The path to NBA stardom is littered with tweeners: shooting guards trapped in point guards' bodies, finesse big men, and undersized power forwards. The last group is especially common; for every Charles Barkley, Anthony Mason, and more recently, under-rated gems such as Paul Millsapp and Craig Smith, there have been countless others who have been two short, too slow, too-whatever for their game to translate from college to the NBA.

Invariably, these very same tweener bigs find success in the Philippine Basketball Association, with its unique height limit on imports. An acclaimed American college basketball player too small to match up with Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, and too slow to chase around LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, would revel in finally being able to take on someone his own size; in this case, that would be big men Asi Taulava and Enrico Villanueva, PBA behemoths who would be dwarfed by their foreign counterparts.

In the ongoing PBA Fiesta Conference, running roughshod are tweeners such as Jai Lewis, the Final Four hero from George Mason's Cinderella run in the 2006 NCAA tournament, listed at 290 pounds but I would venture to be closer to 350; and Shawn Daniels, the "Incredible Bulk" who is listed at 6-foot-5-inches tall and is about 6-foot-5-inches wide.

Yesterday, another tweener with sterling credentials made his debut for the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings: David Noel, the 39th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft with the Milwaukee Bucks, starred at the University of North Carolina, where he was a vital cog in the Tar Heels' 2005 championship run that starred NBA stars Raymond Felton and Sean May. In his senior season in 2006, Noel averaged 12.9 points and 6.8 rebounds playing alongside then-rookie sensation Tyler Hansbrough, but their title defense came to an end at the hands of Jai Lewis' George Mason team.

Noel got off to an auspicious debut, overcoming a tough shooting night to put up a triple-double with 22 points, 17 rebounds, and 10 assists. And unlike Lewis or Daniels, Noel's game isn't confined to the ground.

Here are video highlights from the 2006 NCAA Slam Dunk Tournament, where Noel beat James "Flight" White:



With Noel on tap, Eric Menk back in action, and the Cyrus Baguio heist from Burger King, Ginebra has emerged as unlikely favorites to win the 2009 Fiesta Cup. The Gin Kings are in the middle of the pack at 4-5, but the team was in much worse shape in the same tournament last year, when the team lost their first seven games. They changed imports three times before settling in with Chris Alexander, who went on to win the Best Import Award en route to turning the Gin Kings around and leading them to the Fiesta Conference championship.

Prior to Menk's return and Noel's entry into the fold, Ginebra actually had no business being 4-5, with key players including superstar guard Mark Caguioa still on the shelf. But the team has overachieved under the helm Jong Uichico, who is criminally underrated as a coach. Under his watch, Ginebra has actually been the most successful franchise in the league, winning 2 championships in the past two and a half seasons, the only team in the PBA to have done so. Uichico has proven that he can win the pot when dealt a good hand; if Noel can deliver on his promise, Uichico just might make it three-for-three.