Norman Black glad to see Hodge, other Meralco old-timers win title at last

Norman Black glad to see Hodge, other Meralco old-timers win title at last

NORMAN Black was one of the happiest guys when Meralco won its first-ever PBA championship Sunday. It may seem a bit ironic that after he left as coach of the team for nearly a decade, the team won a title. But the approachable and soft-spoken mentor remains very much a part of Meralco, though not in a coaching role.

"It’s finally nice to give a championship to Meralco," said Black, who is now the consultant of the team after Luigi Trillo and Nenad Vucinic were elevated to head coach and active consultant, respectively.

Black has been with the team as head coach from 2014 to 2023. During his stint, Meralco figured in four finals appearances, all against Barangay Ginebra.

READ Meralco's stunning win raises hope that parity isn't dead in PBA

The Bolts won the 2024 Philippine Cup against San Miguel in six games with a thrilling 80-78 victory.

"I’m really happy for the players especially those who’ve been here for a long time. I think I’ve been around for 10, 11 years already, the guys that were here when I got here were Hugnatan, Hodge, Anjo Caram, Newsome. I’m happy for management, the bosses, the employees who have stuck by us all these years," said Black.

Black said huge credit goes to the players, as well as Trillo and Vucinic, for steering the team to the championship.

"It’s just a great feeling particularly for the players. I’m happy for them. They work hard every single day. I really think that coach Luigi, coach Nenad did a great job of handling the team and leading us to the championship," said Black, one of the league's winningest coaches with 11 titles,  including the 1989 grand slam for, ironically, San Miguel, Meralco's opponent in the finals.

Black still playing active role with Meralco

When asked about his role with the team, Black said he remains active and mainly  works on the bigs in practice. He was recently appointed to help the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas in expanding its grassroots programs which includes supervising basketball clinics in the provinces. At the same time, he is also consultant of San Beda in the NCAA.

"I’m in practice everyday. I normally work with the big guys. I work with our rebounding. My job now is more specific than it was before when I was handling everything," said Black.

"I sometimes have to miss (games) because I have San Beda and also at the SBP. I just came back from Davao (before Game 6) actually where we had clinics in the provinces for our grassroots program. So I’m also busy doing some other things but I’m in practice every day and I’m part of the team."

norman black aaron meralco championship celebration

PHOTO: Jerome Ascano

Black said he is proud of how the Meralco bigs defended seven-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo all finals long.

"I think everybody was on board as far as understanding how we would play defense. We’ve always been a good defensive team. I think we’ve gotten better this year. We want to handle June Mar in a certain way. We know we can’t stop him but we want to at least slow him down and slow down the other bigs if we could," he said.

"Everybody was very attentive as far as how we want to get it done and they’ve executed it very, very well."

nenad vucinic chris banchero

PHOTO: Jerome Ascano

One of those who Black said had performed in a surprising manner was rookie Brandon Bates.

"Let’s face it. Brandon, he did things that we didn’t think he could do in this series. He really played very, very well for us. He has a bright future ahead of him," said Black.

Black was also glad for Chris Newsome, a player of his dating back to his days as head coach of Ateneo in the UAAP, who finally won a championship and for being the one who made the winning shot in Game 6 with 3.3 second left.

"A lot of people don’t realize that I recruited New to go to Ateneo. I was the head coach then and I went back to the PBA and I never got a chance to coach him in college."

"When I got a chance to draft him, I drafted him in the PBA. We’ve been together now for probably eight years and we haven’t won a championship even though we’ve been here [in the PBA Finals] four times. I’m happy for him.

"This has been a great year for him starting with the Asian Games. He’s made some big shots this year. And he’s proven to be a clutch player. I’m really happy for him," said Black.