Happy Birthday, Jesse Cabanayan ( Dec 15 )

Happy Birthday, Jesse Cabanayan

1998 PBA Rookie Draft 22nd overall pick
University of Baguio Cardinals guard
3-season PBA veteran
2-PBA team player

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

JESSIE CABANAYAN
BORN DECEMBER 21, 1972/SAN JOSE CITY, NUEVA ECIJA 172.7 CMS., 69 KGS/GUARD
UNTIL he was picked in the fourth round of the rookie draft and subsequently signed to a one-year pact as some sort of a longshot prospect by Pop Cola, few people in and around the league have heard of Jessie Cabanayan. But it took the dusky Baguio native just a few games with the 800s to show that he has the skills and the compo- sure to stay in the pros.
No, he didn't stick with Pop Cola the following year. But he was signed as a free agent by Purefoods as a back-up to Dindo Pumaren.

COMING from one of few places in the land where basketball takes a backseat to the townfolks' love affair with cycling, Jessie already beat the odds when he signed up with Pop Cola last season as a fourth-round draft pick. The dusky Novo Ecijano, it turned out, has a few more surprises up his sleeves. He signed up with Purefoods in 1999, played in 18 games, and kept his spot in the Hotdogs' regular line-up going into the 2000 wars.