As LA Tenorio sunk a three-pointer to make it 102-104 with three seconds left in game 2 of the 2019 PBA Governors' Cup finals, I contemplated about this question, for the sake of the future of the PBA, which team should win the championship, Ginebra or Meralco?
If Ginebra wins it, the largest fan base in the country will celebrate. I am pretty sure everyone of us will know that Barangay Ginebra won their 12th crown as a franchise. The question is, will that actually increased the interest for the league?
If you think about, Ginebra winning will just further annoy a lot of fans who are already cold about the league because of lack of parity. Why?
If Ginebra wins, that will make it 10th straight times that a San Miguel Corporation team is our champion. Yes, SMC is currently on a very hot streak of winning PBA championships. The last franchise outside of SMC that won was TNT in 2015 Commissioner's Cup.
So, if Meralco wins, that streak will finally end and at the very least, it will legitimize another threat to the ongoing domination of SMC.
That will also be the first championship of the Meralco franchise. That will reduce the number of championship-less teams to five.
And, remember what coach Norman Black said? The Meralco-Ginebra match-up should not be considered a rivalry until Meralco wins the championship over Ginebra.
And I agree with that. If the orange franchise succeeds this time, then that puts a lock to the Meralco-Ginebra as a legit rivalry.
And we all know that legit rivalries help a lot of increasing the popularity of a league.
ROS won the 2016 Commissioners Cup
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