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Shell in dire straits... (continued...)
Said Encarnado: "Coach, I'll let him play for you but only for your school. Once the UAAP is over he'll play for me, all right?" Pumaren, who was also coaching Triple-V, replied: "No problem, boss. It's just for La Salle really." Telan eventually became a Green Archer. But irony of ironies, he never got to play for Pumaren, who was replaced by Virgil Villavicencio before the UAAP season started. Neither did he get to be under Encarnado after the Sta. Lucia franchise was sold, lock, stock and barrel, to Stag Pale Pilsen. La Salle reached the UAAP final game thrice with Telan but never got past University of Santo Tomas and so the experience of being the main man in a victorious campaign remained a to-die-for dream. A number of championships did come his way in the PBL with the Pilseners and later Tanduay Rhum, but Telan accomplished these playing behind his idol Marlou Aquino and Bal David, Jason Webb, and later Eric Menk. In 1999, brimming with hope and expectation, Telan was elevated to the PBA among the nucleus of the multi-titled Tanduay squad. But he immediately rode the bench for virtually one whole season as Menk, Sonny Alvarado and even Chris Cantonjos hugged 90 percent of the Rhum Masters' frontline minutes. And so when the three-team trade among Shell, Mobiline and Tanduay came, yanking him away from his long-time teammates and sending him over to the camp of their All-Filipino rival Shell, Telan was apprehensive. He wanted to stay on with Tanduay, he told friends, but something deep within was telling him that it was time to go. His first three games with the Zoom Masters were near-disasters and talk went the rounds that he was already on the trading block even before an offensive play was ever designed for him by Ronquillo. Fate then intervened. When injuries started to hit Shell's key players one after the other, Ronquillo, like Santa calling on Rudolph to guide his sleigh, found himself calling on Telan at the far end of the Zoom Masters bench more and more. As Telan's minutes got higher, so did his confidence level and, to some extent, Ronquillo's faith in him. And so when that play in the final 4.6 seconds of overtime against Red Bull was diagramed for him, Telan, who turned the ball over with an offensive foul two seconds earlier, must have known it was now or never. It was no championship game, no playoff spot was on the line, and Shell was in no danger of getting eliminated. But redemption looks for no particular situation, and a winning shot is a winning shot. For certified stars like Alvin Patrimonio, Johnny Abbarientos, Benjie Paras and Marlou Aquino, scoring the winning basket may be an ordinary, everyday occurence, something you sweep under the rug afterward like a game-costing turnover. But for a silently-suffering sophomore like Telan, who had waited so long, hitting that basket was a huge thing and meant a lot more - a big monkey off his back, the need to prove himself, added trust from his coach, renewed respect from his teammates, tighter defense from the opposition in the future, a little more latitude from the referees, and extra reason to again put the ball in his hands in the dying seconds of a close game. Mark Telan doing another Jim Valvano? Personally, I'd rather he leave that to Perry Ronquillo. Except climbing over that "rolltec" thing. (Source: Phil. Daily Inquirer - April 1, 2000) (Webmaster's Note: We are currently looking for contributors to write for this section. If you want to contribute sports article about the Shell team, please forward it to the webmaster.)
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