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Ready for takeoff: Remembering Alaska’s 1st PBA championship

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Rey Joble

Two 1st-round picks. A trade in the off season. And a bitter lesson learned from the previous season.Year 1991 looks promising for Alaska following the wheeling and dealing the team made in the offseason. Alaska, whose moniker back then were The Airforce, played and looked like one.Jojo Lastimosa, a high-flyer during that time, joined rim-rattlers Bong Alvarez and Sean Chambers and they were at full strength during the season-ending Third Conference.From the rookie draft, the Airforce selected 6-foot-7 Alex Araneta to team up with Dong Polistico to form the team&#x27;s twin towers.Araneta, a member of Ateneo&#x27;s back-to-back UAAP champion teams of 1987 and 1988, was selected the team&#x27;s top overall pick that season.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/16/22/pba-sadness-pride-felt-as-alaska-legends-reminisce">‘One big family’: Legends recall Alaska time with sadness, pride as franchise folds</a></li></ul>Alaska also owned the No. 3 pick that season and exercised its option by picking Eugene Quilban, the best point guard in the draft and a college teammate of Bong Alvarez with the multi-titled San Sebastian Stags.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/18/22/pba-looking-back-at-alaskas-journey-to-the-grand-slam">‘Beautiful thing to be a part of’: Remembering Alaska’s 1996 grand slam journey</a></li></ul>Another player selected from the draft was Rhoel Gomez, who would later on play a special role on the team.Peter Aguilar, father of current Barangay Ginebra star forward Japeth Aguilar, was also picked up by Alaska&#x27;s from free agency after the elder Aguilar wrapping up his playing years with Ginebra.Added, too, was Nandy Garcia, who was brought in after he was released by Sarsi, and Nap Hatton, the lefty swingman picked up in a trade with Ric-Ric Marata.But with Alvarez still on his way to recovery from a torn Achilles injury, it took Alaska some time before it could return to the finals and win its first PBA title.Cone recalled the journey to that first ever championship. &quot;For Bong Alvarez, he had that Achilles injury, which forced him out for nearly a year, about 10 months. He came back just in time to win our first ever championship,&quot; Cone said.Alvarez played a big role on the squad, limiting the production of the highly touted NBA veteran Wes Matthews, a member of the 1987 champion team Los Angeles Lakers.For Cone, it was a moment to cherish and he shared that success with a close friend from way back: Chot Reyes who helped Alaska&#x27;s team of the 90s in its formative years and was one of the American&#x27;s mentor&#x27;s assistant coaches.Reyes started his PBA coaching career with Alaska and that&#x27;s mainly because of the bond he established with the winningest coach in league history. &quot;Si Tim, kaya niya ako ni-recruit kasi he really wanted to have an assistant, he wanted to have somebody he want to work comfortably with. Because we knew each other from our previous encounters playing against each other, tamang-tama. That was his first official year as head coach, 1989, we broke into the PBA together,&quot; recalled Reyes. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/22/22/pba-in-the-90s-alaska-showed-its-genius-at-trade-table">PBA: Alaska series of trades in the 90s proved to be.a masterstroke</a></li></ul>&quot;Obviously he won a lot of championships than I have, but it&#x27;s a great privilege for me to basically grow up in PBA with him. We hold very similar values in attitude and how the game should be played. Obviously our techniques, strategies might be different, but our approach to the game is very similar. Up to now, we remained very close. We maintained a very close bond.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/23/22/pba-when-alaska-chose-flag-over-second-grand-slam">PBA: When Cone, Alaska chose flag over a second grand slam</a></li></ul>Two years later, Reyes would go on to become the head coach of the old Purefoods franchise, winning a championship with Coney Island in his very first conference as mentor and won a PBA title at the age of 29. For Chambers, he was a man on a mission. He even had to work double time as an import in the first conference and the season-ending third conference, but sticking with the well-built, athletic reinforcement was the best thing to do for Alaska at that time.Chambers brought in the lessons he learned from the previous setback the team had against Purefoods and made sure to come back stronger and better.In the finals, he had to face Matthews, but that made him even more motivated. &quot;I can still remember the pain of losing 3 games in a row to Purefoods the previous year. So the next year (1991), I was so overly motivated to win a championship. Jojo, myself, Bong Alvarez and Frankie Lim, we were all super good that year,&quot; said Chambers.&quot;Then, Dong Polistico was really good, Nandy Garcia, Peter Aguilar, we were so talented that year. We won that championship, 3-1.&quot;Chambers took it upon himself and made sure that he&#x27;d be more than ready to carry Alaska all the way this time. &quot;Wes Matthews, on paper, nobody can compare to him, being at the same level. But I remember, I really had a really good series against Wes Matthews,&quot; added Chambers.Playing for a team where he can take over as the floor leader, Lastimosa enjoyed the finest season of his career, not just individually, but the start of building a foundation for a winning culture. Lastimosa was brought into Alaska in the offseason in a trade with Boy Cabahug. &quot;I was given more playing time, more responsibilities with the franchise. I was leading the franchise already, although we have some veterans there. We had Frankie Lim, Biboy Ravanes, Bong Alvarez was still there. I was a part of the mixture of veterans and young guys in that ’91 Alaska team,&quot; added Lastimosa.It was like a personal title defense for Lastimosa, who a year earlier won a title in the third conference while playing for Purefoods.But Jolas also felt 1991 would have been his biggest year individually. &quot;I thought I should have won the MVP in 1991. I was leading the league in scoring and was leading the league in statistical points. I just lost in media votes. But if you based it solely on winning a championship and stats, I would have won it. Alvin won the MVP in ’91,&quot; he added.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/21/22/pba-the-time-alaska-fired-rehired-tim-cone-in-1993">PBA: The time Alaska ‘fired and rehired’ Tim Cone in 1993</a></li></ul>All those memories of Alaska’s championship runs, all 14 of them, including the grand slam in 1996, team owner Wilfred Uytengsu couldn’t pick one from the other, but there’s a better reason why the first championship was special.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/17/22/pba-the-time-alaska-was-known-by-another-brand">PBA: From milk to coffee, why Alaska at one point became known as Hills Bros</a></li></ul>“I think the first championship is very special because nobody expected us to go to the finals, yet we won the championship,” added Uytengsu.

Before the Abarrientos, grand-slam era Milkmen, there were the fledgling Airforce, still searching for an identity but a driven squad just the same.