RONDAE Hollis-Jefferson remained perfect in the PBA finals, winning his third championship with TNT after clinching the Commissioner's Cup title at the expense of Barangay Ginebra.
But certainly, it's the most challenging one as well.
It's the first time the do-it-all import had been stretched into a Game 7, where he likewise had to endure playing with the combined effects of both hamstring and groin injuries.
When it was all over, RHJ could only heave a sigh of relief.
"I'm banged up. But you know, I'm sure they're (Tropang Giga) banged up as well," said the import, who had to be aided as he walked out of the TNT dugout with an obvious limp following the Game 7 win (87-83).
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"But I said to myself, I wouldn't make any excuses. I just tried my best."
His best meant producing 25 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block shots while playing for 52 minutes in the drama-filled, winner-take-all game played before an Araneta Coliseum crowd of 21, 274.
His last basket on a driving layup with 21 seconds left in regulation gave TNT a 79-76 lead.
But it was during that sequence when he appeared to have aggravated his injuries.
Already nursing a hurting hamstring as early as the semifinals against Rain or Shine, a groin injury which he suffered when he banged hard on the LED board while trying to retrieve the ball in the first half of Game 6 further aggravated his health situation.
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"Honestly, I'm no doctor. I can't tell you what's going on exactly," said Hollis-Jefferson of the pain he's feeling on his groin area.
"My abdomen was locking, at the same time, my groin was locking. So I couldn't really move my leg. So I needed to sit down."
In his two previous championships with the Tropang Giga during the 2023 and 2024 Governors' Cup, the former NBA player soaked in the moment and led the team's celebration.
This time as the team celebrated in the din of winning its most challenging title conquest yet, all Hollis-Jefferson could do was sit down, watch, and enjoy the moment.
"For sure, for sure," he said when asked if this was his most difficult finals yet. "They're in there celebrating and I was there sitting down. It hurts," he said.(RG)
