It was one of those rare times that he went up to the pressroom and allowed himself to be interviewed. It was also one rare occasion that he did not rant about the officiating.

Who would care to snob the media guys or berate the referees when you're up 3-0 and nothing could seem to go wrong?

Not the celebrated coach of the league's most popular ballclub. Not the oldest active basketball player in the world and yes, not the PBA's most controversial "cry baby."

For how can Robert Jaworski, alternately called the "Living Legend" and "Mr. Forever" still afford to hark on other facets of the game when his Gordon's Gin Boars, backed up by their throngs of die-hard fans,have just come from a masterful rout of the Pop Cola Bottlers, ensuring their best start ever in five years?

Give it to the man who will turn 51 next week and yet still playing the game he loves most and one which has been very kind to him.

"What's three wins compared to the other games we still have to play," he asked the denizens of the PBA press row as he tried to downplay their most impressive start ever in the play-for pay loop. "We still have to improve on a lot of things and this is just the beginning."

He then started rattling of the whys and wherefores of their improvement while citing players like Bal David, Marlou Aquino and Noli Locsin who all seemed to have found the chemistry needed to transform the Boars into one cohesive fighting unit.

Short of saying the best is yet to come (sounds like a government line, eh?), the man you'd either love or hate depending on which side of the fence you're in, had those guys at the press room tonguetied to the point that nobody failed to ask a question after the first two were fired.

Where these guys who used to hound him at the dugout (as he is not wont to visiting the pressroom particularly in those hardup days) simply mesmerized?

Call it, probably the charisma of the Living Legend or the magic of the man who has made believers out of millions and you'll see why after 22 seasons, he continues to be the PBA's main draw, the object of ridicule by the unbelieving and yes, the bane of the men in stripes who officiate the game.

He continues to be the anti-thesis to the dictum that players of his stature should be role models. Just watch out for those four-letter unprintables which he oh, so generously sprays to the referees and you'll know what we mean.

He continues to perk up the crowd with barreling drives, razzle dazzle plays and booming threepoint shots yet never fails to amuse us with his vehement protestations of calls which he thinks did not go his team's way.

But such is Jaworski. He knows how to play to the crowd and yes, to his team's fans. He would never ever refuse a chance to pose for a picture with them, sign an autograph for them and mingle with the very people who has made the PBA what it was today.

But then something struck us while trying to dissect the very reason why this man has stayed in the limelight this long. In fact so long, that he has remained the only pioneer player in the league, outlasting such contemporaries as Abet Guidaben and Mon Fernandez.

It occured to us, what if suddenly this man fades into the sunset and leaves everything behind? Will everything be the same? Supposing that after giving the La Tondena franchise a title in this All-Filipino or goes on to win a grandslam for his team, he announces his retirement and makes an orphan out of us all?

Will it make a lot of people long hankering for him to leave the hardcourt happy? Or will it make a lot of people, particularly the PBA front office sad?

Will the parents of kids so antagonized by his court behavior put their hands together in glee? Or will a lot of aspiring youngsters bow their heads in disbelief?

Will the PBA continue to break records or will it suffer at the gates?

We shudder to think at the consequences. How about you? On which fence will you be when that happens?

Tell us what you think, while we enjoy a shot of Gordon's Gin. Ahhh...

Alaska halts Gordon's streak.

March 02,1997
Gordon's Gin tests Alaska mettle today.

March 01,1997
PureFoods rips Alaska Milkmen, 88-63.

Gordon's stays sparkling clear.

New twist in Jacobs-BCAP case.

PBA twinbill in Pampanga.

February 28,1997
Gordon's Gin eyes 3rd straight win.

February 27,1997
PBA, BAP talks slated?

San Mig is the best-coached team in the PBA --Chot Reyes.

February 26,1997
Mobiline outlasts Shell in overtime.

Jawo Jr. gets all the breaks.

February 25,1997
Mobiline vs Shell today.

PBA freezes Feihl.

February 24,1997
Rookie lifts Mobiline past PureFoods.

Buzzer-beating trey lifts Gordon's Gin.