Dalupan, Salud to grace PBA Awards

Legendary Crispa Redmanizers coach Baby Dalupan and former PBA commissioner Rudy Salud will be the special guests in the PBA Press Corps Awards Night tomorrow at the Bayview Park Hotel. Ceremonies will start at 7 p.m.

Dalupan, who masterminded the Crispa domination during the early years of the league, will hand out the coach-of-the-year trophy which is named after him.

Salud, a prominent lawyer who stood at the helm during the PBA’s glory years will deliver the opening remarks.

Disputing the Coach-of-the-Year award are San Miguel Beer’s Jong Uichico, Purefood’s Derrick Pumaren, Alaska’s Tim Cone and Sta. Lucia’s Norman Black.

Other awards to be given are the Mr. Quality Minutes, Referee of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and the Comeback Player of the Year.

The Danny Floro trophy will also be handed out to the Executive of the Year. The scribes are also set to award the winners of the sportswriting contests held early this year.

Leading the race for Mr. Quality Minutes are Boybits Victoria of San Miguel and Boyet Fernandez of Purefoods. Freddie Abuda of San Miguel and Shell’s Cris Jackson will dispute the Defensive- Player-of-the-Year trophy while Sta. Lucia team manager Buddy Encarnado leads all candidates for the Danny Floro trophy.