Barangay Ginebra San Miguel
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association. It is owned by Ginebra San Miguel, Inc., a subsidiary of the San Miguel Corporation, and is one of three PBA teams owned by SMC, along with the Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots and the San Miguel Beermen. Regarded as the most popular team in the PBA, they are best known for their resilience and large fan following, as well as for their "Never Say Die" spirit. Barangay Ginebra has won 15 PBA championships, the second most overall behind the San Miguel Beermen.
La Tondeña, Inc. joined the PBA in 1979 as an expansion team. After some rough times during their first few seasons, their fortunes changed when veterans Robert Jaworski and Francis Arnaiz arrived in 1984, following the disbandment of the famed Toyota Tamaraws. With new players like Jaworski being veterans of the game from ages 30–35, Jaworski would also be given the role as head coach of the young Ginebra team. As player-coach, Jaworski steered the franchise to four PBA titles between 1986 and 1997. After the retirement of Coach Jaworski at the age of 52, Jong Uichico, Siot Tanquingcen and Tim Cone would be coaching the players led by the legendary "Fast and The Furious", MVPs Jayjay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa.
History
1979–1983: Gilbey's Gin/St. George Whiskies/Gilbey's Gin Gimlets
Joining the league in 1979, the team was known as Gilbey's Gin of then-owner and team founder Carlos G. Palanca, Jr.'s La Tondeña, Inc. franchise. Its first head coach was Pilo Pumaren and was bannered by MICAA standout Willie Tanduyan and imports Larry McNeill and Dean Tolson. Gilbey's managed to place fourth in the 1979 Invitational tournament.In the 1980 season, Nemie Villegas took over as head coach. Willie Generalao won the Rookie of the Year honors during the 1980 season as Gilbey's placed fourth in the All-Filipino tournament.
The franchise played under the name St. George Whiskies during the 1981 Reinforced Filipino conference.
In 1982, playing again as Gilbey's Gin under new coach Arturo Valenzona, the Gins made its first finals appearance during the Open Conference. But they were swept by Toyota of coach Ed Ocampo, Robert Jaworski, and Ramon Fernandez.
Gilbey's made another finals appearance in the 1983 All-Filipino but were also swept by the Crispa Redmanizers in the first of three titles won by the Redmanizers.
1984–1998: The Jaworski era
1984: Gilbey's Gin Tonics
Before the 1984 season, Toyota announced its departure from the league after winning nine titles in nine seasons. As part of an agreement with new team Beer Hausen, the rights of the Toyota players were acquired by Beer Hausen. The team, owned by Lucio Tan, was entering its first year in the PBA. Jaworski, Francis Arnaiz, Arnie Tuadles and Chito Loyzaga refused to join Beer Hausen. The internal feud between Jaworski and Fernandez, which had been simmering for several years, became public. With this development, Gilbey's accepted Jaworski and Arnaiz; Tuadles and Loyzaga joined Great Taste; while the rest of the Toyota players, led by Fernandez, joined Beer Hausen. Jaworski and Arnaiz turned the moribund franchise into a competitive team almost overnight when in the first conference of the 1984 season, the All-Filipino Conference, they led the team to the finals against Crispa.1985–1988: Ginebra San Miguel and the birth of "Never-Say-Die"
By 1985, Gilbey's was renamed as Ginebra San Miguel. However, the team failed to enter the finals in each of the three conferences, showing only a strong finish in the Reinforced Conference. On October 22, 1985, in a game against Northern Cement, Jaworski was hit by an elbow from Jeff Moore late in the second quarter. He had to be brought to nearby Medical City's emergency room to get stitches on his lips. During the third quarter, NCC was leading when Jaworski returned to the bench.Michael Hackett also saw his name in the PBA record books by scoring 103 points in Ginebra's 197–168 victory against Great Taste on November 21, 1985. This was later broken by Swift's Tony Harris in a 1992 game in Iloilo City ironically against Ginebra with 105 points.
Former Crispa import Billy Ray Bates was brought in for the 1986 Open Conference. Each PBA team was allowed to get two imports for the said conference. Bates' other partner was Michael Hackett, who was the 1985 Open Conference Best Import. It is believed that the pair was the greatest import tandem in PBA history. The two led the team in the finals of the tournament against Manila Beer, with Abet Guidaben and imports Michael Young and Harold Keeling. Bates and Hackett powered Ginebra to a 4–1 win in the series to win the 1986 PBA Open Conference and give the team its first-ever championship.
Arnaiz suddenly left for the United States due to injury, but was still part of the line-up, before the team won its first championship, ending his 11-year career and tandem with Jaworski. He retired shortly afterwards the 1986 season.
