Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (10-6)

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), The GAME editor-in-chief Sid Ventura and noted PBA historian Jay P. Mercado took a stab at naming and ranking who they think are the 50 greatest PBA players of all time.

And we have entered the Top 10! These rankings are independent of the league’s own top 25, top 40, and top 50 lists, meaning players on these lists did not automatically make our own rankings (i.e., PBA 25 Greatest members Lim Eng Beng and Manny Paner and 40 Greatest members Marlou Aquino, Chito Loyzaga and Kerby Raymundo did not crack our top 50).

So again, these are our own 50 greatest rankings, and they are not meant to undermine the PBA’s selection.

A word on our methodology

Measuring a player’s greatness is always a tricky proposition. Comparing players across different generations is even trickier. How many Best Player of the Conference (BPC) awards would Ramon Fernandez, Bogs Adornado, Atoy Co, Sonny Jaworski, Abet Guidaben, or Ricky Brown have won if the award had been there earlier than 1994? And surely the likes of Guidaben, Abe King, Bernie Fabios, and Freddie Hubalde would have earned more Mythical Team selections if only the Mythical Second Team had already been in place from the start.

In the face of these challenges, we focused on five items that were universal to all players regardless of era: longevity, championships won, impact on the game, statistical achievements, and individual awards like Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defensive Team and Mythical Team selections. In comparing players from the same eras or adjacent eras, we factored in Finals MVPs and BPCs.

Also, all player evaluations are based solely on their PBA careers. Their achievements in the MICAA, collegiate level, or in the international arena were not taken into consideration.

READ MORE: 

Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (50-41)

Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (40-31).

Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (30-21).

Ranking the 50 Greatest PBA Players of All Time (20-11).

10-6:

10. Johnny Abarrientos

It’s been a familiar refrain over the past 20 or so years in PBA circles: pound for pound, Johnny Abarrientos was arguably the best pure point guard the league has ever seen. He was so good that a scout from the Charlotte Hornets flew over to see about bringing him to the NBA. If he were three inches taller, he probably would have made it. The Flying A was the main orchestrator of the triangle offense that made the Alaska Milkmen the most dominant team of the 1990s. They won four straight titles in the mid-90s, including a grand slam in 1996 when Abarrientos was named MVP. At that time, he was the shortest player to have won the award. Johnny was a nightmare on both ends of the court, his shifty moves and dribbling prowess making it impossible to stay in front of him, and his quick hands and defensive instincts allowing him to become the all-time leader in career steals. Abarrientos played 17 seasons, also winning titles with the Coca-Cola Tigers and Barangay Ginebra to wind up with 12 overall. He retired in 2010 as one of only two players to have logged at least 1,300 steals and 3,500 assists.

9. Philip Cezar

As far as defensive-minded forwards go, Philip Cezar was among the best ever. His patented defensive move was so effective that it earned its own nickname – the “umbrella defense.” Cezar also earned his own defense-themed nickname, the Tapal King, which claimed its own place in the PBA’s lexicon in the 1980s. But Cezar was much, much more than just a lockdown defender in the post. He averaged at least 10 points per game per season for the first 14 seasons of his career, culminating in a career-high 17.8 during his MVP year of 1980. He was an integral part of arguably the greatest starting All-Filipino five in league history with the Crispa Redmanizers, with whom he won two grand slams and 13 titles. Standing at an agile six-foot-three with elite basketball IQ, Cezar could also bring up the ball and direct the offense, becoming in the process one of the league’s first “point forwards.” After Crispa disbanded, Cezar picked up two more titles with Great Taste and Añejo Rum before retiring in 1992 with 15 championships, tied for the third-most all time.

8. Benjie Paras

Benjie Paras was christened “The Tower of Power”, and in his very first PBA season, he immediately lived up to it. As a rookie in 1989, Paras averaged 25.8 points per game with a single-game high of 50 en route to becoming the first and thus far only player to be named MVP in his rookie year. Paras had that incredible raw strength that made it difficult to stop him from backing down and getting to his spot in the post. His natural leaping ability made it doubly hard for any defender to put a body on him. These physical gifts also served Paras well on the defensive end, as he still holds the record for the highest career blocks-per-game average at 2.3. Together with Ronnie Magsanoc, he led Formula Shell to two titles in the early 1990s. Injuries slowed him down later in the decade, but in 1999, he launched a stunning comeback that resulted in another MVP and a final championship for the Shell franchise. He retired after 14 season,s third all-time in career blocks and one of just four players with at least 10,000 points and 1,000 blocks for their careers.

7. Abet Guidaben

Whenever there are social media discussions about the greatest PBA players of all time, Abet Guidaben’s name rarely, if ever, gets mentioned. This is puzzling considering he has played in more PBA games than anyone else in league history and is one of only nine to have been named MVP at least twice. In this regard, Guidaben is perhaps the most underrated and underappreciated PBA star, largely because his career paralleled that of Mon Fernandez, the one player against whom he was always matched up and compared. But Guidaben was a gifted big man in his own right. He ran the floor effortlessly for someone standing six-five and had as reliable a bank shot as there ever was in the PBA. There was also his longevity, as he played 21 seasons in the league and won 15 titles. He’s one of just three players with over 15,000 career points and one of just two with over 8,000 career rebounds. All in all, Guidaben’s body of work clearly outshines the majority of other PBA stars, so it’s time to give him his proper due. He is without a doubt one of the 10 best PBA players of all time.

6. Atoy Co

It’s a pity there are only a handful of clips on YouTube featuring Atoy Co, for he was the PBA’s most prolific scorer over its first decade. The Fortune Cookie was the first player to reach 5,000 career points, and was also the first to reach 10,000 career points. For seven straight seasons, he averaged no lower than 18.7 points per game. During his lone MVP year, he torched the hoops for 23.7 points per game, which he achieved without the benefit of a 3-point shot. He had such supreme confidence in his shooting skills that he would routinely pull up for a jumper on a fast break instead of taking it to the basket. Then there was his consistency. For the first ten seasons of the PBA, Co was named to the Mythical First Team nine times. Over his 14 playing seasons, Co averaged double digits in scoring in 13 of them, and for someone who liked to take a lot of shots, he shot the ball pretty well: for his career, he was a 48.6% shooter.

Banner art courtesy of Cas Aseoche.