The Final Score: Alex Cabagnot and Jay Washington deserved to be booed

Let’s pretend Mac Cardona watched Game 6 between Ginebra and San Miguel on television. Each time Alex Cabagnot touched the ball, stroked his adequately-conditioned mane, made an incredible shot or…breathed…he received a shower of boos. And Cardona, if by some miracle was watching the game, would feel vindicated. The sarcastic quip could’ve been “Ngayon alam mo na kung pa’no maging ako." But knowing Cardona, the response was likely “Wala brad, mas malakas pa rin mga boo ng Barangay para sa akin." The message: only the best deserve tough love. When Cabagnot terminated Alaska and B-Meg with last-second daggers, Ginebra fans only imagined the hurt. When Cabagnot brought his clutch-shooting freak show to the semi-finals, Ginebra fans finally experienced it for real. Hindi na talaga tsamba. Hindi rin siya guni-guni. As soon as Cabagnot holds the ball, with a game or a series on the line, terror strikes with long hair, horror unfolds with the murderous flick of the wrist. The floater over Rudy Hatfield. The dish-off to Danny Ildefonso. The crooked (everyone thought it was sailing to the right) three-pointer in Game 6. Each hit made a mark. Tumatatak. Jay Washington, on the other hand, can average 45 points in the semis and no one will notice. It’s harder to amaze when one achieves with apparent ease. Ginebra fans remember clutch hits and will persecute Cabagnot for it. But Washington, despite his three-point shooting woes in the semis, hurt Ginebra by scoring points (20 PPG in San Miguel’s 4 wins), grabbing rebounds (13 RPG in San Miguel’s 4 wins) and being the omnipresent talking and walking mismatch on the floor (over 43 MPG in San Miguel’s 4 wins). The message: Washington should’ve been booed too. And while we’re at it, close games should’ve been booed out of the coliseum as well. What doomed Ginebra more than Cabagnot taking the last shot or Washington facing the basket or even Willie Miller going 1 out of 8 in Game 6? It was the crux of the close game. Against San Miguel, Ginebra and execution-in-the-last-2-minutes didn’t get along. Ginebra was good enough to hang with San Miguel for 6 out of 8 down-the-wire contests (not an easy thing to do). But not clutch enough to execute winning plays or convert big shots when games were on the line. It’s the agony of “almost". Almost there. Almost done. Almost but not quite. Losing 55 points, the way the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the L.A. Lakers, is not losing. That’s simply not showing up. To lose 6 games to San Miguel by mere inches (average losing margin was less than 3 points) is a wretched way to be owned. It’s domination of the most hurtful kind. The Cavs were probably over their 55-point loss as soon as they boarded the bus out of Staples Center. It’ll take longer for Ginebra to accept how Cabagnot and Washington hardly succumbed to pressure and persecution. It’ll take longer for Ginebra to overcome always being oh so painfully close. -- GMANews.TV