CURTAIN CALL | GABE NORWOOD

PBA STATS

https://www.project-sydrified.com/pba-stats-gabe-norwood 

Gabe Norwood is undoubtedly one of the best players to have ever played the game.

The guy went up against future NBA players even before he dunked on Luis Scola.

As one of the team's leading defensive specialists, he helped the George Mason Patriots reach the NCAA Final Four, a team often regarded as one of the US NCAA's first Cinderella stories. You can even say that this was one of the catalysts for why Philippine international basketball is what it is today.

Norwood is a multi-position, high-flying import stopper who can help his team win even if he is held scoreless. That said, I think we collectively gauge a player's success based on the championships and individual accolades he has.

Unfortunately, this is Mr. President's biggest problem.

Norwood started to draw attention from the Philippine crowd when he was brought in by Chot Reyes to power his pre-Gilas Pilipinas RP squad at the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship. He then brought his talents to the PBL as part of the Hapee Fresh Fighters, who battled the powerhouse Harbour Centre Port Masters for league supremacy.

In 2008, he was selected first overall by the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the PBA Draft, and he transformed the former Welcoat Dragons from whipping boys into championship contenders. Alongside former Harbour Centre archrival Solomon Mercado, they formed the formidable Fire and Ice combo. When Jay-R Reyes joined them, they gave the team a winning edge. From just seven wins the previous season, the team increased its victories to 23. Norwood was named Rookie of the Year and also earned a spot on the Mythical Second Team. For the next two seasons, these three led the team in the major statistical categories. While they were stuck in the middle of the standings, they were constant fixtures in the quarterfinals.

Then came Yeng Guiao. When the no-nonsense mentor arrived in 2011, Mercado and Reyes were traded, and Norwood never averaged double figures again. While it hurts that Norwood was not the offensive force he was at the start of his PBA career, we are talking about Yeng Guiao here. He has a no-nonsense style that sent teams like Swift and Red Bull to the top. If an independent team is going to thrive in the PBA, his no-superstar policy is there so the team can stay competitive regardless of the names on the roster.

Norwood won two championships in the process, and Rain or Shine was hailed as a successful independent team. Because Rain or Shine has good ties with the MVP Group, he was also able to fulfill his national team aspirations as part of Gilas Pilipinas. In many ways, this is where we see Norwood's true value. He is a national team treasure because he is the designated stopper against the other team's best players. After all, this was one of the reasons why Chot Reyes brought him into the 2007 squad in the first place.

Norwood finished his career playing for only one team, with numerous All-Defensive Team selections and a Defensive Player of the Year award in 2010. He is one of five players, along with Mark Caguioa, Jayjay Helterbrand, Peter June Simon, and Rain or Shine teammate Jireh Ibañes, to start and finish their PBA careers in the 2000s with just one franchise.

And I guess this is also the problem with Norwood's career. Loyalty may be a good thing, but it can also tie a player too closely to an organization. It is one thing to think about team depth, but it is another when a player prioritizes the team's future while disregarding his own. Caguioa, Helterbrand, and Simon all saw their minutes decrease just to maintain their status as team lifers. Sure, June Mar Fajardo is still in form, and the same can be said about fellow one-teamers Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, and Cliff Hodge, but Jayson Castro is slowly losing his place due to age. The difference is that some of these names are former MVPs with multiple Mythical Team selections, and many of them played on multiple championship squads.

This places Norwood, Ibañes, Newsome, and Hodge in a different category. Newsome and Hodge have better offensive stats than Norwood and Ibañes, though, and the superstar statuses of Norwood and Ibañes are almost incomparable. This is why I really wanted Norwood to leave the Elasto Painters at some point, to at least find his way to an SMC or MVP team.

Yes, I know this would have been another case of a star moving to an already stacked roster, but at least his role as a defensive specialist might have been rewarded with more titles and a Mythical Team selection.

It is hard to fully appreciate the greatness of Norwood's career without noticing that he is only a one-time Mythical Team member, a two-time champion, and had only three seasons where he averaged double figures. He retired with fanfare as an elder statesman, transitioning to a coaching role, with his minutes slashed and his scoring output at its lowest. Although to be fair, his scoring improved this conference, breaching the seven-point mark for the first time since the 2017–18 PBA season.

Still, he could have been more.

Guiao may be great at finding diamonds in the rough, but he is also known for benching or restricting established talents. He did this in Red Bull with Nelson Asaytono, Vince Hizon, Paul Alvarez, and Vergel Meneses. It was the same at NLEX with Asi Taulava, Cyrus Baguio, and Larry Fonacier. And currently, although it might not fully be his fault, Stanley Pringle is also going through a scoring slump.

We will probably view Norwood in the same breath as Samboy Lim, Danny Florencio, and Lim Eng Beng. They may be top-tier stars and all-time fan favorites, but we also cannot ignore the fact that they had limited Mythical Team selections.

Then again, maybe this is exactly the career Gabe Norwood wanted.

He will go down as one of the best players who never needed big-market backing to prove his worth. In a time when fans are frustrated that it is almost always an SMC or MVP team battling in the finals, he helped Rain or Shine stay competitive.

Gabe Norwood received a standing ovation when he announced his retirement in a post-game interview. His conversation with Chris Newsome was somewhat iconic because it feels like Newsome is basically Mr. President in terms of career path, even if Newsome has almost ten straight seasons averaging double figures.

Even the greatest PBA players did not always get what Norwood had, since many of them bounced from team to team and never had their numbers retired.

And again, who can ever forget the dunk he threw down on Luis Scola? Yes, we might have lost that match, but that game showed that Gilas Pilipinas could compete with the best in the world.