A big part of the celebration for the PBA’s 50th anniversary is naming 10 more players to the league’s Greatest List, and this has been a hot topic largely because of how testy the last one turned out to be.
In 2015, during the PBA’s 40th anniversary, 15 players were added from the deliberations, following the original list of 25 all the way back in 2000.
Among the 15 additions, 10 were former PBA Most Valuable Player awardees, which means the panel only really deliberated five and they turned out to be Kerby Raymundo, Marlou Aquino, Chito Loyzaga, Marc Pingris, and Jayson Castro.
Nelson Asaytono and Danny Seigle were tough omissions, and so was Jeffrey Cariaso. The negative reaction was so prevalent at the time that Pingris even said he was willing to give up his spot.
Now the pressure is on for the new committee announced by PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial to come up with the next 10.
With only June Mar Fajardo and Scottie Thompson being named MVP in the last 10 years, the new committee will have a lot of room to work with to round out the 50 greatest in PBA history.
The selection group will be made up of Allan Caidic, Ramon Fernandez, Atoy Co, Dante Silverio, former PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios, and media members Ding Marcelo (Bulletin), Al Mendoza (Philippine Daily Inquirer), Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) President Nelson Beltran, Quinito Henson, and Andy Jao.
This is a tremendous selection of respected individuals who will surely figure out a process to determine the next 10.
I have long been an advocate of Asaytono’s inclusion, to the point that I argued for him on the basketball debate show Jump Ball on PBA Rush. There are so many other names being discussed such as Seigle and Cariaso, even Olsen Racela, Bong Hawkins, and Abe King.
However, there are also current non-MVPs who need to be in the conversation.
The eight championships each and combined five Finals MVPs of LA Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar need to be talked about.
The accolades of Chris Ross, who has 10 titles, two Finals MVPs, a Best Player of the Conference award, two Defensive Player of the Year honors, and seven (consecutive!) All-Defensive Team inclusions also need to be mentioned.
However, there is one particular player that I feel should be on the list because the PBA’s 50 Greatest would feel incomplete without him.
Marcio Lassiter.
Dislodging legends Jimmy Alapag and Caidic as the most prolific three-point shooter in history is a huge achievement in itself, but what really sets Lassiter apart was how quickly he did it.
It took Caidic 601 games to get to his final mark of 1,242. It took Alapag 598 games to get to 1,250 three-pointers.
Lassiter only needed 537 games as he is a 37 percent career shooter from behind the three-point line. He also broke the record in style, getting three triples in the first quarter of a match against Barangay Ginebra in this season’s Governors’ Cup.
Because he is such a team player, Lassiter would sometimes get overlooked. Take for example the PBA’s 42nd season where his four ‘Death Five’ teammates got into the First Mythical Team while he, then regarded as a guard, could not even get into the Second Mythical Team.
He finally got his due in the next year as he was reclassified at forward, which earned Marcio his lone First Mythical Team inclusion.
The case against Lassiter would be his slim list of individual honors. To add, he only has an All-Defensive Team selection, a Comeback Player of the Year award in 2013, and an All-Rookie Team commendation in 2012.
Side by side with his contemporaries, Lassiter’s list of awards might be slim. But in my opinion, all of that became immaterial when he broke Alapag’s three-point record.
Some of the past inclusions to the PBA Greatest List such as Pingris got an extra boost because of their Gilas stints, and Lassiter has always been available for national team duties.
Marcio has a couple of gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games and was a part of the historic gold medal team from the Hangzhou Asian Games. The only unfortunate thing for Lassiter, and maybe for Gilas, is that things just did not come together when it came to the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The Philippines have made it to three straight World Cups, all while Lassiter is in the PBA. However, the country’s deadliest marksman in history never got to play on such a grand stage.
For a player as good as Lassiter though, the national team stints only feel like the cherry on top as his impact in the PBA can stand on itself.
He’s an underrated defender and the type of player who will allow his teammates to play better just because of the spacing he provides.
Long after his career is done, Lassiter will continue to be talked about by Filipino fans because of the 3-point record that he’ll surely hold for a long time. His threes do not count as just stats, because the majority of his makes helped build the San Miguel Beer dynasty.
An ultimate team player and a gentleman on and off the court, Marcio Lassiter, I believe, will be a tremendous addition to the list of the PBA’s Greatest Players as he has already made an indelible impact on the league.