Because both teams are bankrolled by Manny Pangilinan, sports fans assumed that it would not be an issue for the Talk N Text Tropang Texters to lend its players to the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Team, which is scheduled to represent the country in the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championship. Talk N Text team captain Jimmy Alapag and power forward Kelly Williams had been eyed by Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman to reinforce the national squad, along with Meralco’s Asi Taulava and Air 21’s Dondon Hontiveros.

The idea was that lending the players to Smart Gilas would allow the professionals to become familiar with their teammates and with Toroman’s system. But it would also mean that these players would not play for their club teams for the PBA’s season-ending Governor’s Cup.

This presents an interesting scenario for Talk N Text, which won the first two championships of the 2010-11 PBA season and is now in a position to win what would be only the fifth “Grand Slam” in PBA history. With history in its sights, at least one member of the team, Harvey Carey, has openly campaigned against the idea of losing Alapag and Williams for the 3rd Conference:



Talk N Text coach Chot Reyes, meanwhile, sounded a lot more cautious. “If I would have my way, of course I would want them to play for Talk n Text and the national team,” he said in an interview with the Philippine Star’s Nelson Beltran.

But according to PBA commissioner Chito Salud, there’s virtually no chance of that happening. “We will not allow that,” he told Beltran. “It’s unfair to Air21 and Meralco which, after the second conference, readily released Dondon Hontiveros and Asi Taulava to the national team.”

With its national team commitment and its opportunity for a triple crown, this current Talk N Text squad has drawn comparisons to the 1998 Alaska team bannered by season MVP Kenneth Duremdes, Johnny Abarrientos, Jojo Lastimosa, and Bong Hawkins. Like the Texters this season, that Alaska team had won the year’s first two championships.

For Lastimosa, the captain of that Alaska team, the comparison doesn’t hold much water. “If you take away Jimmy and Kelly [from Talk N Text], you still have Carey, Jared [Dillinger], Ryan [Reyes], Larry [Fonacier] and [Jason] Castro, plus the import,” he told this blog in a text message this weekend. “Unlike in ’98 Alaska, when the RP team got Ken, Johnny, and myself. And oh, we didn’t have [Alaska coach] Tim [Cone, who called the shots for the national team]. TNT can still win it without those two (Jimmy and Kelly).”

Jolas wanted to stay with Alaska for a shot at a third title in 1998, and had in fact told Tim Cone to just give his slot to Jeffrey Cariaso instead. “We should have won two Grand Slams,” he said.

But Cone insisted that he join the team in Bangkok, Thailand, saying that his services were needed there. Much to his frustration, however, Jolas found himself glued to the bench for most of the tournament. He finally got to play in the team’s last game, the bronze medal match against Kazakhstan, and carried the team to victory – a performance that most Pinoy fans still remember fondly today, and just might be Lastimosa’s defining moment in Philippine basketball.