The man with no face

It started innocently enough, with a minor collision in the first quarter of the first game of the All-Filipino Cup Finals.

"I got hit, but I thought it was nothing," confesses Coca-Cola point guard Johnny Abarrientos. "Then, in the third quarter, it happened again, but harder. When coach called a timeout, I felt different, like my right eye was closing."

"Johnny was having the game of his life when it happened," recalls Tigers head coach Chot Reyes. "The odds are one in a million that you would get hit in the same place twice in one game."

Abarrientos made personal history that night, scoring 20 points in 17 minutes against his former team, the Alaska Aces. X-rays would show no damage, but whenever his car would hit a rough spot, Johnny had a sinking sensation in his face. Although he was being measured for a fiberglass face mask to wear in Game 2, he still didn’t feel well. A CT scan revealed the worst: a collapsed "tripod." The bones of Johnny’s eyebrow, cheek and upper jaw were shattered, and sinking into his face, almost damaging his right eye.

"At first, I couldn’t accept it," The Flying A says, the emotional shock even more powerful than the physical trauma. "In eleven years in the PBA, my worst injury was my MCL (medial collateraligament tear - a year and a half ago) and slight sprains. I almost gave up. I thought that would be it for me. If I weren’t a Christian, I would have quit. I even wanted out of the remaining two years of my contract."

Although Hakeem Olajuwon incurred a similar orbital cavity injury when he was elbowed by then-Chicago Bulls center Bill Cartwright, Abarrientos’ case was worse, even threatening his eyesight. The procedure necessitated an incision at the top of his head, along the hairline, to peel back his face and expose the damage. It was the only way the three titanium plates could be screwed into his facial bones and keep the shape. But there was still a lot of work to be done. Johnny had also lost movement and sensation in his right cheek.

"The doctor has me doing all kinds of facial movement and reactions: laughing, opening my jaw wide, and so on, and massaging my face twice a day," the former FEU Tamaraw explains. "There’s still a black area around my eye, so it means it’s not yet a hundred percent."

The painstaking therapy has been going well, but Abarrientos is still relegated to wearing a clear mask for protection, and has not been able to join full-contact scrimmages with Coca-Cola yet. He starts the season on the injured list, meaning he has to sit out their first five games. The earliest he will see action is the third week of March. But the physical recovery may be the easy part.

"Johnny has to get over the psychological hump," Reyes adds. "But take your time. You know what you mean to this team. We want you back, but we want you back at 100 percent. We’ll hold the fort while you’re gone."

"Maybe it still isn’t my time to stop," Johnny concludes after all that’s happened. "Although I felt good that we won the championship, I wasn’t there, I didn’t receive the trophy, so I have some unfinished business. And I think I proved that it wasn’t my time to be traded."

The biggest challenge for Johnny now is to face the future, fearless and strong, as he always used to.

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More on Johnny Abarrientos, Boybits Victoria, and much, much more on The Basketball Show on IBC-13 today at 4:00 p.m. And a special behind-the-scenes look at the "Only Selfless Love" video, produced by sports patron Columbia International Food Products.