Norman Black happy to see Hodge and Meralco vintage cars win the title

NORMAN Black was one of the happiest guys as Meralco won its first-ever PBA championship on Sunday. It may seem a bit ironic that after he left as coach of the team for almost a decade, the team won a title. But the approachable and soft-spoken mentor remains a big part of Meralco, albeit not in a coaching role.

“It’s finally nice to give Meralco a championship,” said Black, who is now the team’s advisor after Luigi Trillo and Nenad Vucinic were elevated to head coach and active advisor, respectively.

Black was with the team as head coach from 2014 to 2023. During his stint, Meralco played in four finals, all against Barangay Ginebra.

The Bolts won the 2024 Philippine Cup against San Miguel in six games with a thrilling 80-78 win.

“I am very happy for the players, especially those who have been playing here for a long time. I think I’ve been there 10, 11 years, the guys who were here when I got here were Hugnatan, Hodge, Anjo Caram, Newsome. I am happy for the management, the bosses and the employees who have supported us all these years,” said Black.

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Black said the players, as well as Trillo and Vucinic, get a lot of credit for steering the team to the championship.

“It’s just a great feeling, especially for the players. I’m happy for them. They work hard every day. I really think Coach Luigi and Coach Nenad have done a great job managing the team and leading us to the championship,” said Black, one of the league’s winningest coaches with 11 titles, including the 1989 Grand Slam for , ironically, San Miguel. Meralco’s opponent in the final.

Black still plays an active role at Meralco

When asked about his role with the team, Black said he remains active and mostly works on the bigs in practice. He was recently appointed to help the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas expand its grassroots programs, including overseeing basketball clinics in the provinces. At the same time, he is also an advisor to San Beda at the NCAA.

“I am in practice every day. Normally I work with the big boys. I’m working with our rebounding. My job now is more specific than before, when I was handling everything,” said Black.

“Sometimes I have to miss (matches) because I have San Beda and also at the SBP. I just came back from Davao (before Game 6) where we had clinics in the provinces for our grassroots program. So I’m also busy with other things, but I’m in practice every day and I’m part of the team.”

PHOTO: Jerome Ascano

Black said he is proud of the way the Meralco Bigs defended seven-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo throughout the finals.

“I think everyone agreed that they understood how we were going to play defense. We have always been a good defensive team. I think we’ve gotten better this year. We want to deal with June Mar in a certain way. “We know we can’t stop him, but we want to at least slow him down and slow down the other big ones if we can,” he said.

“Everyone was very attentive to how we wanted to get it done and they executed it very, very well.”

PHOTO: Jerome Ascano

One of those who Black said performed in a surprising way was rookie Brandon Bates.

“Let’s be honest. Brandon, he did things we didn’t think he could do in this series. He played really, really well for us. He has a bright future ahead of him,” Black said.

Black was also happy for Chris Newsome, a player of his dating back to his time as head coach of Ateneo in the UAAP, who went on to win a championship and was the one who made the game-winning shot in Game 6 with 3.3 seconds left.

“A lot of people don’t realize that I recruited New to go to Ateneo. I was the head coach at the time and went back to the PBA and I never got the chance to coach him in college.

“When I got the chance to draft him, I drafted him into the PBA. We’ve been together for probably eight years now and we haven’t won a championship yet, even though we’ve been here (in the PBA Finals) four times. I’m happy for him.

“This has been a great year for him, starting with the Asian Games. This year he has had some big successes. And he has proven to be a clutch player. I’m very happy for him,” Black said.

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