AS the hours passed and the night grew long during last Sunday's PBA Season 50 Draft, a sense of dread began to settle at the Music Hall of SM Mall of Asia as more than 40 undrafted players fidgeted with the rookie process deep into the ninth round.
Already, 66 of the 122 registered applicants had heard their names called before the eighth round. From their seats, they strode excitedly onstage, getting warm welcomes from their PBA ballclubs and presented with caps and jerseys.
Manu Codinera, son of PBA great Jerry Codinera, went in the seventh round at 63rd overall courtesy of Blackwater, and picked right after at 64th was a player named Kobe Bryant Pableo via NorthPort, obviously one with a parent who is a Lakers fan.
Four more amateurs were chosen in the eighth round, and three others in the ninth made it 73 draftees at that point.
Anxiety running dangerously close to panic must have taken siege over the remaining players at this time, with the door slowly closing on fervent hopes and childhood dreams.
Sponsored content:
At one of the tables, sitting quietly with members of his ballclub, the NLEX Road Warriors -- led by governor Ronald Dulatre, team manager Virgil Villavicencio and head coach Jong Uichico -- someone who has gone through a similarly agonizing experience 29 years ago must have felt the sting of forgotten pangs once more.
Like many of the players in the room that evening, Bethune 'Siot' Tanquingcen, who went undrafted along with another applicant, knew how it was to be passed over.
"Masama ang loob ko noon, masakit e," he says on recollection. "I was not looking to be a first round pick, basta ma-draft lang. Then magta-tryout and hopefully secure a slot and get signed. It didn't matter what round, basta magka-opportunity lang."
The moment came and passed, with all teams begging off as Pepsi Mega picked Segundo 'Bong' dela Cruz III at 17th overall, the only one selected in the fifth and final round of the draft.
Looking back still, Tanquingcen, who played for several national teams, including the gold-winning Southeast Asian Games squad in 1993, believes he wasn't exactly overlooked by the teams in '96.
Sponsored content:
"I think I overachieved somewhat in college because nadaan ko sa sipag at tiyaga kahit di ako ganoon ka-talented," says the former University of Santo Tomas stalwart. "Also as a national player, I felt kahit papano, it would carry some weight. All I wanted was a shot, a chance. I was thinking kahit papano, I served the country naman."
"But all that is past me," he says, laughing.
So many good things had happened to him since 1996 -- where Marlou Aquino went No. 1 in the draft, Rodney Santos No. 2 and Reuben dela Rosa No. 3 -- that Tanquingcen, who won a UAAP title as a player (1993) and three PBA championships as head coach, could now afford to make light the biggest disappointment in his basketball life.
He even has some advise for those who shared his fate that night.
"They just have to keep grinding, not give up on their dream kasi you never know when God will give you an opportunity, and it will come," he says.
"Kaysa magmukmok ka, figure out what you can do, how you can find your way back and get another opportunity."
For Tanguingcen, the way back, after informing his father that no PBA team had picked him and then bearing the anguish in silence for about a week, was to continue working as an auditor in a private firm and return to the Philippine Basketball League where he suited up for Carol Ann's.
That led to a short stint as a practice player with Sunkist in late 1996, and conferences with San Miguel Beer from 1997 to 1998 and the Pampanga Dragons in the Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1999 to 2000.
Amazingly, the player that didn't get a second look in the '96 draft became a sought-after commodity as a head coach after, with championships with the Barangay Ginebra Kings and the Beernen as his crowning glory.
Only recently Tanquingcen was reunited with Uichico at NLEX, going full circle in successfully figuring out what to do after that foreboding evening 29 years ago, and finding his way to an even bigger opportunity.
"That's why I have a soft spot for free agents, and I allow them to try out noon," he says. "Kasi naranasan ko yon, and you never know kung meron magaling at may potential sa kanila."(TST)
