Robert Jaworski

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Robert Jaworski
Position	Guard
Nickname	The Living Legend, The Big J
League	Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	192 lb (87 kg)
Team	Toyota Super Corollas, Ginebra San Miguel
Nationality	Philippines
Born	March 8, 1946 Baguio City
College	University of the East
Pro career	1975 – 1998
Awards	1-time PBA MVP (1978) UAAP Basketball Most Valuable Player PBA 25 Greatest Players of All Time (2000)

Robert “Sonny” Jaworski (born March 8, 1946 in Baguio, Cordillera Administrative Region) is a former Philippine senator and PBA basketball player. Known as The Big J and called The Living Legend during his playing days, Jaworski was a former playing coach—the first ever in the PBA—for Ginebra San Miguel. In 2000 he was honored as one of the PBA’s 25 Greatest Players of all time.

1 Amateur career
2 Professional career
3 Political career
4 Career highlights
- 4.1 PBA career
- 4.2 Other
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] Amateur career

He started his stellar career under the tutelage of legendary coach Virgilio "Baby" Dalupan at the University of the East . He later played on the Ysmael Steelers and Meralco Reddy Kilowatt squads in the amateurs and was a member of several national teams that brought pride and honor to the Philippines. In the late 1960s, he was named as one of Asia's top five players.

[edit] Professional career

Jaworski at the opening ceremonies of UAAP Season 69.

He later played for Toyota and Komatsu in the Philippine Basketball Association and was instrumental in Toyota's nine championships. He was the acknowledged leader of the Toyota squad which had many fiery matches with their rival, the Crispa Redmanizers. Together with Francis Arnaiz and Ramon Fernandez, they formed the troika of Toyota's vaunted offense. During his stint at Toyota, he won the coveted MVP award in 1978 averaging double digits in scoring (20.2 ppg) and assists (10.2 apg), only failing to make double digits in rebounds (8.2 rpg) by a small margin. He was also the first point guard to achieve 1000 offensive and 2000 defensive rebounds. He is also the PBA's All Time Leader in Assists.

After Toyota disbanded, he later took on the role of playing-coach for Ginebra. Owing to his rough-and-tumble-devil-may-care attitude, he led a ragtag squad of has-beens and castaway players to four championships and numerous memorable matches that kept PBA fans at the edge of their seats. These endeared Ginebra to Philippine basketball fans and made Ginebra the most popular team in the history of the PBA. He joined the late Fort Acuña as the only Filipino players to win championships both as a player and a coach.

His fans grew to legions that have spanned generations: from fathers who have idolized him when he was with Toyota; to their children who have admired him when he was leading the charge for Ginebra.

After 23 years of giving Philippine basketball fans scintillating performances, he once more thrilled the public when the fabled Crispa-Toyota rivalry was relived in a historic reunion match on May 30, 2003 that played to a packed Araneta Coliseum. The match did not fail to disappoint as the game was tantalizingly close until the dying seconds of the game when Jaworski, reprising his old role, sank a three pointer from atop the arc to give his old team one last triumph over their old nemesis. This one last act on the basketball hardcourt cemented his legendary status in the hearts and minds of Filipino basketball fans.

[edit] Political career

Senator of the Philippines 1998–2004
Political Party:	Independent (1998–2004)

Jaworski ran for Senator during the 1998 national elections as an independent candidate, in which he won. Due to this, he was forced to leave the coaching chores to Ginebra assistant Rino Salazar. After a dispute with the new officials at Ginebra's mother company, San Miguel Corporation, Jaworski quit his duties as head coach and concentrate more on his political duties.

Jaworski was part of several committees during his senatorial term was Chairman of Economic Affairs, Trade and Commerce and was also a member of the Games and Amusement and Sports Committee. [1]

As political fortunes go and Jaworski being a political lightweight (not unlike many entertainment and sports personalities who decided to cast their hat into the political arena, that is Philippine politics) he ended up in the wrong side of the Political fence towards the end of his term in the Senate. In 2004, Jaworski lost running for re-election as senator.

[edit] Career highlights

[edit] PBA career

Most Valuable Player in 1978
Mythical First Team Selection in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1986
Mythical Second Team Selection in 1985 and 1988
All Defensive Team in 1985 and 1988
Four time PBA All-Star
Won four championship as a playing coach in 1986 Open Conference, 1988 All-Filipino Conference, 1991 First Conference and 1997 Commissioner's Cup all with the Ginebra franchise
Coached the 1990 PBA All-Star Veterans, 1991 PBA All-Star Dark Team, 1992 PBA All-Star North Team, 1996 PBA All-Star Rookie/Sophomore/Juniors, and 1997 PBA All-Star Veterans
Finished his career with 5,825 career assists, 605 more than the second-running total of Ramon Fernandez.

