Today I had the chance to watch and meet the Philippine Basketball legends at Arco Arena in Sacramento.
Here's my favorite -- atoy Co.
We all knew him by the monicker Fortune Cookie, but the Mapua Institute of Technology will always remember him as the Fortune Rookie when he joined the team in 1970.
He first played in the PBA on April 22, 1975, scoring 34 points and leading Crispa to a 113-102 win over CFC, the team's first victory after starting the season with three (3) straight defeats.
He was by far the best shooter there ever was in the Philippine Basketball Association long before the arrival of Allan Caidic. He was the main proponent of the famous fade-away shot and his patented “stop on a dime” jumper was unmatched in his storied career. A great scorer, he was the first player to score 5,000 points achieving it after four years, one month and five days after his debut on April 22, 1975. In 1984, he also became the first player to score 10,000 points in the PBA’s history. Had the PBA introduced the 3-point shot in 1975, he would have been the first to record 1,000 3-point shots, way ahead of Caidic and Ronald Magsanoc. Dubbed as the Fortune Cookie, he was named MVP in 1979 and a 9-time Mythical Team member. He ended his career as the PBA’s No. 4 in All-Time Scoring with 12,994 points behind fellow pioneers Ramon Fernandez and Alberto Guidaben and Alvin Patrimonio of batch 1988 as well as holding the distinction of being the first PBA player to have scored 5,000 and 10,000 points. He also was a career 78.6% FT shooter having converted 1549/1970 FT attempts and dished-off 2,640 assists (3.5 apg) in 14 seasons in the PBA from 1975-1988 in a grand total of 749 games in 24395:05 minutes.
In 2000, he was named as one of the PBA's 25 greatest players of all-time in elaborate awards ceremonies that highlighted the 25th year anniversary of the league.
More pictures here:
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