Fidel Mangonon III — the ever-reliable head statistician of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) — sat quietly at his table inside the press room of the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Shifting his gaze from his laptop to his phone and again to a pile of papers neatly stacked in a folder, he stood up and approached the row of tables across him.

“O si Scottie (Thompson) 500 steals na ha,” he said while looking straight at the TV monitor showing the then-ongoing Philippine Cup match between Barangay Ginebra and Terrafirma.

It was quite a yawner of a game with the debuting Kings crushing the Dyip by 21 points.

But Mangonon’s tip of the Ginebra guard’s milestone gave the game more meat for the sportswriters typing away to beat the deadline.

“It’s actually exciting when you see a player achieve a personal or a record feat,” the PBA numbers guy told DAILY TRIBUNE.

“It’s fun to always be on the lookout for those — seeing those historic numbers.”

“For example, Scottie just reached 500 steals for his third career achievement this season and there’s a fourth one coming,” he continued.

“June Mar (Fajardo) is now a few boards away from becoming No. 1 all-time in offensive rebounds. That’s the exciting thing about it.”

Crunching numbers and collecting data have been Mangonon’s bread and butter for Asia’s first-ever play-for-pay cage league for three decades.

The incredible — sometimes infamous — statistics you read about a player or a team, for sure, came from Mangonon’s collection of league data.

In fact, the PBA recognized his valuable contributions by honoring him during its 50th anniversary gala night.

“Ever since I really enjoy my work, No. 1,” he said.

“No. 2, I need to because I’m the only one doing this kind of job. So, I also have to be responsible with my health. Kaya wag nyo ako masyado nilalasing,” he joked about the regular “two bottles” with PBA reporters to cap each playdate.

Numbers geek

Mangonon has always been fascinated with numbers plus he’s a hoop junkie.

“I love basketball. I’m addicted to it. I guess I’m a frustrated basketball player,” said Mangonon, who took up Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Philippines (UP).

“During my first year at UP, I tried out for the varsity team. I scored 10 points against Ronnie Magsanoc and Eric Altamirano. Standing 5-foot-7 and 120 pounds, an assistant by coach Joe Lipa told me, ‘Bata bumalik ka next year, palaki ka muna katawan.’ But I didn’t,” he shared.

Although his dream of playing ball was shattered because he was not fit enough to join the Fighting Maroons, he took another path to pursue his basketball dream, albeit in a different role.

He became a sports journalist.

“I started as a writer for a magazine under veteran sports journalist Ricky Santos. I really wanted to be a sportswriter so I told him to hook me up if there’s an opening,” Mangonon said.

“Then I think around late 1991 a new sports magazine opened, I think it was the Sports Mirror, he was the editor there so he took me in.”

Being a statistics guy, his approach to angling his story would always be about numbers and inserting trivia tidbits, making his stories more colorful and interesting for readers.

“I’m really interested in collecting trivia and data about players’ feats and game statistics. Back then, I wanted to write about the background of Allan’s (Caidic) 79 points and Bong Alvarez’s 71 points, about the highest-paid players. Unfortunately, I couldn’t because the data wasn’t available,” he said.

Career shift

Mangonon has an interesting anecdote about his entry into the PBA operations.

“Around 1996, Atty. Butch Cleofe (former PBA legal counsel) and (former commissioner) Jun Bernardino asked me if I want to handle the league’s stats. They wanted a computerized data-gathering of game stats, a database,” he said.

“At that time, I was a writer specializing in writing stories about numbers. I write mostly about numbers.”

He even jested that he might have irked a few people in the league so they resorted to absorbing him into the fold.

“I guess I was also a bit hard-hitting,” he said laughing.

“I was a columnist for the tabloid Abante Tonite. So, maybe they thought, ‘Let’s give this guy a job in the league rather than have him hit us with his articles.’”

Alongside now PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, Mangonon was hired to lead the league’s statistics group at the start of the 1996 season.

“The PBA had to keep up with the times then. Willie (Marcial) and I, actually, were the ones whom the PBA approached at that time. While Atty. Butch contacted me, Willie was approached by Jun B. At that time, he handled the stats for TV,” Mangonon said as they replaced retired statistician Joe Concepcion.

It was a gargantuan task shifting from manual to computerized data gathering, according to Mangonon.

“We started manually. We were talking with data developers. But we started gathering and compiling stats using a desktop every game. And that’s not easy,” he said.

“Imagine bringing a set of that old bulky CPU, monitors and keyboards. We have to carry and set it up for every game.”

“Of course, transitioning to computerized stats was a bit challenging then. Willie and I were even skeptical about relying entirely on the new software. We have two statistical groups then, one used to test the new computer program and the other doing the statistics manually in case our computer bogged down,” Mangonon added.

Starting on 18 February 1996, Mangonon debuted as PBA stats master in the game between San Miguel Beer and Purefoods at the Cuneta Astrodome.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Fulfilling job

Mangonon admitted that compiling stats takes a lot of patience and hard work.

And being relied not just by the league but also the media and even former players is a huge responsibility.

“Honestly, it’s a responsibility. I have compiled all the available data of the PBA, so it’s a huge responsibility since teams, players and even the media rely on those numbers,” he said.

“Unfortunately, there are PBA stats and data lost when the PBA office got burned in the early 90s. Maraming nasunog na papel dun at di na-recover ang data.”

Fortunately, being a PBA geek has its benefits.

“The only data we have pre-1996 or before we came in are those in our PBA annual (magazine). Awa ng Diyos, kumpleto ako sa annual since 1975,” he proudly declared.

“I guess only four or five of us have a complete collection of the PBA annual.”

But what makes his job fulfilling, Mangonon said, is when former players, legends even, look for him whenever they need to dig up their old feats.

“A lot of players, especially those who are already retired, want to have a compilation of their best games. So they’ll request me for the list of games where they score 30 points, 40 points. I give them a list, which they submit to the PBA or the broadcast network to request for clips,” he said.

Being the stats bookkeeper for the PBA is never easy. It takes a lot of time, effort — and a lot of dedication.

But Mangonon is not complaining.

“I love my work and I love the PBA,” Mangonon said.