The Long Ride of Lawrence Chongson
by rick olivares
April 2009
Lawrence Chongson is used to long rides. The 16-hour flight from Manila to Los Angeles taxed his University of the East Red Warriors team but the infectious enthusiasm of the newly appointed head coach was like a rush of adrenaline before a big game. They were in the United States for a 17-day basketball training camp in California and to participate in the Easter Showcase tournament.
Chongson, who lived in California for a while and knew his way around, drove the hour’s stretch from LAX to downtown and straight to the Staples Center; home of the Lakers, Clippers and ice hockey’s Kings.
For many of his players, it was their first time abroad more so inside an airplane, and Chongson served as an impromptu tour guide to this new experience. Outside the famed arena, the Red Warriors tripped all over themselves as they poured out of the bus for a photo op in front of the statues of Angelino sports greats Magic Johnson, Oscar de la Hoya, and Wayne Gretzky. In the meantime, the coach drove around Figueroa Street and Pico Boulevard a couple of times until his players were done.
“I’m used to driving,” explained the 46-year old coach. “I’m used to doing odd jobs and the dirty work.”
As an assistant coach with the Tanduay Rhummakers in the Philippine Basketball Association, Chongson drove for Rudy Hatfield, was asked to pick up game tapes, uniforms, and just about everything. “My working hours were like a convenience store’s – 24-7,” quipped the longhaired coach who has always deflected life’s harsh realities with a sense of humor. “It was degrading and humiliating. But sige lang…”
When he moved on to become head honcho for the Pangasinan Waves in the Metropolitan Basketball Association, it was still the same – night trips, boat rides, and late night long drives to get from one playing venue to another.
Chongson never saw himself as an office manager, an accountant, or a salesman. Basketball consumed him as a youngster and he knew that this was going to be his life. Even when he was cut during tryouts for the De La Salle Green Archers team under Derek Pumaren, it did not deter him from pursuing his goal.
October 2009
Two days after his Red Warriors were defeated by the Blue Eagles in Game 3 in the Season 72 UAAP Men’s Basketball Finals, Chongson was still feeling lost and hurt by the loss. He was thinking of going to Boracay, Hong Kong, or Thailand – he needed to withdraw from the game that he and his wards had given their heart, body, and soul for seven long months.
Unintentionally that morning, he picked up a red adidas shirt that read in front: “Louisville (the American school) is a brotherhood.” Two days after the loss, he still wore his heart on his sleeve like a badge of courage.
Chongson plopped down on a cushioned seat at the UCC Vienna Café along Connecticut Street in Greenhills still looking every bit the morning after. He picked up a broadsheet and immediately scanned the sports pages. There he spied a full-page ad by Gatorade congratulating the victorious Ateneo team and the hurt metastasized. “That should be us in that ad,” he said in a drained voice.
Chongson reads everything that is written about him in the papers or online sites. Just as he can name every single NBA and PBA number one over-all pick through the years, he can recite the litany of shots and criticism leveled at him by every journalist and pseudo-sports writer in the country.
But if it hurts him, it’s double for his son Dale Martin, who absolutely adores and loves his father. So the father has to hide his pain and be strong for his son. You have to hear both the good and the bad, he would tell Dale repeatedly. “That’s life.” Besides, he uses the criticism as fuel for his drive to succeed in basketball and in life.
He began his coaching career in his mid-30s, late by any standard. Many say that he only got his opportunity because of his long time friendship with Bong Tan Jr., the son of taipan Lucio. Chongson will credit his friend for opening the door but he underscores that he has paid his dues by coaching in the MBA, the Southeast Asian Games, the National Basketball League with Air Philippines Bacolod, and in the Philippine Basketball League with Bacchus Energy Drink, the Mail and More Comets, and the Burger King Whoppers. His PBL teams have finished third on three occasions while his Allied Banking Corporation team has won several Bankers Athletic Association crowns. “That may not sound much, but for every successful coach how many do not even win a title or two?” he reasoned out.
Season 72 is actually his second go-around with UE as he previously served as an assistant to Itoy Esguerra in 2001.
Now at the helm, he’s been lambasted for playing a run and gun style that did not win anything for the Denver Nuggets, Sacramento Kings, or Phoenix Suns, the modern game’s proponents. “But the Lakers and Ginebra have won with that style,” he quickly countered. “I analyzed what the team did right under its previous head coach and kept what worked and changed what did not. The alley-oop play is (former UE mentor) Dindo Pumaren’s. Everything else is not. I went with the strengths of my players. If I had a Rabeh Al-Hussaini obviously I would not use that style.”
The one thing he changed was the regimented style of the previous staff. He ate with his players and hung out with them. Andrei Tolentino, the long-time UE trainer who has served under three head coaches offered an insight why Chongson got his team to play the kind of ball it did in the past season and defied odds by topping long time nemesis FEU and DLSU en route to the finals. “Si coach speaks the language of the players.”
