There is no "I" in “team". It’s a basketball cliché that never goes out of style and champions the value of teamwork. Of course, all’s well and good if the five players on the floor, and the 13 other guys on the bench, aren’t former franchise players or franchise players in the making.
In a San Miguel team stocked with current all-stars and future hall-of-famers, basketball clichés aren’t that simple to apply. If others insist that there’s no "I" in "team", most players on the San Miguel roster, like 12-year veteran Danny Ildefonso, can always counter by saying there are a couple of "I’s" in "playing time". In a fiercely fought game against the Alaska Aces last April 11, Ildefonso had two opportunities to win the game down the stretch, on his own, and could’ve taken two big-time shots by himself. He deserved to take both shots because he was playing well. Ildefonso finished the game with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals in 18 minutes. Ildefonso had every right to take both shots since he hasn’t taken that many attempts this season anyway. San Miguel’s two-time MVP has taken 27 attempts in four games in the Fiesta Conference while Alaska’s two-time MVP, Willie Miller, has already taken 35 attempts after just two assignments. If Ildefonso took both shots, shots which could’ve determined the outcome of the game and preserved his reputation as a clutch performer, they would’ve been good, open attempts. Yet he used the instincts of a former back-to-back MVP, passed up on two good looks, to spot teammates who were nearer the basket for back-to-back scoring opportunities that were better. "Gusto ko lang i-share yung experience and talent ko sa younger players on the team," Ildefonso said. Sure, there’s no "I" in “team". Ildefonso, at this stage in his stellar career, appears to no longer believe in the power of the "I". After two big plays during the latter moments of an overtime game punctuated by team play, not individual brilliance, Ildefonso reminded us, and perhaps even his younger teammates, that there’s also no "I" in "respect". Last March 31, 17-year veteran Olsen Racela told me that future hall-of-famers like him were making sacrifices for the sake of the team. Prior to the San Miguel-Alaska game last Sunday, I thought sacrifice meant not moping on the bench while younger teammates trotted on the court. Ildefonso had two career-defining moments that weren’t as spectacular as his raise-the-roof slam dunks from before but were just as poignant. He also demonstrated exactly what Racela pointed out. I suppose this is what San Miguel had in mind in assembling such a potent team. Have institutions like Racela enter the game for the first and only time with just 1.5 seconds to go to issue a critical inbound pass for a possible game winner. Or have Ildefonso forego two shots there were rightly his, if only to show a talented team that the most important "I" is in "winning".
– GMANews.TV 
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