Conversation with Skywalker

Samboy Lim has always been an inspiration. Even today at 52, he still works out and plays basketball more than most active people half his age. He’s spent the last few years giving back to the game at his weekend and summer Skywalker basketball camps bearing the moniker which fit him perfectly when he was still one of the most dynamic players the game had ever seen.

As Samboy tells it, his career began when, at age 15, he started to admire the NBA’s most elegant high flyer, Julius Erving, the inimitable Dr. J. After seeing a particularly impressive array of dunks in a Converse advertisement, the young Letran player vowed he would be able to do the same – including a 360-degree dunk – even though he’s a full six inches shorter than the 6’6” Erving. Samboy did all of that, and then some, beginning with consecutive NCAA titles for the Knights, and followed by an invitation to join Northern Cement, which became his launch pad for a brilliant career.

But truth be told, the former almost caused Samboy not to join the Philippine team.

“We had won championships my first two years in Letran,” the former San Miguel Beer PBA All-Star told this writer. “We wanted to go for a Grand Slam, a third straight championship, when Coach Ron Jacobs invited me to join the team. I didn’t join that year, waiting until after we won a third straight title for the Knights.”

Of course, that NCC squad was most known for having beaten the US in the Jones Cup more than three decades ago. As Samboy recalls, the Jones Cup was actually just a tune-up for the Asian Games. They didn’t even think they would win the Jones Cup, until midway through that life-changing battle with the Americans.

“It’s really different when you’re playing for your country. In college, you already play all out, what more for the country? When I saw that the game was close, that was when I believed we could really beat them,” he adds. “And we won the Jones Cup.”

After successive stints as a guest team in the PBA, the entire squad – save for its naturalized players – were elevated to the league as the new San Miguel Beermen. Samboy and his teammates were overjoyed to be able to continue performing with one another, building on the camaraderie and brotherhood they had enjoyed for close to five years, under new coach Norman Black, who had likewise been convinced by their patron Danding Cojuangco to try his hand at coaching. And with the addition of Ramon Fernandez and Ricky Brown, the Beermen truly became a juggernaut. In 1989, they steamrolled along to the first PBA Grand Slam since the Crispa Redmanizers.

“After we won the first two conferences, we really decided to go for it, because this was history,” Lim continued, a palpable excitement in his voice. “Mon was our leader, he made sure we stayed focused and always played our best. You would be ashamed to take it easy when he was around. And imagine, we had Ricky Brown and Hector Calma, so our ballhandling was very stable. Basketball was so easy, playing with those guys.”

The next big accolade  came when Samboy was chosen by coach Robert Jaworski to be part of the first PBA team to be sent to the Asian Games in 1990, almost a year before the US “Dream Team” played its first game in the Tournament of the Americas. Watching grainy footage of the games played against a veteran Chinese national team on their home floor in Beijing, you would see a fearless Samboy Lim repeatedly making daring drives into the paint at full tilt, unmindful of any danger, undeterred by the seven-footers in his path. What many people don’t know was that he was unable to even practice because his arm was in a sling as he recovered from a very painful shoulder injury. Samboy managed simply because he was needed, and was given shots of painkillers directly into his shoulder before each game.

“We really didn’t have that much time to prepare,” he remembers. “I was nursing an injury, but what can you do? Just being named part of that team alone was a big honor. And my coaches from Larry Albano to Ron Jacobs always taught me to be ready to do my best any time. So I always made sure to attack the basket hard and go for the higher percentage shots. I made sure that I would make the shot.”

It was such courage that came at a prohibitive price. In 10 years in the pros, Samboy only really completed one season from start to finish, finishing on the Mythical Second Team. Eventually, the pounding started to take its toll, and the Skywalker knew the time was drawing near to make his final flight.

“When I was 35, I started to feel the wear and tear already. You still feel things the day after. I didn’t want to retire after my game had gone down, so I decided to stop playing when I was 36.”

Since then, Samboy has been honored as one of the PBA’s 25 Greatest Players, and will undoubtedly be part of the updated list of 40 in April. He still draws autograph seekers who are still breathless when talking about his aerial exploits. The legend on the man they call the Skywalker will be with us as long as the PBA exists, and perhaps beyond. After all, we still have all those indelible highlights of the one and only Samboy Lim to thrill us over and over again.