THOUGHTS | ASI TAULAVA'S DOUBLE JERSEY RETIREMENT

Ali Peek recently said that TNT should retire Asi Taulava’s jersey, and honestly, I get where he’s coming from.

I’m a huge The Rock fan myself. There was even a point in my blogging life when I was getting interactions from him on Twitter, so yeah, there’s bias there.

That said, I still believe Taulava should have only one jersey retired.

HOWEVER.

If that’s going to happen, it should be tied to his TNT days.

Talk ’N Text Phone Pals, Tropang Texters, Tropang 5G, whatever version you want to call it.

Not his NLEX Road Warriors stint.

Yes, he played well with NLEX, and technically, his Air21 years overlapped with his time as a Road Warrior. But let’s be real, it’s not like NLEX was racking up championships back then. Taulava won his MVP, his Finals MVP, and his only PBA championship in 2003 with the Phone Pals. That stretch alone makes a strong case that there was a time when Asi Taulava was the face of the TNT franchise.

So when Peek says TNT should retire his number, I’m with him on that.

Peek also knows this better than most. When he was traded for Asi, TNT didn’t just get The Rock. They also got Coca-Cola’s first-round pick in the 2008 PBA Draft, which turned into Rob Reyes. Two pieces for one Rock. That says a lot about how valuable Taulava was at that point in time.

If we’re going to give Taulava the NLEX nod, though, then why stop there? Maybe the MVP group should also give him a retirement ceremony for his Meralco Bolts stint. Or better yet, give him a massive MVP Group tribute for helping their weaker teams become competitive over the years.

The biggest issue with Taulava’s career is that, as dominant as he was, his exit from TNT pushed him into a weird role. He became this high-level “second import” for teams that desperately needed help but weren’t really built to win titles. That’s part of why his legacy feels a bit scattered.

What still blows my mind is that two legendary coaches, Ryan Gregorio and Yeng Guiao, couldn’t fully maximize him. I get that Taulava was already in his 40s when Guiao took over NLEX, but before he was eased out of the rotation, he was still making the Mythical Team. That’s wild. It was arguably worse in Meralco, where he was still in his mid-30s and Gregorio consistently dialed back his minutes.

I honestly think that situation pushed him toward the ABL. And in classic Asi fashion, he turned that stop into history, becoming the only player to win both PBA MVP and ABL MVP.

So yeah, when Ali Peek says TNT needs to retire Asi Taulava’s number, I’m all for it. No arguments there.

The only real question left is this: does he go up in the rafters as number 55, or number 88?

For me, number 55 just feels like Asi. That was peak “meat mammoth” era. Blond hair, bruiser in the paint, big-time double-double machine feels, and zero fear of anyone guarding him. The Blu Detergent days basically locked that image into an entire generation’s basketball memory. If you grew up tweaking Create-A-Player in NBA Live, 55 was the default Asi setting.

No debate.