The Final Score: Gary David and Ali Peek – winners before Game 1

“After learning thousands of techniques, in other words, he had settled on the most basic moves, the ones you learn the first day of any class. (Later in my life, I’d think about this a lot. Especially when I encountered the works of great artists who shrugged off intricacy as they aged, distilling their technique until only the essential remained.)”                                                                -Darin Strauss Icing on the cake. How sweet it is for Powerade’s Gary David and Talk ‘N Text’s Ali Peek. Their opportunities, careers, flaws, hopes, failures and dreams intersect in a PBA best-of-seven championship series. In that meeting point, two men, even as I write this 12 hours before Game 1, can already claim victory as theirs.   I don’t know if it’s due to stubbornness, fate, or faith, or a combination of all three. But think about it; it’s astonishing to find David and Peek in the PBA Finals. After waiting years that felt like forever, stuck on teams that didn’t habitually compete for championships, David is back in the Finals, not as a participant, but as a headliner. It’s as if his appearance in the 2008 Fiesta Conference Finals with Air21 no longer counts. This is a new Gary (or maybe a more ignitable version of the old one). This is, essentially, his first time to play in the title series with all eyes on him. Hi Gary. Welcome to the Finals! I believe you’ll agree. We all see Gary David in a new way. He probably sees himself differently too. I sense the crowd’s excitement whenever he has the ball. I hear a jet engine buzz whenever he takes a shot. Because people anticipate that today might be the day he scores 30 points like the usual. Because people anticipate that today might be the day Gary David goes berserk and scores 42 points because he can. After thinking about mortality, and life’s curveballs, and thugs, and pain, and family, and things that really matter, stuck inside a hospital, for hours that felt like forever, Ali is back on his feet. He’s back in the Finals, not as a normal participant, but as an involuntary headliner. Ali the PBA veteran, the gunshot survivor, the spokesperson for second chances. We’re not just talking about basketball here. In Ali’s case, he’s thankful, we’re thankful, he’s back to enjoying the trivial pursuit of a PBA championship. Hello Ali. Great to see you back! Gary explodes like a grenade. Ali is expansive like a mountain. It’s incredible how Gary might have changed the PBA landscape for good. It’s incredible how Ali stayed the same. For one title contender, the primal nature is to score like there’s no tomorrow. And he takes our breath away for doing so. For the other protagonist, the primal nature is to survive, to live, to play on. And he makes us appreciate even the simple act of breathing. When two lives intersect, when they become winners before even winning, a title series becomes icing on the cake. -- GMA News