Jaworski with Vintage Velez

Robert Jaworski is, in short, a hero. He is not only a superb athlete he is also capable of inspiring the same greatness from others, as in the Añejo Rum 65 team. Off the court, he is also genuinely likable, always find- ing time for fans and even to worry about others (such as whether Ronnie Magsanoc looked good in his coat since we literally had to kidnap him from practice with the kind permission of his coach Dante Silverio just before the pictorial.)  "Well, I think basketball is still the Number One sport in the country. Thanks to the wonders of news- papers and television, the sport has continued to be exciting. It's even getting to be faster. There have been big changes is training, sports preparation. There is more seriousness about the game-game plans, techniques, scientific studies.

Young coaches continuously searching for better plays, defensive and offensive moves. There's also been an improvement in delivering this sport straight into the living rooms. With the boards, you can see the directions and movements of players. The players think more about preserving their bodies for the game, as in eat- ing habits, and we are still going to need more young players to still continue making this game exciting." Joe Cantada is the sportscaster extraordinaire. Debonaire to a fault and the ultimate profes- sional, he turned up for our pic- torial after a long evening out with the boys, absolutely on-time, turned out in a natty jog- ging suit, and looking fresh as a daisy.

"As far as the coverage goes, people think that we just plunk down the cameras and let the whole thing take care of itself. Oh, no! There are regular meetings and even refresher courses. I mean, they even go so far as to give us pointers on what to look out for during the game, analysis and terminologies. All over the world, the trend is very much for a scientific, in-depth commentary of the sport. And if you allow me to say so, it's becoming a two-way thing. We pick up an enormous amount of in- formation which we pass on to the televiewers and they become more sophisticated about the science side. At the same time, we're totally grati fied when the coaches and the players review our tapes and commen- tary and say they pick up things. Everything therefore becomes that much more exciting."