Sideline Notes on Championship night

By Ricky Santos, This was June of 1988, Open Conference Finals between San Miguel Beer and then newcomer Purefoods Hotdogs, seeking a cinderella finish.

The balloons told the outcome of the championship series.
On the night of Game 6 and with Purefoods only a win shy of wrapping up the series, there were some things missing that foretold the San Miguel win. It has been a standard practice by any team just a win away from the crown to position all the confetti and balloons up in the rafters to be released whent he final buzzer indicating their victory sounds. But that night, there was nothing to see up in the rafters.
When the deciding seventh game came, both teams came prepared. There were the San Miguel red-and-white balloons and the Purefoods red, white and blue ones. But San Miguel's balloons outnumbered Purefoods' by almost two to one. Also, the cardboard boxes carrying the confetti were marked San Miguel Beer.
So next time the deciding game comes and you're at the ULTRA and someone asks you who do you think will win, tell him to look up and he may just find his answer.

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The personal battle between the country's top two centers came into fore during the series. Abet Guidaben and Ramon Fernandez were seen exchanging some sweet nothings in almost every play they were in. There were several instances where the two were involved in some physical plays with Guidaben getting the shorter end of things most of the time.
However, the two were unusually quiet in Game 7. Gone were the tauntings, the minor altercations and the verbal exchanges between the PBA's two most senior slotmen.
Some say their seperate trips to the Commissioner's Office were responsible for their quick change of character. Fernandez was fined P2,000 for his statement made after Game 5 and Guidaben was likewise fined P1,000 for his unseeming attitude exhibited in the series.

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Crunch time is where you seperate the men from the boys. And when Game 7 comes, its when one gets to see the real pressure players.
Jerry Codinera, a strong contender for this year's Rookie of the Year, showed how green he really was despite his five years as a national team mainstay. He wilted under pressure. Jerry was very "Stiff," especially in the early goings of the contest. His statistics bear that out.
Before the final game of the series, the 21-year old Codinera was averaging more than 11 points in the championship. But that night, he only managed to score six paltry points on an anemic 22 percent shooting accuracy.

If Codinera was a bust in the last game, teammate Al Solis shone for the Hotdogs in the duration of the series.
Solis emerged as his team's best local scorer with an average of 16.1 points in that seven-game stretch. What makes it more eye-popping is his shooting percentages of 45.1 percent from beyond the 22-foot arc and 61.3 percent from the two-point area.
He also showed everyone that he can live up to the pressure as he bailed his team a number of times from imminent disaster with his booming triples and his sneaky penetrations. In that seventh game alone, Solis shot an amazing 71 percent from the three-point range on five-of-seven shooting.
The shifty six-foot guard stands a good chance of making it to the mythical team in his sophomore year.