1988–1990: Añejo Rum 65
In 1988, the team changed its name to Añejo Rum 65. The 65ers won the 1988 PBA All-Filipino Conference, their first All-Filipino championship and second overall title. They entered the finals via a classic playoff game vs. San Miguel. Joey Loyzaga made a perfect pass to Romulo Mamaril and made the game winning basket. Añejo took on new team Purefoods in the finals. Añejo won the series 3–1 over the young Purefoods team led by Jerry Codiñera, Alvin Patrimonio, and Jojo Lastimosa. During this time, Fernandez was benched by Purefoods for alleged game-fixing. In the final game, three 65ers scored 25 points or more – Joey Loyzaga, Dondon Ampalayo, and Sonny Jaworski – as the 65ers did not allow the then rookie-laden Purefoods team to gain confidence. The game was close all throughout until the final 3 minutes of the game when Loyzaga and Jaworski uncorked 3-pointers that iced the win. This team is known as the best All-Filipino underdog team ever to grabbed the All-Filipino Cup.Añejo also clinched the 1988 PBA/IBA World Challenge Cup with Bobby Parks as their import by beating international teams and beating Alaska Air Force in the lone final game. In the season-ending Reinforced Conference wherein teams were allowed two imports each, Añejo again hired the great Billy Ray Bates and paired him with Kevin Gamble. After only four games, Bates was sent home for good. The 65er would finish the season with the exciting and high-scoring duo of Joe Ward and Tommy Davis as imports.
On the next season, Añejo lost in five games to grand slam winning San Miguel Beermen in the Reinforced Conference. In that conference, the 65ers paraded another super import in Carlos Briggs, who easily won the Best Import Award. In 1990, Añejo entered the finals of the First Conference against Benjie Paras and the Shell Rimula X team. In Game Six, with Shell already leading the series 3–2, Añejo protested a foul on Rey Cuenco with a few minutes left in the second quarter. This led to the infamous walk out of Añejo. The team also complained about the unfavorable officiating as the team had more fouls than Shell. In the end, the game was forfeited and awarded the title to the Oilers. The result of this event gave the team a fine of more than 500,000 PHP which was then the highest fine in league history.
1991–1996: Ginebra San Miguel/Tondeña Rhum 65
In 1991, Añejo reverted to playing as Ginebra San Miguel. They met Shell again in the finals of the 1991 PBA First Conference. The Oilers goes up 3–1 in the series, needing only a win to clinch the series, but Shell blew a 3–1 lead as Ginebra managed a furious comeback to force a seventh game. In the final seconds of Game 7, an off-balanced shot by Rudy Distrito with a second remaining sealed Ginebra's third PBA title and completed the greatest comeback in PBA history.Ginebra placed third in the 1992 Reinforced Conference. But at that time, the team was starting to fade.
In the 1993 pre-season, the Gins were given the second overall pick in the 1993 PBA draft behind new team Sta. Lucia Realty which replaced Presto. They drafted former FEU power forward Victor Pablo but immediately traded him to 7-Up for veterans Manny Victorino and Alejo Alolor. The said trade was lambasted by most fans, and it cost Ginebra their performance for the year where they compiled a 9–26 record in all three conferences. This horrible performance gave them the top pick in the next draft.
In 1994, in an effort to change their fortunes, the team was renamed Tondeña Rhum 65. The team selected Noli Locsin with their first pick, and was hoped to make team better. But Tondeña's struggles continued, winning just 12 of the 32 games that year.
In 1995, the team reverted again to Ginebra San Miguel. They selected 7′0″ center E.J. Feihl and also drafted Jaworski's son, Robert Jr. The drafting of Feihl surprised people. They were expecting Ginebra to either draft Kenneth Duremdes or Jeffrey Cariaso at that time. Jaworski later quoted, "It's not everyday that you see a 7-footer applying for the draft." Unfortunately, misfortunes still struck the team as Ginebra won only 5 of the 30 games played that year, capped by a 0–10 win–loss record during the Governors' Cup. The worst season triggered rumors that the Gins was disbanding. But the rumor was quickly killed off after the team posted a printed advertisement in major newspapers that they were staying in the PBA. Ginebra got the top pick again in the next draft. This was the last time a PBA team with the worst record was awarded the top pick in the draft. In the succeeding drafts, the worst PBA team had to compete with the second worst team via lottery to determine the top pick in the draft.
In 1996, the team used the top overall pick to draft controversial center Marlou Aquino from Adamson University. Aquino was a big star in the PBL for Nikon Home Appliances and Stag Pale Pilsen but was involved in a controversial scandal in terms of his academic status at Adamson, although this was later neglected when he jumped pro. Aquino showed the promise the fans of the team expected during the All-Filipino Conference. It also showed the discovery of former University of Santo Tomas guard Bal David as one of the team's popular players along with Vince Hizon, Jayvee Gayoso, and Pido Jarencio.
In the Commissioner's Cup, the team paraded NBA veteran Henry James as the team wound up in an elimination game against Formula Shell. But Kenny Redfield's buzzer-beating three enabled Shell to enter the finals. Ginebra finally entered the finals of the Governors' Cup but lost to the grand slam winning Alaska Milkmen in five games. Aquino's impact gave the team a 30-game improvement from a year ago and was named as the Rookie of the Year.