Purefoods eager to reclaim All-Filipino winning tradition

Once upon a time, the All-Filipino Conference was Purefoods' turf in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Since getting the franchise rights from Tanduay in the late 80s, Purefoods made three trips to the All-Filipino Cup finals from 1988 to 1990 losing to Añejo, San Miguel and Presto in that order.

Then in 1991, Purefoods earned its first All-Filipino Conference crown with a 3-2 win over Sarsi. They also won three more All-Filipino titles: 1993 carrying Coney Island, 1997 back as Purefoods and the last time was during the 2005-06 season.

Overall the former Ayala-owned PBA franchise made 12 All-Filipino Cup Finals appearances.

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This is one way of balancing our roster. We now have players who know their role very well and there are players now willing to do the dirty job.

– Ryan Gregorio, Purefoods coach

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Reclaiming Purefoods’ lost glory is what the current team is hoping to achieve when the PBA’s 35th season opens in October where they plan to use its height advantage against the nine other squads.

The team appears to be on the right track as it acquired five new players – four on the trading table and one from the recent PBA Annual Rookie Draft.

Rico Maierhofer was the Tender Juicy Giants’ lone draft pick at second overall after Burger King tabbed Japeth Aguilar as the No.1 draft choice.

Purefoods then secured Rafi Reavis, rookie Chris Timberlake and returning players Marc Pingris and Paul Artadi from the trading table with the move part of coach Ryan Gregorio’s “house cleaning" to balance the Giants’ roster.

Gregorio said the team now is so talented that the coaching staff can choose a different starting unit in every game. “This is one way of balancing our roster. We now have players who know their role very well and there are players now willing to do the dirty job."

Ideally, Purefoods can use Reavis at center, team captain Kerby Raymundo at the power forward spot, Pingris at small forward, former MVP James Yap at big guard and Artadi at the point guard position.

Its second team is also a talented unit with Don Allado manning the slot, Maierhofer playing the power forward, KG Canaleta filling the No.3 spot, Peter June Simon coming off the bench at the big guard position and Roger Yap playing the backup point-guard role.

The Giants still have four other talented personnel ready to pinch hit anytime – veteran slotman Rommel Adducul, Timberlake at the point, Jondan Salvador at center/forward and the returning Jonathan Fernandez at big guard.