I’m just focused on helping Meralco win its first championship. I’m certainly a competitor. I’m a former player so I’m really competitive when it comes to basketball game.

GINEBRA guard Stanley Pringle will be marked man in the series.

Norman Black has won numerous titles both as a player and coach in different levels.

After playing as an import in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) where he won one title in 1982 Invitational tournament with San Miguel Beer, Black ventured into coaching in Asia’s first pay-for-play league in 1985 and went on to win 11 crowns including the rare grandslam with the Beermen in 1989.

The Maryland native also captured five straight University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball titles from 2008 to 2012 before returning to coaching in the PBA.

Now, 62-year old American is four wins away from giving Meralco its first PBA title since entering the league in 2010 and hopes to rub off his magic with the Bolts.

“I’m just focused on helping Meralco win its first championship. I’m certainly a competitor. I’m a former player so I’m really competitive when it comes to basketball game,” Black said.

The original “Mr. 100 Percent” was denied twice by Barangay Ginebra in their 2016 and 2017 Governors’ Cup finals battles and after getting another shot at the Gin Kings, Black hopes they will not waste this opportunity.

But he knew it’s easier than done as Ginebra, with size, depth and athleticism of Stanley Pringle, will be hard to beat in their best-of-seven championship series, which starts on 7 January.

“At this point, it doesn’t matter who we’re going up against. We want to win and we recognize that our team has improved and we have a lot depth now than we had when we faced them the first two times. But on the other side they also improved simply by picking up Stanley Pringle,” Black said.

“To go along with the fact that they’re (Gin Kings) playing good basketball right now at the right time of the conference,” he added.

While focus in the series has been much on the import battle between Meralco’s Allen Durham and Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee and the guards match-up featuring the Bolts’ Baser Amer, Chris Newsome and Bong Quinto and Pringle, LATenorio and Scottie Thompson, the clash of the coaches is also a thing to watch.

Like Black, Gin Kings mentor Tim Cone is also a grandslam coach, twice with Alaska in 1996 and San Mig Coffee (now Magnolia) in 2014, and is the most successful coach in the league with 21 titles.

They both started in the PBA during the 1980s like the current league coaches in Yeng Guiao of NLEX and Leo Austria of San Miguel and Black is happy to note their progress as a bench tactician.

“While I am a competitor and I want to beat Ginebra, you also admire that guys like Tim, Yeng and Leo are still getting the job done. The fact that they’re out there and improving their skills as a coach and getting better every year motivates you to also try to improve your skills and motivates you to get better as a coach,” Black said.

“All we can do is to prepare our team the best we can, strategize the best that we can and then go out there and let our players do the job for us. I’m just focused on what I have to do for Meralco not on the one-on-one match up against Tim Cone,” he added.

Black hopes the third time will be a charm for the Bolts to end the franchise’s decade-long chase for the PBA crown.