The Final Score: Helterbrand, Raymundo, Pierce and Garnett travel in a basketball time machine

Fans tend to root for the guys who push and kick time backwards with whatever functioning muscles they have. Ginebra’s JayJay Helterbrand is averaging over 10 points in the PBA playoffs. Kerby Raymundo is contributing 14.5 PPG and 8.0 RPG to Ginebra’s postseason campaign. Paul Pierce is still punishing Knicks defenders in painful slow motion. Kevin Garnett is still converting dagger jump shots even if he looks like a marathoner desperate for a swig of water at the 32-kilometer mark.

 

Even time pauses to watch when…

 

Helterbrand hits a three…

 

Or

 

Raymundo blocks a shot…

 

Or

 

Pierce and Garnett connive on improbable alley-oops.

 

It hurts to be labeled a has-been. It hurts even more to be dubbed laos. Oh that word can crush the toughest of men. The moment someone utters the word laos, it serves as a point of no return. Masakit marinig. Mas masakit mapanood. Pero pinakamasakit maramdaman. It’s both a universal fear and feeling. You don’t have to shoot three-point shots for a living to know that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you keep certainty at bay, a fast life will eventually slow down.

 

Watching Pierce finding a cutting Garnett for an easy lay-up in game five of their series versus New York is like watching Alvin Patrimonio hitting Jerry Codiñera with an assist in their final days together in Purefoods. It hardly matters if you’re for or against the Celtics and the Hotdogs. As a devout basketball fan, once you’re able to embrace the total attraction of a sport, you know you have to savor these moments for as long as you can.

 

I remember secretly cheering for Philip Cezar, light years removed from his glory days with Crispa, when he was the sentimental defensive sage for crowd-favorite Añejo.

 

I remember secretly cheering for Abe King, light years removed from his glory days with Toyota, when he was the gritty veteran defender for glamor team Coney Island.

 

When the PBA semifinals resume on May 8, Talk ‘N Text can permanently dismantle the Ginebra time machine. Jayson Castro’s otherworldly speed and Ranidel De Ocampo’s inside-outside-backwards-and-sideways game can do that. When the NBA playoffs return to Boston, the Knicks can regain their three-point shooting form and dispatch the overachieving Celtics for good.  

I’m not sure if Helterbrand and Raymundo can continue flipping back time.

 

No one’s certain if Pierce and Garnett can extend the series to a Game 7.

 

But we’re now anxious to see if they can.

 

We are all underdogs against the inevitabilities of life. We will all grow old. We will all succumb to the gravity provided by experience. It is, therefore, uplifting to watch some athletes delay an unstoppable process. Sometimes, it feels like they’re doing it for us. To show that youth, or our flexible concept of it, can be stretched out even further. That’s if you want to do it badly enough or if you’re the type who refuses to relent, to anyone or anything, so easily. — GMA News