Asi Taulava — the most dominant big man in the previous era of the Philippine Basketball Association — has formally retired.
Together with his family, friends, and some people who matter, the 50-year-old Taulava bade an emotional farewell to a career that transformed him from an unknown Filipino-Tongan into a well-loved basketball icon.
He surpassed the legendary Robert "Sonny" Jaworski as the league's longest-tenured player with 24 seasons after playing for NLEX for nearly two minutes during its game against, ironically, his former team, TNT Tropang Giga, last Wednesday.
In his farewell speech, Taulava said he didn't want to be remembered as a powerful center or a fearless rebounder. He simply wanted to be remembered as a good guy — a player who never hesitated to pose for pictures and sign autographs for fans, who granted countless interviews to sportswriters no matter how painful the loss of his team.
There is no doubt that the 6-foot-9 Taulava is a trailblazer.
He took the country by storm when he saw action for Blu Detergent in the defunct Philippine Basketball League in 1997. He was bulky, blond, and very outspoken with an odd number — 55 — emblazoned on his back. He terrorized the paint with authority, gobbling rebounds, scoring at point-blank range, and swatting away enemy attempts like flies invading a picnic.
He eventually emerged as a direct hire of Mobiline in 1998. It was a match made in heaven as the Phone Pals were a young team searching for an identity after acquiring the former Pepsi franchise two years before.
With a red-hot rookie in Taulava manning the shaded lane, the league took notice. All the Mobiline games were a must-watch, with homegrown opposing players like Marlou Aquino, Benjie Paras, and Dennis Espino suddenly working harder in practice to prepare for their battles with Taulava.
But it only took a Bal David buzzer-beater to reduce the rock-solid Taulava to a huge mass of tears.
Mobiline entered the 1999 All-Filipino Conference quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed, and Taulava's confidence was sky-high, knowing that all they needed was a single win over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel to advance to the semifinals.
With Mobiline ahead, 81-80, with two seconds left, David received an inbound pass from Noli Locsin. He made a spin move against Jeffrey Cariaso before sinking a jumper off the glass — right into the teeth of Taulava's defense — that gave the Kings the crucial victory.
The Philsports Arena erupted in celebration while Taulava — the seemingly unbreakable newcomer — was seen crying uncontrollably on the Mobiline bench. To Ginebra fans, it was such a special victory as the 5-foot-8 David bravely engineered the downfall of the mighty giant from a foreign land.
While Taulava was making a lot of noise on the court, the late Senator Robert Barbers was becoming uneasy. He ordered a Senate inquiry into the Filipino-foreign players competing in the country as local players.
The Bureau of Immigration cracked the whip and ordered Taulava's deportation, saying that his mother, Pauline Hernandez Mateaki, didn't have Filipino roots despite claiming that she was born in San Jose, Northern Samar.
The BI deported Taulava in 2000 together with Sonny Alvarado of Tanduay, who was eventually identified as a Puerto Rican. But unlike Alvarado, Taulava appealed the decision to the Department of Justice, which led to his reinstatement the following year.
Four years later, the "Fil-Sham" issue surfaced again, with the PBA suspending him indefinitely. But Taulava fought for his rights until the Quezon City Regional Trial Court ordered the PBA to reinstate him until the end of his contract.
Despite all the controversies, Taulava soldiered on, becoming the longest-tenured player to see action in the PBA.
He repaid the Filipinos' adulation by playing for the national squad in major international tournaments. In fact, his last international stint was at the 18th Asian Games in 2018 when he was already 45 years old.
True enough, Taulava is more than just a basketball player.
He will go down in Philippine basketball history as a warrior who bravely fought for his rights and stood up after every fall inside and outside the playing court.