Elmer Espiritu, the high-flying forward-center who cracked the Mythical Selection for the first time in his career, concurred, “The results speak for themselves if you’re referring to coach. He maximized our potential.”
Paul Lee, the season’s Most Improved Player was also named to the Mythical Five and a third Red Warrior, Pari Llagas nearly made it as well.
October 2008 & 2009
The fallout of UE’s stunning power failure in Season 71’s Final Four where they were run off the court by a powerful Ateneo team en route to its fourth UAAP crown saw swingman Val Acuña dismissed from the team. The sensitive player out of Isabela had his scholarship removed and told to find a job. A distraught Acuña approached Chongson for help.
Chongson at that time was happily coaching in the PBL. He gave the forward some money to enroll and finish out the semester. “You could use a diploma if your basketball career does not pan out,” he told the player.
A few months after that, Pumaren resigned and Chongson, to his surprise, was named head coach over former Recto-icon Jerry Codinera. He immediately reinstated Acuña.
The appointment was controversial and Chongson heard every brickbat hurled his way. The criticism had become even personal. It wasn’t just his lack of credentials or championships but also the long hair he wore. “Dindo, Glenn (Capacio), and Pido (Jarencio) had no previous head coaching experience but they were given the benefit of the doubt but I was not accorded the same. I guess I just had to work hard to prove them wrong.”
He was driven not just to earn a living to provide for his son but also to give his players a title. “I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t do this also to gain respect. But my team and I are in this together. We believed in one another and carried one another to the Finals.”
He believed in fate as well and felt that nine was their lucky number this Season 72. He was the ninth head coach of UE after Roel Nadurata who led the school to its last titles. This year was the school’s 63rd anniversary of its foundation and the numbers six and three when added up equals nine. He was 45 years of age and four plus five tallied nine. Gunner James Martinez wore jersey number nine that Espiritu later switched to before the season got underway. And to top it off, his UAAP official’s ID had the serial number “072.”
“What a coincidence, huh? But we still had to go out and win it,” he said.
With a 4-4 record in the early goings of Season 72, the calls for his head in Recto grew louder but Chongson knew that his team would come back.
There was a precedent after all. That summer in the US, the team competed in the Easter Showcase and was 4-0 heading into the title game versus the Arizona All-Stars, a team of prep and juco stars who although younger than the Filipinos were significantly taller and more athletic. The Warriors stormed back from a 16-point deficit to tie the game with time down to 20 seconds and the ball in the American team’s hands.
During one last time out, Chongson had his team switch from man-to-man to a zone for the first time that game. The move threw the opposing team in a quandary upon resumption of play. Acuña was able to swipe the ball, race down court and hit a running bank shot at the buzzer to win the game and the title.
So even with Ateneo up by 18 points in Game 3, Chongson still believed that his team could come back. They rallied to nearly upend both FEU and Ateneo early in the season and they held to a glimmer of hope. But it was not to be.
As he made his way to the UE dugout after the singing of the school hymn, Chongson was fighting back the tears when Allan Caidic who led the university to its last pair of titles in 1984 and 85 caught up with him. The Triggerman congratulated him and the dam broke. Both men cried and when Chongson entered the locker room, it was as if they were at a wake. Acuña gave his coach a tearful hug. No words were spoken.
Lawrence Chongson is used to long rides but the one from Araneta Coliseum to Recto after Game 3 seemed interminable. Once they arrived in UE, there were some 200-300 faculty, students, and supporters on hand to greet them.
“It’s hardly consolation but we were still better than six other teams,” texted Bong Tan to Chongson.
In the aftermath of falling short of the ultimate goal, the accolades came not for just for Espiritu and Lee who had career seasons, but also for Chongson who received glowing marks for his performance from fellow coaches and members of the media. And it left the coach had one final thought: “I wanted to win for the school, for the boys, and for myself. I wanted to be respected by my peers. But at the end of the day, I guess, it didn’t boil down to what others said but what we achieved and we have to be grateful for what was given. Not many even reach this level.”
His mobile phone rang and it was Philippine Patriots manager Erick Arejola. He asked if he could get Acuña to suit up for them. Two days earlier, Lee was named to the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Team roster.
Chongson lit up another cigarette over a cup of coffee at UCC. “This should keep the boys and me hungry for another ride.”
Author's Note: If Pido Jarencio was such a refreshing interview four years ago, that honor fell to Lawrence Chongson this year. Best interview at the press room hands down. Midway through Season 72, I wanted to write about him. With my work, I am not able to follow every league out there and having heard so much about coach albeit in the negative way, I knew I had to write about him after seeing how he transformed UE. Even the way his players spoke was different. We chatted for more than four hours at UCC along Connecticut Street in Greenhills last Saturday and covered a lot of ground. But because of space restrictions in my newspaper column, I had to leave out a lot of stuff. Sayang. Maybe for something else.
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