Philippine Basketball Association grand slam winners Atoy Co and Mon Cruz of the fabled Crispa Redmanizers and Norman Black, who led San Miguel Beer to a triple crown in 1989, chose Billy Ray Bates over six-time league champion and Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Justin Brownlee of Barangay Ginebra.
Speaking to the Daily Tribune during the second episode of Down To The Wire podcast, which focused on the second grand slam of Crispa 40 years ago, Co and Cruz, two backcourt mates of the legendary PBA squad, attested to Bates’ dominance at the height of their amazing run.
“For me, Billy Ray Bates is the better player,” said Co, who was a part of both grand slam teams of Crispa in 1976 and 1983.
“They both played inside and out. But Billy is more flashy. I could attest at how great Billy was because I played with him, but Justin is also a great import,” Co said.
“Justin has a variety of moves now because of scientific training and something that we’ve not seen in the past, including the fadeaway shot, while Billy is more on taking it strong to the basket. Billy, however, has the edge over Brownlee.”
With Bates in tow, the Redmanizers went on to sweep all three conferences that season.
On top of winning the grand slam, Bates capped Crispa’s amazing 21-game streak bridging the All-Filipino and the second conference of that same season.
‘It’s not that far when it comes to skill set, but Bates is more consistent every game.’
Cruz, who became a part of Crispa’s five championship teams, including that grand slam year, used to be the reliever of Bernie Fabiosa, one of the PBA’s All-Time Greatest Players and member of the franchise’s two grand slams.
But Cruz also witnessed Bates taking full flight.
Like Co, Cruz feels Bates is better.
“It’s not that far when it comes to skill set, but Bates is more consistent every game,” Cruz said.
“But we’re speaking of 1983. Basketball has evolved now and the things Billy Ray Bates had been doing is something that teams can scout now as they can throw a double or triple team defense on him.”
“But I still give Bates an edge over Brownlee in terms of Bates’ creativity and his ability to take it strong to the hoop. I don’t think there’s any player who can stop Bates once he’s already airborne. He would just dunk the ball once he took off. The impact of Bates’ game is very high.”
Before he embarked in the coaching scene, Black was a rival of Bates and twice in the import-laden conferences of that 1983 season, “The Black Superman” was able to beat “That Old Black Magic.”
Black knows Brownlee too well.
Brownlee beat Black’s Meralco team four times in the finals but he believes Bates, who used to play for the Portland TrailBlazer, has the edge.
“We had several great imports in the PBA, but Billy was different,” said Black, then the import of the up and coming Great Taste in 1983.
“I played against him in the States. I knew how good he was when he was in the US.”
“But I knew what Billy was doing off the court and that amazed me even more. The fact that he wasn’t disciplined as he was off the court, he could stay up the whole night and score 50 points easily — and talk thrash to you while doing it,” said Black, who has lived in the country since the 1980s.
“Billy can hit the trey, penetrate to the basket and dunk on you and grab rebounds, he was also a very good defender and he could pass the basketball. He’s an all-around player.”
