Barangay Ginebra star Scottie Thompson relished the chance to go up against legitimate NBA-caliber talent in Myles Powell– something that made his seventh PBA title sweeter.
The Best Player of the Conference awardee was put to his limits against a very tough Bay Area team that not only put the series to distance but also squeezed out every inch of energy and coaching wits from the entire Kings crew during the grueling seven-game series.
“Pinakamatamis sobra tsaka sobrang honored against a very tough team, international coach, ang daming achievements sa international (stage) and against an NBA player na legit, (Andrew) Nicholson, (Myles) Powell,” said Thompson.
Shadowing Powell in the last two games was also big for Thompson especially getting the experience of putting the clamps down on a prolific scorer like the Dragons reinforcement.
“Sobrang laking bagay sa experience especially guarding Powell kahit pinapahiya nya ako palagi okay lang kasama sa highlights,” said Thompson with a chuckle.
Despite getting his hands full already on the defensive end, the high-flying guard also made sure to make his contributions on the defensive end finishing with 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists in the 114-99 Game 7 win.
“Sabi ko nga sarap din kasama sa highlights, ganun talaga sobrang galing na player and yung mindset ako talagang di ako mag stop dun di naman talagang bumabawi talagang nakashoot lang ako and within the system yung shot na yun,” he added.
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, meanwhile, has nothing but respect for Thompson who stepped up to the challenge of defending Powell.
“Poor Scottie, we asked him to do so much. He's the only superstar out there that's gonna defend the import of the other team, going to handle the ball, get every rebound. How many superstars you know are gonna do all that and do the dirty work and still score and still assist and still play at that energy level that he plays,” Cone said of the reigning league MVP.
“The fact that we can ask him to play 48 minutes to guard a guy like Powell is just truly amazing, he's truly an amazing player much more than people really appreciates him,” added Cone.