#maiee

There is Allan Caidic’s epical 79-point performance wherein he made 17 3-pointers in one game (take that, Stephen Curry). There is Robert Jaworski Sr’s unthinkable never-say-die fourth quarter comeback despite receiving stitches in his lips early on that game. Of course, Crispa’s almost perfect season in 1980 should be in the equation. There’s more. The list goes on. There are a lot of unforgettable PBA moments and it’s difficult to specify these one by one. But if there’s one that I truly will never forget, that has to be Kerby Raymundo’s “Ako ang MVP!” moment.

“Alam ko, sa sarili ko, ako ang MVP!” Raymundo, being interviewed as the Best Player of the Game that night, shouted as he ran straight into the dugout. Amusingly, it was Star Hotshots’ head coach, Jason Webb who was doing the interview. No additional words from the former Letran Knight were needed. That’s confidence in your face, in my face, in everyone’s face. Forget sportsmanship; Enrico Villanueva might have won the Best Player of the Conference award that tourney but Kerby won everyone’s heart that very instant. We all shared his grievance… and we all laughed to death after.

After a decade, Kerby Raymundo through my Instagram post might have exclusively opened-up, shared his thoughts about the greatest post-game interview in the history of the PBA for the first time ever. “FIRST. TIME. EVER.” (para cool). I ripped the YouTube clip of his interview, posted it on my Instagram, I tagged him as well as Coach Webb and he, to my surprise replied:

That was straight from the Kevin Garnett of the Philippines. He basically talked to me. In his message, he counted the number of years that have passed since the emotional interview like a telenovela star looking for revenge against his evil madrasta and after that, he thanked me with a heart emoji. Never have I imagined that the, arguably, second best power forward in the history of my favorite PBA team will message me with a heart emoji. You know, I don’t get heart emojis from the woman (or girl) that I have a deep crush on but I got it from Kerby Raymundo.

After that, he admitted that he was still immature back in 2005; when he was 24 years old. I get that. I am turning 29 and I am still immature and walang kwenta. But personally, I don’t think it was immaturity. It was deep passion for the game that he loves. “Talo pikon!” he added. Yes. Purefoods Chunkee Giants with Marquin Chandler were defeated by Red Bull in that series but still, I don’t see it as being pikon, he was just being passionate and he was just expressing his opinion that no one that time can refute; not even the eventual season MVP James Yap.

However, in his comment, he told me that I should have not posted the clip since it’s not nice. He delivered “not nice” as if I was his son* who committed a petty wrongdoing. Yung parang tinago yung bagsak na test sa basura. And probably, to keep his comment cool, he added three monkey emojis. Perhaps, those three monkeys represent Yap, Marc Pingris and Peter June Simon. But I am not that sure. But the most important thing is that, we already have Kerby’s side about the issue and his reply to my post really made him the MVP in our hearts. Hindi lang sa sarili niya. [enter heart emoji]