The journey of LA Tenorio

(Part I)

You could say that LA Tenorio has had a dream career. From being part of the 2002 UAAP championship team of Ateneo de Manila, to being picked by San Miguel Beer, to winning championships with Alaska after being traded for Mike Cortez. Then he, in his own words, was “possessed and went wild against a US team, helping Gilas Pilipinas defeat one of the world’s basketball powerhouses. But to add to all of that taking Barangay Ginebra to its first PBA championship in eight years, and being named Finals MVP? This is beyond a Hollywood script. This is fantasy.

“My transition from Alaska to Ginebra was difficult,” Tenorio admits. “In fairness to coach Joel (Banal), he got caught in between. The expectations were so high. He’s a great coach. That’s the first time that Alaska signed a coach to a three-year contract. Everyone was expecting things to be the same. When everything happens like that, the coach wants to do a lot of things, do things his own way. Unfortunately, it was not successful.”

During that period, LA wanted to make things work. But he also wanted to play for the national team. Both desires ran headlong into each other. Eventually, he would have to choose one over the other, a painful decision at best. Alaska had already given so much to the national cause, inadvertently sacrifice a second PBA Grand Slam when the national team came calling in 1997.

“The story was I played for Gilas in the Jones Cup in 2012,” he recalls. “Ironically, Alaska didn’t really want us to play for Gilas. “When coach Tim (Cone) left, naturally they wanted us to concentrate on Alaska, with a new coach and all the changes. That was two or three days after I won the MVP in the Jones Cup.”

The sticking point was the Stankovic Cup in Japan. LA could no longer say no to the national cause after that once-in-a-lifetime achievement, beating the US three decades after Northern Cement did in the same tournament. For the second time in his stellar career, the diminutive point guard was traded to Ginebra San Miguel for Jvee Casio and Dondon Hontiveros. He thanked team owner Fred Uytengsu for six happy years. He had built solid relationships with everyone at Alaska, from finance to marketing. He had been happy. But it was time to go.

“It’s a completely different atmosphere, scenario, from players to staff, management, at Ginebra,” Tenorio recalls. “And when you play, the crowd! It was a turnaround for me. I didn’t really want to go. I was traded when I didn’t really want to be traded. It was a big adjustment for me.”

But on the other hand, he was very welcome at Ginebra. From Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand on down, everyone was excited. They knew what he could bring to the team. A thinking, fearless point guard. Someone who could be the pulse of the country’s most famous team. He saw this first day of practice. Strangely, the coach at the time was Siot Tanquincen, who traded LA from San Miguel Beer. LA knew that it was part of being a professional basketball player, and he was stoked to join the team. Caguioa, Helterbrand, Rudy Hatfield, Billy Mamaril, Willie Wilson, Kerby Raymundo all helped him with the adjustment. He was astonished that all these legendary players welcomed him so warmly.

“There were too many changes. It’s really hard for a coach to handle a team when, every conference, they’re being changed,” Tenorio says. “And there’s too much pressure. Coaching Ginebra is like coaching the national team. All eyes are on you, all eyes are on the team. Team ng bayan. Plus social media. Everyone was affected. It was so hard. Eight coaches. They all had a hard time. I told the coaches, no matter what we do, we’re here. Let’s do our best. Whatever happens, at least we tried. We don’t give up. You can build chemistry, teamwork, the discipline of the players. It keeps changing. You know how players are, they need time to adapt to a new system. That’s the main reason why Ginebra struggled for a long time.”

Then LA heard a rumor, one he didn’t believe: Tim Cone, who had just win a Grand Slam with SanMig Coffee in 2014, was coming to Ginebra. It sounded too good to be true.

More on the ascension of LA Tenorio and Ginebra in Saturday’s column.