Although Washington walked the walk with sterling averages of 19.3 points and 10.2 boards in six games of the 2010-2011 PBA Philippine Cup finals, the exclamation point he was looking for wasn't there.

“You know what, it’s a team game,” said Washington, the Beermen’s versatile forward, who was named as the Best Player of the Conference for a second straight time.

“If anything, I’m more frustrated that this game I’m looking for my teammates to be there, and some guys stepped up, but the guys I feel like I hope to be there were not.”

After running roughshod in games three and four, coming back from a fatal 0-2 hole with victories of tremendous margins, the once-formidable Beermen—ready to fight to the death—suddenly looked out of the loop.

Pushed to brink of defeat, San Miguel never pushed back. Instead, they let the inspired Texters bury them to the grave with a 92-82 crushing and yet another fruitless trip to the finals.

“It was pretty much the same game plan (as that of games 3 and 4) but we weren’t able to execute it,” said Washington.

San Miguel, especially that night, was never able to do whatever Talk N Text did right and was exposed of its weakness.

“I give them (Talk N Text) credit. They played well together as a team. It was something we failed to do today—last couple of games,” said Washington.

“It was kind of hard to be in the locker room and feel happy or good with the way we played,” he added.

Washington exploded for 29 huge points and 18 boards in that last game, but to carry the cudgels meant for five people in the playing court has always been a task one too heavy for one man alone.

Top gunners Arwind Santos and Dondon Hontiveros, among others, combined for a measly 22 points on an anemic shooting night last Friday.

“That’s the hard part in this one,” Washington added. “I could have played as well as I could have then to lose it (the game), what I did goes out of the window actually.”

Washington is actually just the fourth player in the league to have been adjudged as back-to-back Best Player of the Conference, but all the players that came before him went on to win championships.

And his frustrations surely run deep, especially after making it known before the start of the finals series that he still held “some kind of animosity” towards Talk N Text, his first team in the PBA before getting shipped to San Miguel in 2008.

“It would be me proving to myself that the way I felt wasn’t wrong, like I’m actually fighting for something,” Washington even told the Inquirer before the finals started.

Surely Washinton got his message across, not just to himself but also to a jampacked crowd who religiously came to watch the Finals. But letting go of the “animosity” is not yet in his plans just yet.

“It will still be my motivation, nothing’s changed. Whenever I play Talk N Text, regular season, playoffs, whenever, it’s the same and I’ll continue to use that,” he shared.

“I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

And while Washington is at it, he and San Miguel will carry on trying to get that championship that has eluded them for quite some time now.

“There’s always next conference,” Washington concluded.

Celest Flores, Phil. Daily Inquirer