Erik Menk’s memories, Part 1

A week ago, Eric Menk officially retired from professional basketball. After a little over two decades of playing in the Philippines, Barangay Ginebra’s first-ever Most Valuable Player (2004-2005), who reluctantly agreed to be called “Major Pain,” looks back on a busload of memories from the game that changed his life. As a kid growing up in Charlotte, Michigan, Menk played the games all the kids played, until a new coach turned their high school basketball program around. Soon, the whole town was buzzing about the sport. Like all the kids in town, Eric wanted to play for the local team. But at that point, he knew almost nothing about the Philippines.

“I knew that my Mom was from the Philippines. I knew she looked a lot different that anyone else I knew, and I knew that me and my sister were different from anyone else that I saw,” Menk smiles at the memory. “But that was all I really knew. I didn’t know the stories my Mom would tell me about growing up. I didn’t know many Filipinos. My Mom had only come back to the Philippines once, I think.”

When he got to college, Eric was already planning on playing professional basketball. He plied his trade for Horsens Idraets Club in Denmark for one year, and that was actually where he learned about the Philippine Basketball Association, and decided that this was where he wanted to play. 

“In the early stages of the Internet, my Dad sent me an e-mail about the PBA,” Eric recalls the almost prophetic event clearly. “And the focus of the article was about Mr. Jaworski. And he was still playing I think in his late 40’s at that time, and then they started mentioning the imports that were playing here. These guys were former NBA players, guys that played at big-time schools that I knew about in the United States, and that kind of opened my eyes and a light bulb went off. It was like wow, that looks like a real league. I had never thought about basketball being big here.”

Cobbling together the few Philippine connections he had, the Danish import was soon on a plane to the Philippines, trying to make it in Philippine basketball via Tanduay in the Philippine Basketball League. But first, a rude awakening to the ruggedness of basketball in the country awaited him.

“I flew in and the same day that I flew in to Manila, I went to the province and I had a game that day. And I remember my teammates warning me about how physical the game was,” Menk says. “At the time, I laughed it off, because I was a big, strong guy and I was used to playing against big strong guys. How rough can it be? Midway through the first quarter, after a couple of skirmishes and fouls, I wanted to fight. After the game I was so happy that my teammates warned me, because I didn’t get that mad. But it definitely startled me.”

Acclimatizing to the style of play, Menk of Tanduay and Asi Taulava of Blu Detergent formed a great rivalry in the PBL. Tanduay aspired to join the PBA, and needed Menk to help make the transition after six championships in the amateurs. Andy Seigle and Nic Belasco had just been drafted into the PBA, ushering a new wave of tall, athletic Fil-Am talent. For Menk, it was still a feeling-out process.

“Nobody really gave me much information. My mother was Filipina; I was very easily able to prove that. But as far as the technical, behind-the-scenes stuff, paperwork,” adds Menk, “nobody ever notified me of anything, other than bring a couple of pieces of documentation, and you’ll be able to play. For me, I wasn’t gonna ask any questions. It was a great opportunity, sounded great.”

Most of what Menk knew about the PBA came from watching the intense battles between Ginebra San Miguel with Noli Locsin and Marlou Aquino and the Alaska teams with their great teamwork, and so on.

“My first impression of the PBA was from television. I was watching all the games. And again, it was rough, there was a lot of passion, the players were passionate. The fans were passionate. The coaches were passionate. And they were willing to fight for the upper hand on the other team.”

Preparing to make the jump to the pros as an elevated player or direct hire, Menk had realistic expectations. Team management, on the other hand, was a little too optimistic.

“Tanduay’s expectations were – I thought at the time – very delusional,” he laughs. “My thought process was, we’re an expansion team, we’re probably gonna be bad for the first couple of years. And hopefully, we’ll be able to build something. Tanduay’s expectations were to win right away our first conference, our first year: championships. We did alright, we definitely had more success than I thought we would have.”

Eric Menk’s PBA career, in a succeeding column.