TWO of the country’s top businessmen and sports patrons will share center stage in the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Annual Awards Night on Jan. 29 at the Diamond Hotel.
San Miguel CEO and President Ramon S. Ang and First Pacific Company Chairman and CEO Manny V. Pangilinan will be honored as Executives of the Year for working closely together to restore dignity and faith to Philippine basketball in the year just passed.
The traditional gala night is set at the grand ballroom of the Diamond Hotel where the best of the best in Philippine sports in 2023 will be feted in rites presented by ArenaPlus, the leading sports entertainment firm in the Philippines, and major sponsors Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Milo, Cignal, and PLDT/Smart.
Also backing the event are PBA, Rain or Shine, the 1-Pacman Partylist of Rep. Mikee Romero, and the Premier Volleyball League.
Pangilinan and Ang, corporate rivals whose competitiveness has spilled over to the basketball court, have set aside their competitive nature and worked together for the benefit of Philippine sports.
The initial outcome of that partnership came in the form of the country’s successful co-hosting of the FIBA World Cup where the SMC group came on board as a major partner of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas — where Pangilinan is chairman emeritus — to help defray the staggering cost of staging the event making its return to the Philippines for the first time in 45 years.
Their biggest collaboration happened during the 19th Asian Games at a time when Gilas Pilipinas lost the core of its FIBA World Cup team, including coach Chot Reyes.
With barely three weeks left before the Hangzhou Games, the two held a landmark meeting at the last minute and mapped out the course of action for the country’s Asiad campaign.
Tim Cone was elevated from deputy to head coach of the Philippine team while players from the SMC and MVP franchises were made available for inclusion in the Gilas Pilipinas roster.
The partnership produced a historic moment as the underdog Gilas squad came out triumphant and bagged the basketball gold for the first time in 61 years.
Given up for dead, the hastily assembled unit of Cone came back from the grave and pulled off a miraculous 77-76 comeback win in the semifinals against host and defending champion China behind the heroics of Justin Brownlee, whose two improbable three-pointers in the final 23 seconds lifted the Filipinos to the dramatic victory.
Gilas took care of business against Jordan in the gold medal play, scoring an 80-70 win to reemerge as Asia’s cage supreme for the first time in the 1962 Asiad.
Ang and Pangilinan were previously named Executive sof the Year individually by the country’s oldest media organization headed by Nelson Beltran.
Pangilinan was honored with the prestigious award in 2014, while Ang was bestowed the recognition in 2018.
