If Marcio Lassiter were asked, the current batch of the San Miguel Beermen can be up there whenever talks regarding the best teams to ever play in the PBA are discussed.
This comes after the Beermen won their fourth straight Philippine Cup title by finishing off the Magnolia Hotshots in five games, becoming the first team in the league’s rich history to achieve the remarkable feat. Moreover, this is this batch’s sixth championship in the last nine conferences.
“We have a lot of things that we checked off in our list — things that haven’t been done,” said the sharp-shooting swingman moments after capturing the All-Filipino title, Friday night.
“And I guess I could put that in the category.”
Ever since 2015, the Beermen have shown flashes of greatness thanks mostly to head coach Leo Austria and of course, the Fab Five consisting of Lassiter, Chris Ross, Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos, and reigning Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo.
And in the title-clinching Game Five, the Beermen made yet another strong case as to why they can be considered one of the best teams ever.
Just when everybody inside the Mall of Asia Arena thought that the series would go to a Game Six after they went down by 23, San Miguel climbed back, forcing two overtimes to eke out the 108-99 victory.
“We really had to fight for this one. It was really hard,” said Lassiter, who finished with 16 points.
“This is the fight of a champion: Relentless. We never gave up. We just showed how we are as a championship team.
“This is a very special moment not just for me and all the players and everyone part of San Miguel. This is a feat that hasn’t happened so we wanted to definitely make history,” added Lassiter, who normed 19.0 points in the series.
San Miguel truly have plenty of reasons to be labelled as one of the best teams ever. And for them, a Grand Slam would be the best thing to further solidify their claims.
“I know we’re chasing a bigger one. [But] We can’t chase that unless we get this next conference,” said the 30-year-old Filipino-American.
“But we don’t want to look ahead to that because there’s a lot of work to be done.”
