The Final Score: The reawakening of Asi Taulava

The giant glides through the doors. He isn’t dragging heavy feet. He doesn’t shake the place with clumsy steps. He briskly enters the café, an unlikely entrance for a 6’9” hulk. One hand holds his mobile phone against his ear. He uses his free hand to wave at me.

He approaches and asks, “You want anything?”

I reply, “It’s okay, I’m good.”

“You sure?”

I smile and nod.

He pivots towards the counter. He’s in a fire-truck-red V-neck shirt, relaxed jeans and a pair of Air Max 1’s. A red Texas Rangers baseball cap (he buys anything with the letters A or T), worn backwards, covers his fab hairstyle.

He looks up at the menu on the wall. I swear; I am not looking at an old man. Bagets na bagets. He’s in incredible shape. As I observe this tower from 10-feet away, I believe I can see the big picture. Asi Taulava, a league MVP and newly crowned ABL champion with San Miguel, doesn’t look like he’s 40-years-old.

Asi places his food tray on the table. He ordered one small egg white, cheese and ham sandwich (small even for my Smurfian standards) along with a bottle of orange juice. I thought to myself, “That’s all he’s eating?” He notices my unbelieving look and says, “Oh it’s my cheat day.” I instinctively react, “What? That’s a cheat day meal?”

I suddenly remember a halftime segment on television, back when Asi was still with Talk ‘N Text, wherein Asi proudly showed his wall-to-wall supply of instant noodles in his kitchen. In those days, he played, then he ate, and then he played some more, and then he ate some more.

When Asi was done playing and eating, he drank. A lot. Fun times, for sure, but perhaps only for the old Asi. The new Asi, however, remembers those times, when his appetite for conditioning was nowhere near as legendary as his appetite for booze. He is both amazed and perplexed.

“I didn’t know back then how to eat,” Asi, who once ballooned to 315 pounds when he was in the PBA, explains. “I wasn’t disciplined. I had no control of my nightlife. I would drink booze all the time I was hanging out with my teammates until the wee hours of the night. Now I know I need to give my body time to rest. If I knew how to eat and how to train the way I do now, I would’ve been unbelievable. I would have been a freak of nature.”

While the old Asi usually staggers out of his bed, nursing a hangover, the new Asi wakes up at dawn, excited. He hustles from his house in Kapitolyo to the CJA Gym at the Treston International College in Bonifacio Global City. He wants to be the first guy in, at six. It’s his conditioning routine – five hours a day, six days a week. New Asi endearingly calls this place The House of Pain.

“Asi is very, very committed,” coach John Aquino, Asi’s personal strength and conditioning coach at the House of Pain, says. “We even worked on his diet. No rice after lunch. A lot of fish. No pork. No beef. To make sure he follows it, he does his grocery by himself. Naka-prepare na yan everyday. Talagang he sticks to the program.”

There’s a popular fast-food restaurant just across Starbucks. Asi just won a championship. Unless his plan of going back to the PBA pushes through, he has a long offseason ahead. It’s vacation time. He deserves to munch on as many calories his forty year-old body can absorb, diba? Champion naman eh. What’s to stop him from dragging me out of my stool so we could cross the street and transfer to a place where he can really eat?

“Everything that happened in the past becomes experience,” Asi, now an agile 245-pounder, believes. “I can now share those past experiences with the kids, how I lived before and it wasn’t great. I only thought of short-term gains. If I didn’t change, honestly, I don’t think I’ll be playing basketball right now.

Asi’s transformation is metaphysical. Even when he was with Meralco, he already started improving his eating habits. Although his body benefited from his renewed belief in training, his game still lacked much-needed confidence. Joining The House of Pain revitalized his body. Joining the San Miguel Beermen in the ABL revitalized his self-belief.

“I was pretty nervous when I joined San Miguel,” Asi admitted. “My confidence level was at a 5 [out of 10].”

You remember Asi in Meralco, right? He wasn’t a go-to-guy. He sometimes missed lay-ups or dropped passes or cruised through games like he simply existed and occupied a uniform. He looked like he was in shape, physically. He looked like he needed a boost, emotionally.

When he left Meralco to join San Miguel, my expectations were modest. Fortunately for Asi, San Miguel’s expectations were not.

“It’s a great feeling to be playing well again after struggling for so many years,” Asi, who last won a Most Valuable Player award in 2003, says. “I guess when I went to the ABL, I got that opportunity. Boss Noli Eala believed in me. The coaching staff believed in me.”

“Napakalaki talaga ng role si Asi sa San Miguel,” head coach Leo Austria says. “Kailangan talaga mag-perform siya. He really worked hard. Nagulat ako kasi with his age, he was really trying to push himself.”

“But I had to learn again to shoot the basketball,” Asi adds. “Because the past few years, I’ve gotten so used to just passing the ball. So Boss Noli told me one day, ‘I didn’t bring you here to pass the basketball. I brought you here to be our go-to-guy.'”

Before practice officially starts, Asi hooks up with former Mobiline teammate and now San Miguel assistant coach Alvin Teng for target shooting. Teng, who spent his most productive years in the PBA with the San Miguel franchise, was known for his rebounding ability as well as his bankable baseline jumper - a hard man with a soft touch. What a sight. Old teammates. New training partners.

“Binibigyan ko si Asi ng extra shooting. More than 200 shots per practice yung training namin,” Teng shares. “Ginagawa namin yan para madagdagan confidence ni Asi. Sa edad niya na forty, imagine nagagawa niya lahat yan. Ang sipag ni Asi talaga.”

Asi slices his sandwich into eight smaller pieces. He eats one small piece and takes a swig of orange juice. The man is unmistakably radiant. Like I need sunglasses from the glare. He can’t stop smiling, even as he chews. His smile grows even bigger as he talks about his San Miguel teammates. Just days after winning the title, he misses the guys already.

“Some teams grow tired of each other, especially when you travel so much on the road,” Asi, who can’t wait to resume practice, says. “But we never grew tired of each other. We always wanted to be together.

“Asi’s just so fun to be with,” Jeric Fortuna, the youngest member of the team, says. “That’s what’s nice about Asi. He gets along with everyone. Hindi dahil superstar siya, hindi na siya approachable. He’s so approachable.”

Asi’s mobile phone rings. He takes the call. It’s Anna May, Asi’s wife. I can’t help but listen. They plan to take the kids out after school. He smiles when he talks about his healthier body. He smiles even more when he talks about his team. But his smile when he talks about his family is completely something else.

“My healthier lifestyle helped improve my relationship with my family,” Asi reveals. “Before I really didn’t have the opportunity to be around them. Even though I just won a championship and won the MVP, maybe feel like I’m on top of the world, but I think the highlight of this year was that I was able to join my kids for their family day in school for the first time.”

Asi is no longer talking about morning training and slam-dunks. He tells me about winning volleyball, handball, and kickball with his daughters. He was there. He helped them win. His eyes grow wide. His voice rises. Our table shakes from his excitement.

Old Asi can’t relate. New Asi, on the other hand, can’t stop reveling in his kids’ Family Day championship.

“I’m a happy dad,” Asi admits. “Since I’m so happy being a dad right now, it makes me a lot happier player. I haven’t been this happy in a long time.”

Asi apologizes for talking and smiling too much. He shouldn’t. He still remembers how it felt when he won his first championship in 2003. He swears his second championship feels so much different. It feels more complete. It’s not all about basketball this time.

I ask, “Where are you headed now?”

Asi excitedly replies, “Today was my kids’ first day of school, I want to surprise them and treat them to merienda.” - AMD, GMA News