Arwind Santos wishes to see each member of San Miguel’s celebrated ‘Death Five’ have their respective jersey numbers retired one day.
“Kung ako tatanungin, siyempre dahil sa ganda ng pinagsamahan namin, gusto ko i-retire din siyempre ‘yung Death Five na ‘yun,” the 2013 PBA MVP said.
Santos made the statement shortly after his no. 29 was immortalized by the Beermen during halftime of SMB’s eventual 124-109 win over Blackwater on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
San Miguel is now 10-0 in the Season 48 Philippine Cup.
Santos is the seventh player in franchise history to have received such an honor after Mon Fernandez, Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim, Yves Dignadice, Hector Calma, and current Ginebra assistant coach Olsen Racela.
Soon, he hopes that the list will grow with seven-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, and Alex Cabagnot joining that company.
Members of the dreaded five were in attendance for Santos’ jersey retirement. Their mini-reunion evoked memories of the Beermen’s reign of dominance from 2014-19, which saw them win a total of eight PBA championships.
That run, of course, will be best remembered for their unprecedented Philippine Cup ‘five-peat’ – highlighted by the historic ‘Beeracle’ in 2016 that witnessed SMB come back from a 0-3 deficit in the Finals to beat Alaska.
All that they have accomplished together, Santos believes, could be more than enough for his pals that they may not need to look for any jersey retirement.
“I think base sa pagkakakilanlan ko sa mga ‘yun – kina Ross, kina Marcio, kina Alex – masaya na rin sila dahil sa moment na nagkaroon kami,” he said.
“Hindi naman lahat pinapalad ng ganoong moment na mapunta sa magandang team, ma-achieve yung mga ilang championship, magkaroon ng history kagaya ng Beeracle. ‘Yun pa lang enough na ‘yun eh,” he added.
But of course, he’d be more than happy to see them get it one day.
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