Everybody has heard about the infamous Rudolfo “Rudy” Distrito of the Philippine Basketball Association!
Ginebra San Miguel’s Rudy Distrito was nicknamed the “Destroyer”. He played the game of Philippine basketball with a fire in his eyes. But he was never an instrument of war out to cripple an enemy with his sheer power because he was, in fact, rather small by modern day standards. Although he was a dynamite on the court, he is a big blast in a small package. To him, the hard court was a battleground for warriors and not for the faint-hearted.
“Destroyer” played the game in a manner and tone set down and glorified by the supreme architect of the never-say-die spirit. Basketball is a contact sport and making contact was part of the game, if he transgressed beyond what the rules allowed, there were referees to hold him responsible and to impose the corresponding sanctions.
The era of Distrito and Jaworski was consistently a measure of success. Because of the public support, millions who followed the Philippine Basketball Association during its glory days, which respectably appear to have long gone, worshiped those who played a brand of blood and guts basketball and the never ever surrender no matter how great the odds or how big the margin until the final buzzer sounded.
The “Destroyer” was tough on the hard court, but deep down inside him and off the court, he is a kind and gentle human being. One of his exploits that thrilled millions of fans and one can never forget that incredible off-balance, buzzer beating shot he buried to give Jaworski’s gallant Ginebra a breathtaking history in game 7 of a classic championship series with Formula Shell in 1991.
Distrito went beyond the bounds of the hard court laws many times. But with all due respect, he was more often the victim of perception rather than reality. Whatever it is, many dislike Jaworski and Distrito, probably because they feared them on the hard court and subscribed to a squeky clean, clinical brand of basketball washed in antiseptic rules and their implementation cheered,. When the “Destroyer”, Rudy Distrito was banned for life in the Philippine Basketball Association, majority of the fans lament for the cruel punishment hardly commensurate with his transgressions.
Rudy Distrito, for now is facing a new game in life, not in the hardcourt anymore with colleagues, but isolation in which the entity of life is more important.
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