Originally Posted by
Jay P. Mercado
Welcome back faaip.
I can't recall the exact circumstances behind the 2000 and 2001 seasons. I believe DI topped the stats race in one of those seasons but don't quote me on that. What I do know is that on his rookie year in 1999, Seigle garnered more statistical points than Ildefonso, making him the undisputed top Beerman for that season. He was part of the Mythical 5 on his rookie year, an outstanding feat that matched the previous efforts of Arnie Tuadles in 1979, Ricardo Brown in 1983, Allan Caidic in 1987, Benjie Paras in 1989, Marlou Aquino in 1996 and Sonny Alvarado in 1999, and later on, by Jimmy Alapag in 2003 and Kelly Williams in 2007.
But what I'm sure was in 2002, it was impossible for DS to have topped the statistical race since he started the season playing for the Selecta national team. While their statistical points were credited, Seigle had to share minutes with other national players. Ultimately, the player who generated the most number of statistical points for the season was Red Bull's Davon Harp. Harp was originally part of the Hapee national selection in the 1st conference and was a shoo-in for the 12-man final lineup of Selecta for the 2nd conference. But because of an alleged rape case filed against him, Harp opted to drop out of the pool and carried Red Bull to its second PBA title in 2002.
The shooting guard position isn't exactly "weak." It's in fact one of the deepest - it's the position where we will never run out of talented players. The difference though is that we don't have a major personality that truly dominated this position. I initially penciled Ricardo Brown as the top shooting guard of all-time but Brown corrected me in one of my many correspondences with him, citing his real position as point guard. So that puts him out of this list.
The only legitimate shooting guard who won the MVP title is actually Atoy Co in 1979. But we have a lot of talented non-MVP winners that we can include in this list - players like Francis Arnaiz (could have won the first MVP title in 1975), Mark Caguioa (could have won the 2007 MVP title), Danny Florencio (the league-leading scorer in 1977 and 1978 and owner of the highest scoring average in one season with 32.3 ppg), Lim Eng Beng and Samboy Lim (both members of the PBA's Best 25 players). But judging from this, you know their names aren't as huge as a Jaworski at the point, an Adornado or Caidic at SF, a Patrimonio or a Cezar at PF, or a Fernandez, or Taulava at the center slot.
Lastly, I'm not sure how history will determine the playing position of James Yap. It's the same dilemma I had with Brown but I'd like to think that Yap should and would be categorized as a small forward - similar to the playing positions of Messrs. Adornado, Caidic, Hubalde, Meneses and Duremdes.
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