Barangay Ginebra Wednesday night returned to greatness in the face of all sorts of adversities that many thought the Kings couldn’t live through. And with a collective resolve in the season’s final game, the Kings also proved that adversity is what they thrive on.

Walking wounded for practically the whole year, the Kings dug deep one more time and humbled an Air21 side that welcomed itself to the PBA’s elite, hammering out a 97-84 Game 7 victory for the Smart PBA Fiesta Cup before a stomping, chanting throng at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

Ronald Tubid scored 22 points, making all of his 11 free throw attempts, and Eric Menk added 21 and 14 rebounds to share Finals MVP honors in a series that will go down the history books as one of the closest ever fought.

Tubid played just his fourth game in these Finals, returning from a six-week absence because of a dislocated ankle to infuse the fire missing in the team because of injuries to Jayjay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa.

Menk, meanwhile, played like the reliable warrior that he is after spending most of the eliminations on the bench because of various injuries. He went on to average 12 points and 7.1 rebounds while becoming the prime offensive option Wednesday night.

The Ginebra victory altered the ending that the Express had hoped for after easing out front, 3-2, with a masterful Game 5 victory.

And the inexperience of the Express showed during times of trouble in the rubber match, as the veterans, Wynne Arboleda most notable among them, folded up in the face of a searing stand put up by the Kings.

“What’s there to really say? Every championship means a lot,” coach Jong Uichico, soaked and all, later said after pocketing his eighth career championship. “You are really happy about it because you’ve worked so hard for a certain goal.

“The important thing is to keep on trying,” he added. “It’s hard to explain how we won the series. The players deserve all the credit for not giving up despite all the adversities we had to encounter.”

The Kings were without Helterbrand for the fifth consecutive game, and leading local scorer Caguioa has continued to be weighed down by tendonitis, as he was the whole series.

Still, it was Ginebra’s eighth title overall and first since the Philippine Cup last year, which was Uichico’s first tournament at the helm of the Kings.

Air21, in the Big Dance for the first time in six years in the league, got all the opening it could wish for after Junthy Valenzuela and import Chris Alexander limped out of the floor late in the third quarter when both suffered different leg injuries.

And that was after the Kings had established leads of as many as 13 points, the last at 65-52 after a daredevil drive by Tubid heading into the final 7:34 of the third quarter.

Alexander, adjudged as the Best Import over Thomas earlier in the series, did return after getting treated for cramps. But he picked up his fifth personal just as quick, but still played enough defense without having to surrender his sixth despite chasing prolific Air21 reinforcement Steven Thomas.

Air21 led, 84-83, after an Arwind Santos follow-up of his own miss with 4:27 to play. But that would prove to be the final time that the Express would score, as they lapsed into a maze of errors and ill-advised shots.

“I have always been spiritual in this conference,” Air21 coach Bo Perasol said. “I promised God that I would give him all the glory if we win. But if Ginebra won, maybe God wanted to have millions of Filipinos to be happy.

Crowd impact

“Game 7 is just one game, somebody is going to win and someone is going to lose,” Perasol said. “I think we did pretty well this conference. We still over-achieved. Maybe we were not just ready for the impact that the crowd brought to the games.”

So physical was the game that the Express were whistled for two Flagrant 1 fouls in the first half, the first on Homer Se on Alex Crisano and the second on Arboleda on a fast-breaking Paul Artadi.

But both Kings muffed four combined free throws which could have given Ginebra a much comfortable buffer and the Express exploited this to take the halftime break trailing by just three, 49-46.

An overflow crowd of 22,902 filled the Big Dome even as scores were turned away minutes before the start.

That figure now represents the new league high since the Crispa-Toyota glory days when the Araneta Coliseum, before a renovation in the last decade that put individual seats in the upper A and B sections, reportedly held crowds of more than 30,000.

National team discussion

Meanwhile, the board convenes for the penultimate time under the chairmanship of Red Bull’s Tony Chua at the league’s offices in Libis, Quezon City on Thursday to discuss some crucial issues concerning the national team.

High in the list of things to be discussed would be whether commissioner Renauld “Sonny” Barrios would have the sole discretion on who to appoint as national five coach when the Philippines resumes its quest to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Yeng Guiao, the firebrand Red Bull coach, is high in the list of candidates.

Chua will relinquish his post in the board’s annual meeting in Macau early next week, where Joaqui Trillo of Alaska will be elected chair and Robert Non of Barangay Ginebra as vice-chair.

The 34th Season will open Oct. 4, the first time that the league will take the lid off of its next tournament on a Saturday to give way to what will be an eight-game week. That will be done in order to have the season end on July and enable the PBA to help national basketball cause.

The scores:
BARANGAY GINEBRA 97—Tubid 22, Menk 21, Alexander 16, Caguioa 13, Valenzuela 10, Artadi 8, Crisano 4, Pacana 3, Mamaril 0, Salvacion 0, Reavis 0.
AIR21 84—Thomas 24, Santos 19, David 18, Canaleta 8, Billones 6, De Ocampo 5, Cruz 3, Arboleda 1, Kramer 0, Intal 0, Espinas 0, Sotto 0, Se 0.
Quarters: 26-21, 49-46, 72-63, 97-84