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Paras relishes 2nd MVP plum
By Jong Arcano

BENJIE Paras has a basketball side and a show biz side as well. A Tower of Power they call him on one end, a gangling comic on the other.

But if you become a two-time Most Valuable Player in the Philippine Basketball Association and still don't own an acting award in the movies, the direction is pretty obvious.

On Friday, Paras joined the PBA's elite ranks of multiple MVP winners. Inevitably, it was the gimmicks of show biz that highlighted his coronation at the Philsports in Pasig.

Footages of his wife (former teen idol Jackie Forster) and two sons relaying emotional messages of support and a live patch of a conversation with his mother based in Perth, Australia, were supposed to make the 6-foot-5 Shell slotman cry.

Paras disappointed the scriptwriter of the melodrama. Benjie's wife cried, he didn't.

Instead, it was all talk and smile for Benjie as he relished the joy of being top of the class again, a mean feat considering that not too long ago he was close to being labelled a goner after a career-threatening knee injury left him virtually inutile against young beanpoles especially the brawny Fil-Americans.

Shell goes where Paras goes. The sudden dip in form of Paras had the Zoom Masters falling into disarray and getting eliminated for two straight conferences last year.

The road to recovery was a painful process that Paras feels was part of his "growing up."

"I can only have myself to blame. When I won my first MVP trophy (in 1989), it seemed like I became too contented. I became overconfident too. I didn't realize that challenges are bound to come," he reminisced. "Soon enough, our team became weak, I wasn't training too hard anymore and my performance dipped. Then I had this injury."

The knee injury, according to Paras, was an urgent reason for retrospection.

"I really tried hard to get back in shape after my injury healed. When the doctor only required rehabilitation once a day, I did it twice. I always came early for practice, I really pushed my physical limits to the hilt.

"Somehow I thought that it was God's way of making me realize my mistakes, I just feel thankful to Him for helping me recover, for giving me another chance," he said.

Paras came out of the humbling experience more matured and with a lot of focus.

The arrival of Fil-Ams like Sonny Alvarado, Eric Menk and Danny Seigle who turned out to be his chief rivals for the MVP plum forced him to work even harder: "In a way, the Fil-Ams helped us elevate the level of our performances. We were simply forced to step up."

When league heavyweights like Alvin Patrimonio, Marlou Aquino and Jerry Codi�era found it hard to step up against the Fil-Am-flavored battle this season, Paras spelled the big difference by leading Shell to the All-Filipino crown and a runner-up finish in the Commissioner's Cup.

Becoming this year's MVP made him only the fifth player to win the award twice. But the lessons in life that went with it make winning the second time around sweeter.

"It's something special considering where I came from. This transformation will hopefully make me a better player, a better person."

Cage heroes will come and go. Only a few, however, can leave a lasting legacy like Benjie.

You can only be your best teacher and student.

(Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 5, 1999)