Veteran Williams repays Reyes trust

TNT Tropang 5G head coach Chot Reyes is never wrong in trusting elder statesman Kelly Williams to steer the Tropang 5G clear of danger.

Battle-hardened and wise with experience, the veteran forward remained composed down the final stretch and made the big plays while keeping TNT together to weather defending champion San Miguel Beer’s late run.

His calming presence and leadership played a huge role as the Tropang 5G shocked the Beermen, 96-91, to open the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup finals series on Wednesday at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.

“Yeah, that’s why coach has me out there. My role is to try to keep everybody steady. I think I have probably the most experience in these finals situations,” the 43-year-old Filipino-American said.

Williams was doing it all on the floor. Defending San Miguel center June Mar Fajardo as hard as he could, drilling important baskets and dishing out assists.

He finished with 15 points on 6-of-14 field goal shooting, grabbed nine rebounds with three assists and a block in over 30 minutes of action.

But his biggest contribution in the best-of-seven series opener was the guidance he provided that pulled TNT through in the challenging last two minutes.

Back-to-back assists by Williams to Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser kept TNT in front, 92-87, with 50.2 seconds left. When the Beermen closed in to within a solitary point in the final 21 seconds after consecutive turnovers, Williams calmed his teammates and guided them to make the plays.

“I was reminded during (assistant coach) Ranidel’s (De Ocampo) jersey retirement how big it is to have someone who is just calm in the storms,” the 10-time PBA champion said.

“So, I wanted to make sure I come into this, not just this game, this whole series with that energy and trust that our shooters are going to shoot, our guys are going to do what we need to and like coach said, make sure we handle our premium, which is to play defense and play with a lot of energy,” added the 2008 Most Valuable Player.

Williams and TNT will look to double their series lead in Game 2 today.

“All eyes are on Friday, not looking past it and not even thinking of this game (opener) anymore. We’re moving forward,” he said.