One of the key figures on the playing court of the University of the Philippines’ Maroons first ever basketball championship in the UAAP in 1986 was former PBA star center and now television and movie personality Venancio (Benjie) Paras.
The pre-Paras UP squad was known as “The Donut Team”: it had all the elements of a good team except a legitimate center. Its center, its middle was one big empty hole. Paras filled the vacuum and was a welcome addition to a team that had been the league’s doormat in past years but had seen light in the mid’80’s when it ended up second to powerhouse squads like Adamson University and Far Eastern University.
In his first year with the Maroons, UP won the championship over the Jerry Codiñera-led University of the East. The game was tight in the early goings but UP managed to win comfortably, according to Paras.
The Maroons’ first five came from San Beda’s highly successful basketball program under Ato Badolato and UP became the beneficiary of all the development efforts that went into developing Paras, Ronnie Magsanoc, Eric Altamirano, Joey Mendoza and Duane Salvatierra. The five, together with Joey Guanio, Primo Rodriguez, Chris Somera and Ramil Cruz, were there at the right time to provide the spark for coach Joe Lipa to win his first ever UAAP championship. That starting five had been together for years and had the necessary chemistry off and on court which ordinarily takes time to establish.
Prior to joining the Maroons, Lipa says that Paras was being heavily recruited by other UAAP teams like De La Salle University and Ateneo. Paras confirms Lipa’s statement and added in the interview by staffers Karlitos Brian Decene, Ardelle Costuna, Brad Taningco, Marisse Panaligan, Joshua Dalupang and Gian Geronimo of “Tinig ng Plaridel” (official student publication of the UP College of Mass Communication) that “when I talked to other schools, the ones who talked to me are the coaches. Kaya lang, (not only the) UP coaches talked to me, but also players and alumni. And yun nga, I was convinced that this is the school for me, na I will fit in. Not really the school na hinahanap ko yung magandang offer. Will I be happy in this school, will I fit in, will I excel in this team? ”
In the “Tinig” interview, Paras claimed that “compared to other schools, UP is still number one. I will play. I will benefit from playing, and at the same time I will benefit from studying, from graduating from that school.”
To Paras, and the rest of the basketball squad, balancing academics and excelling in the playing field provided the ultimate challenge compounded by the fact that he, Magsanoc and Altamirano had other commitments with other teams. “Sometimes I need to talk to the professors to give me special projects. O kaya they will give me one exam and multiply it by four, kung ilan yung kailangan. So mababait naman, yung iba very considerate. Yung iba naman hindi, so kailangan mong tiyagain,” Paras says.
Now 43 and eight years after retiring from the PBA due to numerous knee injuries, Paras looks forward to guiding his two young boys who are both in high school playing with the La Salle Green Hills team in the NCAA: Andrei, who will be an incoming senior and Kobe, who will be in his sophomore year.
In our chat with Paras, he stated that in 1989, he opted to join the PBA despite an unfinished degree in BS Tourism (which he completed in 1991). Coach Joe Lipa had told him that, at 20 years of age, “he wasn’t ready yet for the PBA”. But Paras persisted and he told the mercurial Lipa that “I will win the MVP award in the PBA in my first year if only to prove to you that I’m ready.”
And that was precisely what Paras did, adding the Rookie of the Year award, a feat unequaled to this time. It would be the start of a fruitful PBA career that was marked by four championships for the Turbo Chargers. Known as the “Tower of Power”, Paras won his second MVP in 1999. He had also been with the Philippine national team which won the silver medal behind China in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games.
In his role as mentor to his two boys, Paras emphasizes the need for them to learn how to shoot from the outside and to become scoring threats: “I would tell them to watch and emulate Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks who can score from the three point area.” Certainly, these are words of wisdom from a father who sees his two boys having a bright future ahead of them by developing an all-around game.