21 October 2016

Jimmy Alapag Talks About His Meralco Experience

Jimmy Alapag
Jimmy Alapag may have helped restore some sense of discipline at the Meralco Bolts as they reached their first ever PBA Finals berth, but it was made at the expense of his former team, TNT Katropa.

Meralco had a tough mountain to climb in the Oppo PBA Govenors’ Cup, where they faced their sister team TNT. The KaTropa had only lost once in 11 elimination round games but needed to be beaten three times in the series.

With a little help from Alapag, once a TNT long-time stalwart, the Bolts were able to get the job done.

The 'Mighty Mouse' is the former TNT captain who retired and was named team manager last year. However, he just showed that his comeback from retirement was the right call as he still had plenty left in the tank.

In the just-concluded conference, Alapag was back in the finals, albeit they lost to Barangay Ginebra in 6 games.

"On one side, half of me is so proud of our guys, so proud of everyone from Meralco having waited six years and where we came from the first conference, you go one-and-ten, it's embarrassing and it humbles you," Alapag said.

"Even for someone like myself who has been lucky enough to have a lot of success in the PBA and it's been a process for our team and that part of me is just proud of the guys and so excited for them," he continued.

"We literally came from the bottom and put ourselves in a position to compete for the championship and that part of me is really, really proud of our guys at Meralco."

Alapag was selected 10th overall pick in the 2003 PBA draft by the TNT and was considered the "steal of the draft". He formed a dynamic duo with slotman Asi Taulava to lead the Phone Pals to the All-Filipino Cup Championship by beating the Coca-Cola Tigers in the finals, after overcoming the 0-2 deficit.

At the end of the 2003 season, he won the Rookie of the Year award by a huge margin after averaging 14.5 points, 7.02 assists and 6.54 rebounds per outing while shooting a decent clip of 35.4 percent from the three-point region.

On 23 December 2014, he passed Ronnie Magsanoc to move to No. 2 behind Allan Caidic in the all-time three-point list with 1,172 three point field goals made. He now only need two more to tie the record and three to break it.

The 5-foot-9 guard formally announced his retirement during a press conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum prior to the second game of the 2014–15 PBA Philippine Cup Finals between the Alaska Aces and the San Miguel Beermen last 9 January 2015.

Seven months later, Alapag came out of retirement and was traded by the TNT to the Blackwater Elite in exchange for Larry Rodriguez and then to the Meralco Bolts for Mike Cortez and James Sena. He signed a two-year deal with the Bolts worth PhP 10.08 million.

No comments:

Post a Comment