Happy Birthday, Reynaldo “Rey” Lazaro ( July 11 )

Happy Birthday, Reynaldo “Rey” Lazaro

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

1981 PBA Rookie direct hire
10-season PBA veteran 
3-team PBA stalwart
4x MiCAA champion
1980 Asian Youth silver medalist 
1982 PBA one-on-one runner-up

Rey is the second son of eleven children of Alfredo Lazaro and Sabina Giron. And as one of the kuyas is called upon to carry the load in the family. He was first exposed to basketball at his senior year at Baliwag Colleges in the border outskirts of Pampanga and Bulacan. Most late straters in basketball never reach the PBA. Rey Lazaro is the exception of the rule. The twenty-two year old player entered Far Eastern University. In the Intramurals his coach is his present teammate, Abet Gutierrez. He got his first break when Arturo "Turing" Valenzona took him in to play for the Tamaraws. But the break soured as success eluded him. Rey was disqualified from playing for two years because he had also played for the other leagues. (No one can really blame the guy because he had his brothers and sis ters to support.) In 1979 he joined Solid Mills and remained under the tutelage of Turing Valenzona. When a new team named Apcor entered the scene, he together with his college teammates from Far Eastern University came in. He powered Apcor together with Israel, Elpidio Villamin and Art Cristobal to six ama teur titles. He too had his day in the Philippine team as he played for the Youth team in Brazil, the Asian Basketball Confederation in Nagoya (where he first met Webb), the Asian Youth Basketball meet and the Pesta Sukan. He is presently enrolled in FEU. He is in school for a commerce degree.