The Final Score: Triggerman, Fortune Cookie are legends among Legends

When a player torches the nets for 52 points and converts 14 three-pointers in the barrage, he not only steals the show, he is the show. Allan Caidic turned the 2010 NBA Asia Challenge last August 27 into a personal exhibition. Chris Webber, Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond and Glen Rice, headliners of the event, ended up watching a fireworks display. Kaboom! Kabang! Three-pointer after three-pointer, Caidic turned visiting NBA legends from lofty teammates/foes into fans. Moments after the exhibition game, the NBA legends couldn’t stop talking about The Triggerman. Caidic made them raise their arms each time he launched a three-point attempt, made them smile after each three-point conversion and made them shake their heads in light-hearted disbelief. All this from a player trapped in a team manager’s body. Even during his prime, Caidic was no Hercules. He looked like he was plucked from the crowd to join some shooting contest during half-time breaks. Slender but not sinewy, he had an everyman’s body. It was somewhere between “katawang-tatay" and “katawang-kulang-sa-push-ups". Caidic’s body and smooth release reminded us of Bogs Adornado and Alex English, neither of whom could compete for Mr. Universe. Yet the minute Caidic clinched the basketball above his left shoulder, that legendary southpaw jump-shot position which launched a trillion three-point shots, he became the Greek god of sweet-shooting. Like Caidic, Fortunato “Atoy" Co, during his quintessential years with the Crispa Redmanizers, was blessed with a pristine shooting touch coupled with a body more suited for the martial arts. In hindsight, “The Fortune Cookie" looked more like a kung-fu master than a hardcourt hotshot. Yet any player with a green light to shoot 18-footers on a 3-on-2 fast-break must be a Terminator in short shorts and floppy socks. He ran the floor like Mac Cardona with a severe mop top hairstyle, arms flailing, legs wobbling, but hit the target like Sunday Salvacion on a super-duper hot-streak. Unlike Caidic, however, Co had a miserable shooting night, perhaps not used to shooting over people not named Jaworski or Arnaiz. Co shot 5 out of 21. It was simply horrific. But fans enjoyed every miss, every clank off the rim, every brick and every air-ball. When the 58-year old former MVP finally made a jumper to end the first quarter, after missing what felt like 80 attempts in the first quarter, the crowd erupted. Unfortunately, he made it after the buzzer. Co, through all that mess, earned a standing ovation. We thank Webber for his serious attempts at showmanship, Payton for playing hurt during the exhibition game, Richmond for being the silent operator that he is and Rice for still having the jumper that set the barometer for balance on a 3-point shot. Fans paid to see them and they paid fans back with warmth. With Webber and company, fans felt awed. With Allan and Atoy, what fans felt was a sensation straight out of the gut, an affection taken from the core. In return, Allan and Atoy gave them a show. – GMANews.TV