powerhouse teams want a player, they usually get him no matter what (welcome to the PBA).
But the one thing that you'd have to give David credit for, is even though people call him out for his defensive deficiencies, and how other SGs in the PBA have made the big leap to stardom (something that didn't come as soon for the 34 year old), he stuck to his guns-literally- and played/ plays the way he knows how.
Will David ever win a title in the PBA? Is it the validation his career needs?
A great shooter/ scorer named Reggie Miller retired without a ring, and no one faults him for that. He is loved for it, respected and admired.
For now, it's all in God's time for Gary.
Keep shooting!
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| Welcome idol! Bataan Bomber > El Granada. Pumayag ka na boss (Please ignore the picture above. Pero pwedeng i-add sa Twitter kung naisin) |
