PBA: Trillo receives Baby Dalupan Coach of the Year honor

(Updated 11:25am) Alaska head coach Luigi Trillo capped his breakthrough year with a bang as he was honored with the Baby Dalupan Coach of the Year award by the PBA Press Corps, Tuesday at the Wack Wack Golf Club.

After leading the Aces to the title in Commissioner's Cup, the sportswriters covering the PBA chose Trillo over Norman Black, who won the Philippine Cup with Talk 'N Text and Tim Cone, who won his 15th title in the Governors' Cup with the San Mig Coffee Mixers.

“I’d like to say what an honor it is to be categorized with the likes of Norman Black and Tim Cone,” Trillo said to open his acceptance speech. “I watched these men when I was growing up and perhaps it’s no coincidence that both men started their distinguished careers with the great organization that is Alaska.”

“Some might say Fred [Uytengsu, owner of Alaska] took a big chance on me but I’d like to think he saw my potential and helped me develop it. Through his mentoring and by applying his very high standards, the team and I were able to do something special. Thank you Fred for always challenging us.”

After his speech, Trillo proceeded to talk to the sportswriters who voted for him.

“Coach Norman is also deserving because he’s also had a stellar year. I also thought Coach Tim should have gotten that because he tied Baby Dalupan,” Trillo said. “If you think about our hardships, last year was really tough, my road was tough one also. I thank Fred  for giving me an opportunity to get my coaching staff and make the team my own and make some moves; to have that season was simply amazing.”

Thank you everyone for the tweets. Enjoying this award with my family tonight then back to work tomorrow.

— Luis Antonio Trillo (@luigitrillo) November 12, 2013

“Thank you everyone for the tweets. Enjoying this award with my family tonight then back to work tomorrow,” Trillo later said on Twitter after receiving the prestigious award.

Congrats to Coach Luigi for the Baby Dalupan Coach of the Year Award. Very well-deserved. Great turn-around.

— Tim Cone (@manilacone) November 13, 2013

Cone for his part later congratulated Trillo via Twitter, saying, “Congrats to Coach Luigi for the Baby Dalupan Coach of the Year Award. Very well-deserved.  Great turn-around.”

Marc Pingris also won a handsome award as he was named Defensive Player of the Year. The reigning Governors' Cup Finals MVP normed 9.19 points, 7.84 rebounds, 0.56 steals, and 0.88 blocks in the recently concluded season. He was also a vital cog in the campaign of Gilas Pilipinas.

Petron Blaze Booster June Mar Fajardo, Alaska Ace Calvin Abueva, Meralco Bolt Cliff Hodge, Rain or Shine Elasto Painter Chris Tiu, and San Mig Coffee Mixer Alex Mallari were named to the All-Rookie team, with Barangay Ginebra's Chris Ellis a noticeable omission, as the Press Corps went with a three at the frontcourt, two at the backcourt setup.

Most Valuable Player runner-up LA Tenorio was named as the Order of Merit winner, as he tallied the most Player of the Week awards in the season, while Gary David was crowned as the Scoring Champion with an average of 18.77 points in 31 games for the GlobalPort Batang Pier.

Rain or Shine’s Jervy Cruz took home the Mr. Quality Minutes award, with 8.81 markers and 6.32 rebounds per outing despite logging just 21.25 minutes on the court.

Petron Blaze’s Marcio Lassiter was named as the Bogs Adornado Comeback Player of the Year as he successfully came back from a broken hand last year. After being traded to Petron in the 2011-12 PBA season, Lassiter missed the entire Governors’ Cup with his injury. However, he came back strong to help the Boosters get to within a win from the 2013 Governors’ Cup title.

The Danny Floro Executive of the Year Award went to Team PBA in recognition of the success of the 38th PBA Season. Six teams made it to the PBA Finals in the three conferences with three different teams being crowned as champion, a testament to league parity, which has been the aim of PBA commissioner Chito Salud.

The past season also witnessed the largest crowd ever for a PBA game. 23,436 fans trooped to the Smart Araneta Coliseum to witness game three of the Commissioner’s Cup Finals between the Alaska Aces and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. The PBA also set the second biggest basketball crowd ever as 23,108 patrons witnessed a double-header semis match in the same conference. - AMD, GMA News