As the final buzzer sounded that signaled the end of a grueling seven game series between rivals Barangay Ginebra and the Star Hotshots, Joe Devance looked around the sold out SM Mall of Asia Arena, soaking in the celebration.
Even with seven championships under his belt, it still doesn’t get old for the 10-year league veteran.
“It was pretty emotional especially for me. Everything I had to battle through, it was tough, it was really tough,” Devance said.
During the first game of their quarterfinals encounter against the Alaska Aces, Devance suffered a plantar fasciitis injury on his left knee that forced him out of the semis-clinching game and the first two games of the semifinals.
And it’s been well-documented that the utility forward took a shot of anesthetics. And as the series wore on, his dosage increased to a couple of shots.
In the five games he played, he averaged 6.6 points and 3.5 rebounds. But more than the statistics, the native of El Paso, Texas inspired his teammates to do more.
“Thank you man,” Chris Ellis whispered to Devance. “Thanks Joe,” added Jervy Cruz.
“I’m proud of the guys for showing up and never quitting. Even in the losses, they never held their head down,” Devance beamed as his teammates started heading to the parking lot, Tuesday evening.
“Purefoods is a great team but we never got discouraged even when we were down and everybody counted us out.”
But with the pain he is experiencing, coach Tim Cone, who has mentored Devance since 2008, is planning to sit Devance out for a couple of games. The Filipino-American though begs to have a long talk with Cone about it.
“Not yet. I’m going to talk to coach Tim about it. I’m hoping that in the next two days, I’d feel good and see what happens on Friday,” he said.
“He told me that he was going to do that but I’m hoping not to. But I trust coach Tim and we’ll see.”
After all these years, Devance is still displaying the same hunger as he did back in 2007. And no one should be surprised if he triples his dosage just so he could taste gold once more.
