SMB greatest team?

While busy perusing practically tons of congratulatory messages from his cell phone at the dugout moments after their victory Friday, Danny Ildefonso could only sigh how time flies.

Only a year ago, Ildefonso vividly remembered how he and some of his teammates envied those 25 great players basking in glory during the celebration of PBA at 25 at the Araneta Coliseum. He swore he’d never seen some of them in action but he’s convinced they won’t be feted in that momentous occasion without their huge exploits and triumphs on the PBA hardcourt.

In a matter of only months, they would find themselves in the center of attention, adored and adulated by a sea of humanity because of their own great feats.

It’s years to go before the PBA celebrates its golden anniversary but it may be safe to say now that the key mainstays of the Triple Crown winner San Miguel Beer team are bound to join the next batch of players to be trumpeted as "all-time greats" in the league.

Forget the dynasty. San Miguel has made its excellent run of championships and the talk now in the PBA circle is whether this team can already be considered among the great ballclubs ever formed in the league.

With coach Jong Uichico’s Beermen completing their own version of Three-Peat following their All-Filipino title conquest, some PBA personalities are even tempted to compare them with the 1989 SMB grandslam team of coach Norman Black.

Not since the Tim Cone-mentored Alaska Milk scored its own grandslam in 1996 had there been another team to get hold of all PBA crowns at one time together.

Black and Cone themselves have called the current SMB ballclub a great team. And both think the Beermen have added another piece of puzzle for the opposition with their acquisition of MBA Fil-Am sensation Dorian Peña.

Not a few concur San Miguel is the best in the PBA today. Some feel it can hold a candle ranged against the best teams of yesteryear, including the legendary Crispa and Toyota squads and the San Miguel and Alaska grandslammers.

"Actually, it’s hard to compare dahil ibang-iba ang basketball noon at ngayon. They had their different eras but I can say this San Miguel team may also go down in history as one of the league’s best," said former PBA coach Pilo Pumaren, the patriarch of the basketball-loving Pumaren family who was coaching consultant of the 1989 San Miguel team.

With its size and depth, Pumaren thinks the current SMB team is stronger than Black’s squad.

Black said he may be bias but he disagrees with Pumaren.

"Jong has a good team but I think I have a more talented team then with a solid backcourt and frontcourt. We have more depth, so we could have given them a hard time," said Black who then had Ramon Fernandez, Ricky Brown, Samboy Lim, Hector Calma, Elmer Reyes, Yves Dignadice, Alvin Teng, Franz Pumaren, Ato Agustin, Ricky Cui, Bobby Jose, Tonichi Yturri and Alfie Almario in his lineup.