[edit] Other

Member, 1966 Asian Games
Member, 1967 Asian Basketball Confederation (Champions)
Member, 1968 Olympic Games
Member, 1969 Asian Basketball Confederation (Third Place)
Member, 1971 Asian Basketball Confederation (Second Place)
Member, 1973 Asian Basketball Confederation (Champions), Team Captain
Member, 1974 World Championship
Member, 1974 Asian Games
Head Coach, 1990 Asian Games (Silver Medal)

[edit] Trivia

He is the most popular and most charismatic player the PBA has produced. He played the dual role of player-coach of the La Tondeña frnachise at the age of 52 in 1998, 20 years after he won his only MVP award in the PBA.

In 1990 he spearheaded a hastily organized group of professional basketball superstars that attempted to wrestle back Philippine basketball supremacy from China. It was the Philippine version of the Dream Team and was composed of four-time MVPs Ramon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio, Benjie Paras, Allan Caidic, Chito Loyzaga, Hector Calma, Ronnie Magsanoc and Samboy Lim. It, however, came up only with a Silver medal. It remains to date the best finish by a Philippine professional basketball squad in the Asian Games.

During a Ginebra game against guest team Northern Consolidated, after getting a busted lip in the second quarter, he came back from a nearby hospital with seven stitches and went right back into the fray like a madman and led his trailing Ginebra team back to victory.

At a not-so-young age of 40, he played the full 58 minutes (regulation plus two overtimes)in a PBA playoff game victory against Manila Beer, 145-135, the second longest exposure in a game by a local player.

He is the first PBA player to hit a three point shot when the three-point shot was introduced in the PBA in 1980. He did this in an exhibition game against the mighty Crispa Redmanizers.

He had a running feud with Toyota teammate Ramon Fernandez that started around the last two years of Toyota in the PBA. It spilled over into a full blown acrimonious war on and off the court after Toyota disbanded in 1984. This feud, which lasted for a few years, was almost equally watched as the Toyota-Crispa rivalry. Jaworski's Ginebra against any team Fernandez was on. The feud finally ended in 1989 when both men, playing for the first time together since Toyota disbanded, orchestrated a beautiful last play that won the game for the All-Star Veterans team against a team of Rookies and Junior players (132-130). Fernandez executed an elegant undergoal stab after receiving an inbound pass from his old friend and team captain Jaworski. (Years later, Fernandez would return the favor in the dying seconds of the Toyota-Crispa reunion match by giving the assist to Jaworski who gallantly took the winning shot, a 3-pointer).

Playing for Meralco, in the amateur MICAA league, Jaworski and his teammate Alberto "Big Boy" Reynoso were given a lifetime ban for punching referee Joe Obias during a league game by the BAP (Basketball Association of the Philippines) headed by Lito Puyat. After three (3) years, the sanction was lifted, Jaworski and Reynoso returned to the hardcourt playing for the Komatsu Comets in the same league.

Jaworski contribution to Philippine basketball is legendary. You either loved or hated Sonny Jaworski.

Jaworski is of partial Polish descent. While his surname is pronounced in Polish as [ja'vorski], it is commonly pronounced in the Philippines as [dʒa'woɾski] in Tagalog or [dʒə'wɚski] in English.

[edit] External links

Senator Robert Jaworski , Senator Robert Jaworski's homepage
Robert Jaworski, Senate biography
[2] Robert Jaworski article
Jaworski-Fernandez 1989 team-up 1989 All-Star Game that ended the Jaworski-Fernandez Feud

Preceded by Freddie Hubalde	Philippine Basketball Association Most Valuable Player 1978	Succeeded by Atoy Co
Preceded by Arturo Valenzona	Ginebra San Miguel head coach 1984-1998	Succeeded by Rino Salazar
Preceded by Joe Lipa	Philippine National Team Asian Games head coach 1990	Succeeded by Norman Black

	Philippines Dream Team - 1990 Asian Games
Ramon Fernandez \| Zaldy Realubit \| Rey Cuenco \| Yves Dignadice \| Benjie Paras \| Alvin Patrimonio \| Chito Loyzaga \| Dante Gonzalgo \| Allan Caidic \| Samboy Lim \| Ronnie Magsanoc \| Hector Calma \| Coach Robert Jaworski