Sibling rivalry

MANILA, Philippines - A couple of hours have passed since the epic Game 1 of the UAAP Season 76 basketball finals, where brothers Jeric and Jeron Teng sat on opposite sides, and now the two sit next to each other for this Supreme shoot, rehashing their little scuffle in the second quarter, where they pushed, shoved, wrestled and stared each other down during one rebounding sequence. Younger borther Jeron feels his back: “Masakit pa nga e (it still hurts),” he protests. “Hindi ako yan ah (I didn’t give you that)!” older brother Jeric shoots back with a look of half incredulity, half mock-incredulity. “Pag umabot ng Game 3, yari kayo (If this goes three games, you’ll lose),” Jeron says.

This isn’t a picture of two brothers fighting, but of two brothers ribbing each other, perhaps a little too literally, during the game. As anyone who grew up in a household with two hyper-active boys would attest, the line between tomfoolery and fighting gets blurred to the point where the former eventually subsumes the latter and any skirmish somehow becomes an act of brotherly love. For the brothers Teng, familiarity does not breed contempt — only more fuel to the fire of their inborn competitiveness. Together, they became high school basketball phenoms, rookies of the year for their respective UAAP teams. They’ve been joined at the hip for so long that hardly anyone was surprised to find them headlining this year’s UAAP men’s basketball finals.

After their dramatic and heated Game 1, UST’s Jeric and La Salle’s Jeron sat down with us to talk about the joys of competing against each other and the awkwardness of winning.

How does it feel to be together after trying to kick each other’s butts in a championship game?

JERIC: It’s nothing, really. Of course, on the court we’re still brothers, we’re very close. But it’s the finals now and things got really heated between the two of us. It was just in the heat of the game and since we’re both competitors, we’re not backing down from each other, so our competitiveness just comes out in a game like that. No more inhibitions. But that’s just during the game.

JERON: It’s something new for the both of us, being here in the finals against each other. It’s different compared to normal eliminations, the stakes are higher here, so we’re really at our most competitive.

What happened during your little altercation?

JERIC: (Laughs) I really don’t know what happened there. I think we were going for the rebound.

JERON: We were just fighting for position.

JERIC: Fighting for position for the rebound.

JERON: You can’t avoid those things.

JERIC: We don’t take those things personally.

After the game, what kind of conversation did you have?

JERIC: We were just talking about the breaks of the game and how it just really went our way. Because they (La Salle) had a chance to win the game in the end. It just shows you that if it’s UST versus La Salle, it’s almost always guaranteed to be a close game. Since last year, we’ve been in a lot of really close games against each other, games decided by one point, two points.

JERON (with his serious game-face): I just told him we’re gonna bounce back the next game.

Do you get to interact a lot after your games against each other?

JERIC: Not really. During the season, he’s in Taft most of the time.

JERON: I stay in a players quarters there, so I don’t get to talk to him a lot. Especially now in the finals.

JERIC: It’s better that way because it’s easier to prepare for the game, to have that mindset that you’re not going to play as brothers — you’re playing for your team.

Do you guys talk trash often?

JERIC: It happens before the game, not after when the loss is still fresh. But before the game, we kid each other on Twitter and all that, but that’s normal. We’re just kidding around, it’s nothing personal.

JERON: We do that before the game. After the game, you don’t want him to feel bad.

Do you have fond memories of your one-on-one battles growing up?

JERIC: We used to play one-on-one at home, we have a court there. Even then, we’d really get into each other, lose our cool sometimes. We’ve really always been competitive. We hate losing.

JERON: When I was young, he was the one who taught me how to play. So I look up to him. And he still helps me now on how to improve my game. He tells me what I can do to make my game better.

 Do you still measure yourself up against each other?

JERIC: For me, yes, I think there’s still some of that. But I think it’s a win-win situation for us because what happens is we try to outwork each other. If he steps up his game, I should step up mine as well, and vice-versa. It benefits both of us. We get better because we get compared a lot. Like sometimes, you hear people say that he’s better than me. I guess it serves as a motivation for us to keep improving.

JERON: For me, I don’t think we compete or worry about who’s better and all that. At the same time, we can’t avoid people comparing us. We just leave it to them. I don’t see it as us competing against each other, it’s more of us helping each other improve.

Was there talk of you playing together in college?

JERIC: You can’t help but wonder sometimes what would happen if we were still on the same team. But I think we’re already okay with our experiences as teammates in Xavier, where we won a championship. I think it’s better that we’re on different teams now so there won’t be too much pressure from competing for spots, since we play the same position and we always get compared.

Having an ex-PBA player for a dad (Alvin Teng) must have its advantages, basketball-wise. Does he also give you advice on off-the-court stuff like handling the limelight?

JERIC: He reminds us to keep our feet on the ground, since this doesn’t last forever. He always tells us that once an opportunity comes, you grab it. There are a lot of players who don’t get the chance, players that are better than me, but for some reason aren’t given the chance, so we should just value the opportunity that we have.

JERON: He also tells us to be very accommodating to the fans.

Growing up, you must have had dreams of being UAAP champions. How does it feel to see your own brother standing in the way of that dream?

JERIC: It’s really hard, like right now, we won, but at the same time I feel bad. (Jeron laughs sarcastically and Jeric smiles) Not really “feel bad,” but if it’s against another team, I’d be happier. Since he’s still my brother, your enjoyment over the win is limited. But we both want to win so bad, so you can’t avoid it. But we’re both good sports.

JERON: In the game of basketball, there’s always a winner and there’s always a loser. So for our part, we just have to accept that one of us will be a winner and one of us will be a loser.

Let’s say the series is over, you finally win a championship. How long before you start feeling sorry for your brother?

JERIC: After the win, I’ll definitely celebrate. But once you get home and you see your brother, of course I have to take that into consideration and not talk about our win, because it really hurts when you lose.

JERON: It takes a long time to get over a loss, you can’t avoid feeling bad. We’re both so close to winning a championship right now, so it’s really going to hurt when one of us loses. But I guess, in time, whoever loses will be happy, because we’re still brothers. Whatever accomplishments he has, I’ll be happy.

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