Talk 'N Text and San Miguel embody abundance. Not excess. Abundance, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a relative degree of plentifulness. Excess, on the other hand, is ditching abundance and going over the top. I can sense it. Tumataas na mga kilay niyo. The context of this piece doesn't consider the way two super-teams were formed or how their players are paid. The Finals is still a basketball test, not an accounting jigsaw puzzle. Whoever plays better basketball wins. Back to abundance. Plentitude allows Talk 'N Text to win games even when Kelly Williams goes into foul trouble. It also allows San Miguel to win with the league's oldest point-guard, oldest player in fact, occasionally running plays. How else does Talk 'N Text win without a traditional 6'6" to 6'9" center? How else does San Miguel win while keeping Denok Miranda and Joseph Yeo cozy on the bench? It's the opposite of collecting reasons to lose (sorry Barako Bull). It's contrary to winning by sheer luck (sorry Clippers, based on the long, sad history of your franchise, landing Blake Griffin was obviously not by design).
Talk 'N Text lives by the power of more. The Tropang Texters, as B-Meg Derby Ace just experienced, score and defend like a wolf pack. Very intermutual on offense. Very territorial on defense. They need to pass the ball just as swiftly as they need to switch on defensive assignments. If there's one team which can play 1930's ironman-style American football, it's Talk 'N Text. Everything is almost interchangeable. If you're watching them from an Upper Box B seat and have the eyesight of (using the barometer of College of St. Benilde Coach Richard Del Rosario) most NCAA referees, key TNT players will all look and move the same way.
San Miguel, on the other hand, win games with the combined guile of emergent stars (Jay Washington and Alex Cabagnot) and franchise legends (Danny Ildefonso, Danny Seigle and Olsen Racela). What a luxury to have the best of the old and the new. What an advantage to be able to drive stick or automatic. Because the flow of San Miguel's game adjusts to whoever is on the floor. It's like customized winning: there's veteran-style, there's the fast-yet-controlled pace, there's isolation with seconds to go and there's bahala-na-si-Paul-Artadi-sign-of-the-cross-and-see-where-this-leads-us. The result: more options, more victories.
I give bench-depth advantage to San Miguel. I give horsepower advantage to Talk 'N Text. We've seen San Miguel win close games in the playoffs. Talk 'N Text will have a chance to do the same. Because the Finals is not a contest to see which team is better at making the PBA salary cap look as fearsome as the anti-jaywalking law. The Finals is a battle of a different form of abundance. So many ways to win. So little leeway to not succeed.
Mico Halili, GMA News TV
