Pinoy Basketball Legend Tribute - Antonio Genato

RETURN OF AN OLD GUARD

One moment Bill Russell, then an amateur and the anchor man of the United States team, had the ball in his left hand and was all teed up to pitch. it to K.C. Jones down at center line. Russell never got to whip the ball over to Jones. For the next time he looked at it, it was no longer there. As he had done two times earlier, Tony Genato had swiped the ball from Russell. Later, after that game in the 1956 Olympic Games between the Philippines and the United States in Melbourne, Australia, the seven-foot Russell, who eventually was to carve a legendary career in pro basketball, would tell sportswriters about this kid Gee-nato' and how Genato ought to have a successful career picking pockets in the New York subway.

'I tell you, man,' gushed Russell, 'that guy has got hands faster than a pickpocket's.'

Well, it's true, in his time as the Yoyong Martirez of his era, Antonio X. Genato was really noted for his deft manner fleecing a ball from an unsuspecting opponent.

But more than his dexterity as a hardcourt thief, what made Genato endure as a basketball superstar for more than a decade was his dazzling speed.

Perhaps had Tony chosen track and field instead of basketball, he would have been good enough to be a sprinter, and as a sprinter, run the 100 under 11 seconds. But because he decided to do his thing on the hardcourt and not on the cinderpath, no one will ever know now how Tony would really have fared on the starting blocks.

The fact remains, however, that until Martirez came along, local basketball has never seen a guard as quick on his toes and with his hands as Genato.

And basically, it was Tony's blinding speed that led to his selection as a member of the Philippine team that competed in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland.

In his next time up as a member of another Philippine Olympic team, Genato played under Coach Leo Prieto in Melbourne.

This was in 1956. Two years earlier, in between Olympic stints, Genato also played under Coach Herr Silva in the now legendary Philippine team that finished third in the world basketball championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Probably, Genato could have gone on to his third Olympiad - the 1960 games in Rome - if he had not decided to quit the game a year before the Tokyo games.

He was still good then, but Tony has his reasons for saying goodbye to the game. for which he had played so well and hard as a member of the San Beda Red Lions in the NCAA and the Yco Redshirts in the old MICAA. 'I began finding it difficult to work and play at the same time,' he said.

He said that unlike today's ball-players, he never got any special privileges or time off from his work on account of his being member of the company team. 'I had to work a full eight hours a day, he said. 'And it was only after five o'clock when I could get to play.' He added. 'If you think it's easy hitting the hardcourt when you're already pooped from an eight-hour stint at the office, try it, even if your game is only pelota.'

Tony was only 30 when he quit.

But unlike the other players in the

MICAA who quit at the same age only to make it back to the game a year later, Tony quit for good.

In fact, so complete was his retirement that he all but dropped out completely from his old scene.

At one time, even his friends in the game wondered whether he had left the country and settled abroad.

The truth was Tony was really just around all the time everybody was wondering about him. But not in bigtime basketball.

Probably because he couldn't shake the game off his system, Tony went into coaching. Not the big teams, though, just club teams.

'Nothing much, really, Tony, now 48 and balding, says. 'But it was fun. Besides, it kept me from growing old faster.'

Does this mean he could have looked older than his 48 years if he had decided to coach a team in bigtime basketball?

'Well,' he said, 'I'm not sure..

Come April 17, when the 1977 season of the PBA opens, Genato gets to know whether there is a relation between coaching and the ageing process when after being out of bigtime basketball for 18 years, he returns to the game in a new role  as coach of the N-Rich Coffee Creamers.

That is if between this date and April 17 he gets to agree with the N-Rich management on the terms and conditions of his job as the Creamer's bench jockey.

The way Genato and N-Rich manager Chino Marquinez sounded, however, after Genato's first visit with the N-Rich executives it looks like all that is left for Genato to do is sign on the dotted line. - V.V.