A successful title defense in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup will put TNT’s name in the history books as the first-ever eighth-seeded team to win the crown.
No franchise in half a century of Asia’s first play-for-pay league’s existence has completed the feat.
So rare for a lowest-seeded team to advance to the biggest stage that it’s just the second time that it has ever happened, and 14 years apart.
The Tropang 5G, who ironically spoiled the first No. 8 team to enter the finals in 2012, will now have a chance to write the PBA’s biggest upset in a rematch with Barangay Ginebra in an expected to be another epic best-of-seven title showdown.
Game 1 is being played as of press time at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
For TNT head coach Chot Reyes, the thought of winning the crown on a much harder scale than their previous conquest will make for a great narrative in the franchise’s championship lore.
But the 11-time champion mentor doesn’t really want to put much emphasis on who’s the higher or lower-seeded team.
What’s more important is for the Tropang 5G to get to the summit first.
“Those are nice things to hear, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter much,” said Reyes, who steered TNT to a fifth straight finals appearance, albeit in a much more difficult path.
“For us, what matters is really how we prepare, how we play against a very high-quality team. That’s what’s on our minds. All of the other things, for me, for us, are just noise. We don’t pay much attention to that,” added Reyes, who holds a 5-3 finals head-to-head lead over Kings counterpart Tim Cone.
Truly, the Tropang 5G had a long and bumpy journey back to the finals.
Despite having a top-tier import in 7-foot-3 Bol Bol, TNT struggled in the elimination round and barely made it to the Last 8.
The Tropang 5G made a miracle by upending twice-to-beat No. 1 seed NLEX before turning back another sister team, Meralco, in six games in the semifinals while adjusting to replacement reinforcement Chris McCullough following the conference-ending Achilles tear suffered by Bol in Game 2.
Cone believes that going through all those adversities turned TNT into a more dangerous foe.
“They’re not an eighth-seed quality team. They struggled early, trying to figure out (the adjustments) coming from a championship, coming off finals appearances. We’ve done that in the past; it’s really hard to get loaded up right away to start the conference. I think that just made them stronger,” Cone said.
“They had early struggles just trying to find the right mix. Now they’re on their stride and that makes them really dangerous because they’ve learned a lot and they’ve grown through what they did before.”
Cone is very familiar with a No. 8 team besting a higher-ranked opponent.
It was under his watch that the then top-seeded B-Meg (Magnolia) got eliminated by a twice-to-win disadvantaged Powerade in the quarterfinals of the 2011-2012 Philippine Cup.
The now-defunct Tigers would then boot out Rain or Shine in seven games in the semifinals before losing to Reyes’ Talk ‘N Text in five games in the championship series.
“I think the idea of being the eighth seed is being overplayed a little bit,” Cone said.
In which Reyes nodded.
“I agree,” he quipped.