CURTAIN CALL | SEAN ANTHONY

Sean Anthony has officially announced his retirement from the PBA. Honestly, this move felt inevitable for a while now, with plenty of signs showing up in his final two seasons.

For starters, last season with NLEX, Anthony logged just five games—the second-lowest among locals, only ahead of Jake Pascual, who suited up twice. Both of them only saw action in the Governors’ Cup, the league’s opening conference for the 2024–25 calendar.

The year before, Anthony still averaged a respectable 7.1 points per game, but in 2024–25, that dipped to just 4 points and 3 rebounds across those five appearances. Eventually, he decided to call it a career, citing the need to be with his family as he turned down an MVP Group job offer to return to Canada.

If you ask me, Sean Anthony sits in that tricky “borderline Top 100” zone in PBA history. On one hand, his résumé is no joke: a Mythical First Team selection, a Mythical Second Team nod, and even a Defensive Player of the Year award. Cracking that First Team is tough, especially given the caliber of competition in his era.

Of course, June Mar Fajardo won the MVP award in 2019. Alongside him in the Mythical First Team were TNT’s Jayson Castro, Columbian’s CJ Perez, and Anthony’s NorthPort teammate Christian Standhardinger.

Can you imagine what NorthPort had in the course of their PBA stay, only to trade away for second-rounders, second-stringers, and the SMC's sloppy seconds?

But the knocks against Anthony are hard to ignore—no championships in a 15-year career, just one Finals appearance way back in his sophomore season, and despite once winning an All-Star Blitz Game MVP, he never got invited to the actual PBA All-Star showcase. For the kind of production he put up, the fan recognition just never matched.

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And that’s the frustrating part. In his prime, Anthony was a near double-double guy for five straight seasons. Compare that to someone like Jason Webb, who made two All-Star teams despite putting up similar numbers to Anthony’s final season output. No disrespect to Webb, but for a player of Anthony’s caliber, it’s wild how easily he slipped out of the spotlight.

A big reason might be the teams he played for. Much like Asi Taulava in his later years, Anthony was the kind of guy you’d want if you were trying to make a struggling team competitive. Yes, he had stints with all the MVP-owned franchises, but those happened when those squads weren’t real title threats. In truth, Anthony’s career could have looked a lot different had the Powerade Tigers stayed intact.

That 2011–12 Powerade squad—Gary David, JV Casio, Marcio Lassiter, Doug Kramer, and Anthony—was supposed to be a team for the future. They were underdogs against Talk ’N Text in the Philippine Cup Finals, but they had the right mix of talent and grit.

Imagine if management had kept them together: David might have ended up with a championship, Casio could have developed further under Bo Perasol, Kramer might have sustained his double-double numbers, and Lassiter could have been more than just a 3-and-D piece for San Miguel’s Death Five.

And Anthony? He might have gotten the recognition he truly deserved.

Sean Anthony stands as one of the best Fil-Foreigners to ever play in the PBA. He was the ultimate glue guy—versatile, with shooting range, and relentless on defense. Anthony wasn’t afraid to dive for loose balls or take on the opposing team’s top scorer, whether it was a fellow local star or an import.

True, he never captured a championship. But in many ways, that makes his career even more impressive. It’s often harder to lift an undermanned team into contention than to simply blend into a powerhouse lineup.