Willie Pearson, 1984 PBA Rookie of the Year, recalls stints with Crispa, Great Taste

Remember Willie Pearson, the PBA's 1984 Rookie of the Year and three-time champion? He dropped out of the limelight after calling it quits on his pro league career in 1989 and flying back to his native Hawaii.

Pearson won championships with two legendary teams from the 1980s, the Crispa Redmanizers and the Great Taste Coffee Makers. He joined the Redmanizers after playing for the national team and won a title in his very first PBA conference, the 1984 First All-Filipino.

But not everyone knows that the 6-foot-1 Pearson wasn't originally set to play for Crispa. A few years before playing for the Redmanizers, Pearson corresponded with Toyota while he was still overseas, inquiring on the possibility of playing for the franchise.

Fortunately, Toyota responded in the affirmative and Pearson, looking for a way to advance his budding basketball career after playing three seasons with Chaminade University in Honolulu, flew to the Philippines.

By the time he got to the Philippines, Pearson had met Boy Afable, who was then working for Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco. During those times, Cojuangco was tasked by then Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos to take charge of the country's national basketball program heading into the 1980s.

"I ended up going to the Philippines and trying out and got hooked up with Boy Afable, who pretty much handled everything. He got me in there and he began getting in touch with Cojuangco. They wanted me to stay and do something," Pearson recalled during his interview with An Eternity of Basketball.

While he did admit that he was able to sign a contract with Toyota, Pearson eventually was allowed to play for the national squad that had the likes of Frankie Lim, Bokyo Lauchenco, Manny Victorino, Ricky Relosa, JB Yango, Itoy Esguerra, Ricardo Brown, and naturalized players Jeff Moore and Dennis Still.

One of the first Fil-foreigners to play in the Philippines, Pearson has fond memories playing with the national team.

"I'm good friends with all of them," Pearson said, referring to players like Relosa, whom he described as "a character."

"I like Ricky. We had a lot of fun together. There was never a dull moment with these guys. We had action of some kind, trying to stay out of trouble. But we always had something and we were never bored," recalled Pearson.

While the initial Philippine team in 1981 was comprised mostly of foreign players, Pearson admitted the locals like Relosa, Lim and Esguerra were all winners.

"All of them, they like winning and you want to play with all those kinds of players because they are tough. They won't give up and quit on you. They play till the end," he added.

Big what-if

In the early years of the Philippine team under coach Ron Jacobs, Pearson remembered traveling with the national squad to Kuwait to play an exhibition game.

After watching the Sudan national team conclude its practice, Pearson recalled how an imposing figure extended his hand and started talking to him.

"When they (Sudanese national team) got done, a big Black guy came up to me and asked me, 'Are you Pearson? Are you with the Philippine national team? I'm so-and-so and I'm gonna be coaching Georgetown,'" Pearson recalled.

But he candidly admitted he had no idea where Georgetown was, nor did he know who he was talking to.

"So I was like, okay, then he goes and said, 'I need a point guard. You have one more year of eligibility in your college career. How would you like to come play for me? I can give you the playing time that you all need,'" added the Fil-Am guard-forward during that brief exchange with legendary Georgetown Hoyas coach John Thompson.

Having no idea who he was talking to, Pearson said he simply went through the motions of the conversation, not realizing he was getting an offer of a lifetime.

"I didn't know who he was until later, and then I realized (he was the coach who) got Pat Ewing," Pearson said.

"I thought about that (playing under Thompson) or being teammates with Pat Ewing. I know he would remember me if I come to him. He knew me. He needed a guy like me," he added.

For Pearson, looking back, that brief moment he had with Thompson remains a big "what if" of his basketball career.

"I kept thinking and thought about that all the time, what it would have been like if I took the offer," he said.

Move to the PBA

Following a few years of service with the national team that saw him become part of the Philippine team that ruled the 1981 William Jones Cup title in Taipei, Pearson decided to move up to the PBA.

Through some twist of fate, Pearson didn't get to showcase his basketball talents for Toyota. Instead, he ended up playing for Toyota's fiercest rival Crispa.

"After I'd been with the national team couple of years and I finally asked for my release to go to the PBA, Cojuangco agreed," he said. Toyota, his original PBA team, disbanded before the start of the 1984 season, paving the way for Pearson to jump ship.

"Tommy Manotoc was gonna coach Crispa when that happened. So things worked out in another way and so I ended up going to Crispa," he explained.

Crispa's veterans Abet Guidaben, Philip Cezar, Atoy Co, Bernie Fabiosa and Freddie Hubalde remained forces to reckon with. And Crispa beefed up its lineup with the entry of young talents like Pearson.

His stint as a Redmanizer was brief but meaningful, winning a PBA title during the First All-Filipino Conference followed by a runner-up finish in the Invitationals. And Pearson had nothing but praise for the team.

"One thing about Crispa, everything was first class, A1 for the players," he said. "Before the game, we had a little mansion where we were staying, a swimming pool, our own rooms, whatever we want to eat, then we ride a coaster going to Araneta, it was first class everything over there."

With Crispa's core and vast championship experience working to perfection, the Redmanizers barged into the Finals and went on to dominate Gilbey's Gin, 4-1, to rule the First All-Filipino Conference.