Toyota is forever

“Forever is composed of nows.” – Emily Dickinson

Even even after more than 50 years, the bond between teammates of the Toyota Comets and Tamaraws remains strong. Last Friday, a spontaneous reunion broke out at a mall in Quezon City, bringing together eight of the teams members from its MICAA and PBA days. The gathering included adopted family members, this writer, and the team from Basketball Universe PHL. How do such friendships still stay vital even after all this time?

“It was in the culture of the Toyota team,” explains 1976 PBA Rookie of the Year Gil Cortez. “We were brought up that. You know, when you’re handled by Osbok (Dante Silverio), your camaraderie is strong. Add the factor that we and Crispa were the only teams with quarters, so we’d see each other all the time.”

“We always had fun, and went to so many places together,” adds Ompong Segura, who won four PBA titles with Toyota. “When you’re a senior citizen, you have to see your senior friends. The conversation is so colorful, and brings up all those memories.”

Toyota’s rivalry with Crispa propelled the league to prominence in its first decade. For some of the players, the animosity was real.

“It was very intense,” says Cortez, now a regional director for the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas. “Though the players shouldn’t have been physical to the point of hurting one another. But if you didn’t have any cuts or bruises, you never played for Crispa or Toyota.”

Basketball has changed so much in the last half century. But the Toyota legends clearly remember how we got to this point.

“Although the arrival of Fil-Ams helped upgrade the individual talents of players, there are a lot of local players who end up not playing in the PBA long,” Segura declares. “I believe the league of Pacquiao (MPBL) is good, because more players can play professionally.”

“I think what’s changed is the loyalty to one’s team,” adds champion PBA coach Arlene Rodriguez, whose brother Ulysses played for Toyota for five years. “Nowadays, if anyone talks to a player with a good offer, they transfer. Before, the togetherness was unbreakable, and players stayed for a long time with one team.”

The Toyota players still regularly revisit those colorful times, and maintain solid friendships to this day. We should all be so lucky.

More on Toyota’s togetherness on Basketball Universe PHL, tonight on YouTube and Facebook. Subscribe now.