The entity known as the Titan exists in a state of permanent exclusion, a condition of life where the postseason is a Castle visible on the horizon but reachable only by a road that dissolves beneath one's feet. They sit at the bottom of the league's ledger, a 2-9 record weighing upon them like a heavy, damp coat that can never be removed. It is a mathematical sentence—the second-worst in the land—handed down by an invisible tribunal that seems to have decided, long ago, that the Titan shall remain outside the gates.
Within this labyrinth of defeat, there is a man named Joshua Munzon, who performs a series of increasingly miraculous labors for an audience of shadows. He is like a messenger who carries the most vital news across a desolate wasteland, only to find that the destination has ceased to exist. In his last three trials, the numbers he has produced are a testament to a brilliance that the system refuses to acknowledge:
Against the NLEX Road Warriors: 19 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals.
Against the Magnolia Hotshots: 24 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals.
Against the Barangay Ginebra: A staggering 20 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists, and 5 steals.
Munzon moves through the court with the frantic, beautiful speed of a bird trapped in a glass room. He is arguably the finest fastbreak scorer in the league, a blur of motion that momentarily disrupts the stagnation of the Titan’s game. He possesses the uncanny ability to steal the ball—to take what is not his as if by a divine right—and has even begun to pull up for three-pointers, as if trying to reach a height where the misery of the scoreline cannot touch him.
Yet, for all this effort, the result is always the same: another loss, another exclusion. The talent is being consumed by the very atmosphere of the organization. If the Titan is not yet ready to contend—if the "Trial" of their rebuilding is to be an eternal process—one must wonder if the most merciful act would be a relocation. To keep a star of Munzon’s caliber within these walls is to watch a brilliant light being used to illuminate a cellar.
Perhaps the time has come to consider a trade, a package deserving of a superstar talent, so that Munzon might finally be permitted to step through the door that the Titan has found perpetually locked.
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