MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
The perilous side of sustained excellence is that it tends to become monotonous for some.
But not to San Miguel Beer’s seasoned veterans, who have always found a way to make each run interesting.
For Chris Ross, there’s no more repulsive feeling than losing. The defensive ace, who has won 10 titles with the vaunted club, is raring to keep on winning until he has long forgotten that loss he suffered in the past.
“The thing that pushes me the most is that one championship we lost. It was a horrible feeling when we lost to Ginebra,” the Beermen skipper told the Inquirer.
“We had [Renaldo] Balkman. We lost to those guys (Gin Kings) in six. That feeling of losing was worse than the height of winning. It just felt bad.”
Ross was referring to the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup championship series with the Tim Cone-coached Gin Kings who were then backstopped by the well-loved Justin Brownlee.
That loss remains as the only stain in Ross’ trips to the championship stage—a record shared by Lassiter who has just as many titles.
Lassiter, however, has a slightly different drive. One that is steeped in pressure.
“If you really uncover the ‘why,’ I just understand that the expectations for both teams are a lot different. If you understand Meralco’s, this is their first time. So they are excited ‘cause they just made it [to the Finals this conference]. So their expectation, obviously, is to win,” he said.
“For us, every conference, our organization wants us to win a championship. So there’s pressure even from the beginning, when the conference starts, to get to that peak, to that top of the mountain.”
However different their motivations sound, there’s no denying that the goal is just the same: To deliver the franchise’s 30th championship.
San Miguel currently has a veritable chokehold of titles in the PBA, accounting for 29 crowns. Its closest pursuer is the Barangay Ginebra franchise which has 15—only a little over half of the Beermen’s collection.
The two will have their work cut out for them, however, after the Beermen suffered a setback in Game 3 of the ongoing Philippine Cup Finals, falling behind in the series after a 93-89 defeat on Sunday night. INQ