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| That last drive by Arwind Santos with Japeth Aguilar all over him. |
Japeth
Aguilar returns with a bang
by rick olivares game pic by nuki sabio
You can do that once. But not the next
time.
That was what Japeth Aguilar thought
after Petron’s Arwind Santos took a pass from Alex Cabagnot and in one motion
swished a jump shot from the baseline to make it 93-92. The Blaze Boosters were
now behind by a solitary point.
Following Santos’ deuce, a shockingly
questionable decision by GlobalPort’s coaching staff to have Jondan Salvador
receive the inbound pass, saw the latter turn the ball over with a double
dribble.
The ball was placed once more in
Santos’ hands and the only person that stood between him and a Petron lead was
Aguilar.
When Aguilar was growing up in
Pampanga, he played hoops with the older boys that included Santos. The son of
former pro Peter Aguilar may have been younger but he always managed to get
some playing time because of his height. In those pick up games, the older
players used their experience (read: gulang) to score over Japeth. The younger
jumping jack was oft faked out of his high tops drawing laughs from the crowd. After
Santos swatted Aguilar’s shot one time, he pulled Japeth close and told him to
keep on going and to never back down. Aguilar has never forgotten that. “My
journey hasn’t been easy,” said Japeth. “But I’m never going to stop trying.”
During Aguilar’s freshman season in
the UAAP with Ateneo, he remembers Santos, at the time the star forward for
FEU, rejecting his shot: “That was embarrassing,” he recalled. “I’m taller and
he blocked my shot.”
On FEU’s next offensive thrust, Santos
drove hard. Aguilar gave chase and erased what was a sure two points. On
Aguilar’s two seasons with Ateneo, he went on to have many memorable battles
inside the paint with his boyhood idol but more often than not, it was Santos’
FEU teams that came away the winners.
Aguilar won a few titles with Talk ‘N
Text but mostly as a bench player. He sought a release for him to be able to
showcase what he can do on a regular basis. “I am aware of people who want me
to fail. I don’t get it. It’s wrong to pursue a dream?” he said of the crabs
and naysayers. “But once I got back here, the response here in the PBA is good.
People smile and come over to wish me luck. And I need that because I know I
have to prove myself.”
For much of the first quarter, Aguilar
was impotent on offense. He had zero points and three rebounds. Two of his
shots were blocked by Petron import Renaldo Balkman.
After GlobalPort’s import, Justin
Williams was assessed a Flagrant 2 penalty for a nasty elbow on Petron’s Junmar
Fajardo following a rebound play, the Batang Pier, instead of folding, held
fast behind Gary David, Sol Mercado, and eventually, Aguilar.
Aguilar, who returned to the PBA after
an unsuccessful bid first to join the NBA then the D-League, was nervous. “We
aren’t a very tall and deep team like Petron. When Williams went out, I knew it
was on me to help our team,” gulped Aguilar.
Come the third quarter, Aguilar
settled down and he returned the favor by erasing a couple of Balkman’s shots
and began to make his presence felt on the offensive side. “He isn’t easy to
guard,” said Aguilar of the former NBA player. “He’s good. He knows how to use
his body and time himself well for shots or blocks.” And like the boy with NBA
dreams, he added for good measure, “He knows what it takes to play in the NBA
and he’s bringing it. It’s a good learning experience for me.”
With the match reaching its terminal
stage, Santos drove to the basket. In his path was Aguilar. From the perimeter
where he could dribble his way in or pull up for a jumper, Santos could beat
Aguilar. On a drive, the much taller Aguilar had the advantage. And Santos’
shot didn’t have the mustard on it to climb up to the rim. It was short. However,
the ball went back out to Santos’ teammate, Jay Washington.
Washington knew time was running out
and he tried to duplicate Petron’s last basket with a baseline j. Aguilar knew
that as well and he leapt at Washington swatted the ball away.
GlobalPort held on for a massive 94-92
win in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup opener with Aguilar swishing one more free
throw that set the game’s final result in stone. His final stat line of 16
points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 4 blocks wasn’t the greatest but
when you take into consideration that had had zero points in the first quarter,
it isn’t so bad. He certainly poured it on in the second half and his presence
forced Petron to alter some shots.
As Aguilar got dressed he listened to
teammates Mark Yee and Gary David animatedly talk about the game. As David, who
poured in a game high 28 points, went out the dugout to leave for home, he
smiled at Aguilar and said, “Ganyan lang. Wag ka matakot. Laban lang. Nandito
naman kami para sa ‘yo.”
Aguilar nodded and fiddled around with
the laces of his Air Jordans. The match’s outcome and these words from his
teammates (Mark Yee and Sol Mercado also had good words) mean a lot to him.
Outside Arwind Santos addressed a few
reporters. “I am happy for Japeth. Syempre kababayan ko siya. Bilang
basketbolista, gusto mo rin siya magsucceed.”
---------------
I keenly followed his journey through the years even if it seemed to be going nowhere. When he came back from the national team and decided not to play for Air21, I broke the news about this and his decision to play with Smart Gilas. That certainly was a difficult time for him and the national team that put them at odds with the PBA. I've not had too many conversations with Japeth since because of a heavy workload. Hopefully, now I'll be able to do so.
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