FRANCIS Arnaiz was proud to see Barangay Ginebra continue living to the tradition he and fellow great Robert Jaworski Sr. initiated more than three decades ago.
The former PBA superstar saw for himself how the Kings battled their way back against the Meralco Bolts in Game Two of the Governors Cup finals to pull off an 86-76 win Sunday night before a crowd of more than 16,000 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Arnaiz, now 66, sat beside Jaworski at ringside and watched how the last team he played for in the league clawed back from a six-point deficit in the payoff period and escaped with the victory that allowed Ginebra to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
'Mr. Clutch' said the performance was a testament that the ballclub remains committed to its never-say-die attitude, a philosophy Ginebra first embraced when Jaworski became playing-coach of the team and Arnaiz as his reliable backcourt partner way back in 1985.
"There are a lot of things you can't foresee in a game, you don't kung sino ang mananalo or sino ang matatalo," said Arnaiz, who's currently in the country for a vacation from Sacramento, California, where he had been based for 31 years now.
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"The only thing you can control in the game is your effort. And I saw that in them. They are never-say- die nga, and they still have it."
It was the first time he watched the game live with Jaworski, his long-time teammate and close friend, at the Big Dome, the same playing venue where they won together a total of nine championships as the popular backcourt tandem of the fabled Toyota Tamaraws.
Following the disbandment of Toyota in 1984, he joined Jaworski at Gilbey's Gin, which went on to carry the Ginebra San Miguel brand a season after.
Incidentally, Jaworski and Arnaiz's partnership began in the old MICAA, where they played together for the Meralco team.
A former star player of Ateneo, Arnaiz didn't get to join Jaworski made a post-game talk inside the Ginebra dugout following the win, but nonetheless, was personally approached by coach Tim Cone while he was granting interviews with reporters and TV crews.
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Jaworski said he lauded the Kings for hanging on just when Meralco was making a big fourth quarter run, until it finally found its rhythm to put together a telling 15-1 run behind import Justine Brownlee and LA Tenorio and settled the outcome of the thrilling match.
"I just told them that we only win it by holding together and working hard. There's no secret (to it)," said the Big J as he emerged from the Ginebra locker room.
Added Arnaiz, a three-time Mythical First Team and a member of the league's 25 Greatest Players, "They all contributed. They all played their roles, they're composed, and they didn't get out of the system."
A PBA Hall of Famer, Arnaiz retired from the league in 1986 owing to recurring knee injury, but not after seeing Ginebra win its first ever championship by ruling the Open Conference behind the prodigious import tandem of the great Billy Ray Bates and Michael Hackett.
Arnaiz, a native of Bacolod, will be heading back to the U.S. on Oct. 24, but will be coming over here by the end of November for the holiday seasons.
