Francis Arnaiz

Francis Arnaiz
Personal information
Born	June 4, 1951 (age 73); Bacolod, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino
Listed height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight	160 lb (73 kg)
Career information
High school	St. Clement's Academy (Iloilo City)
College	Ateneo
PBA draft	1975 Elevated
	Selected by the Toyota Super Corollas
Playing career	1971–1986
Position	Point guard / shooting guard
Number	8
Career history
1971	Meralco
1972	U/Tex
1973–1984	Toyota
1984–1986	Ginebra San Miguel
Career highlights and awards
	10x PBA Champion ; PBA Hall of Fame (2005); PBA's 40 Greatest Players (2015); PBA's 25 Greatest Players (2000); 3× PBA Mythical First Team (1975, 1976, 1982);
Men's basketball
Representing Philippines
FIBA Asia Championship

Last updated September 27, 2024

Francis C. Arnaiz (born June 4, 1951) is a Filipino former basketball player. He is best known for his career in the PBA, playing for Toyota and Ginebra San Miguel from 1975 to 1986.

Early basketball years

Arnaiz had a love for sports and would shoot stuffed toys into a basket during his early childhood. While studying at La Salle-Bacolod in elementary school, he competed in both football and basketball. Football provided him with speed and exceptional footwork, skills that would later contribute to his development as an outstanding basketball player. He led his high school, St. Clement's Academy of La Paz, Iloilo City, to the PRISAA basketball championship. In college, he played for Ateneo de Manila, which won the 1969 NCAA basketball championship during his rookie year.^[1]

In 1971, he began playing in the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), first with the Meralco Reddy Kilowatts in 1971, the U/Tex Weavers in 1972 and the Toyota Comets in 1973.

He was a member of the Philippine men's national basketball team that won the 1973 ABC Championship and competed in the 1974 FIBA World Championship.

PBA career

Arnaiz was one of the original members of the Toyota franchise that joined the newly formed Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in 1975. Along with Robert Jaworski and Ramon Fernandez, he formed the troika of the vaunted Toyota offense. In fact, among the three players, he would have been the first to have won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award right in the very first season of the league in 1975 when media covering the PBA named him as the Basketball Player of the Year despite the fact that Bogs Adornado was the one named PBA MVP that year.^[2] During his Toyota years, the franchise won nine PBA titles while having memorable battles against arch-rival Crispa Redmanizers, going head-to-head, on and off the court, with Crispa's Bernie Fabiosa. Arnaiz became one of the most popular players on the team not only for his playing style, but also for his mestizo looks, which gained him a following among the female fans.

He was given the moniker "Mr. Clutch" for his propensity to hit clutch baskets during crucial moments of a game. He is known for looping layups against imports and local behemoths that were impossible to block, and booming outside shots.

After Toyota disbanded in 1984, Arnaiz followed Jaworski in a controversial move to Gilbey's Gin (now known as Barangay Ginebra San Miguel). Reprising their old backcourt partnership in Toyota, the duo turned the Gins into a perennial contender. However, he was sidelined due to a knee injury and was placed in the injured list but, was part of the line-up, during the early part of 1986 Open Conference when Ginebra San Miguel won its first PBA title. He quietly retired from basketball shortly afterwards. He won 10 championship in his illustrious PBA career, 9 with Toyota and 1 with Ginebra San Miguel.

Retirement

After his playing career, Arnaiz immigrated to the United States, resided in California. He worked for the California state government while also becoming an evangelist. Arnaiz claims in an interview that his life abroad was quite different from his life in the Philippines. He is also a visual artist, some of his paintings are set to be displayed in Dante Silverio's gallery.^[3]

Arnaiz was named as one of the PBA's Greatest Players and was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2004, during one of Arnaiz's visits to the Philippines, he was interviewed by various media outlets recalling several memories from his playing days to his life after retirement from basketball. He was supposed to play in 2003 Crispa-Toyota Reunion Game and the 2005 PBA Greatest Game but failed to do so due to his prior commitments.

Career highlights

PBA:

3-time Mythical First Team Selection (1975, 1976, 1982)
10-time PBA Champion (9-Toyota, 1-Ginebra San Miguel)
Member, 5,000 and 10,000 points club
Member, 2,000 assists club

Others:

Related Research Articles

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the second-oldest continuously operating professional basketball league in the world after North America's NBA.

Robert Vincent Salazar Jaworski Sr., also known by his nicknames Sonny, Big J, and Jawo, is a Filipino former professional basketball player, head coach and politician who served as a Senator of the Philippines from 1998 to 2004. He played 23 seasons in the Philippine Basketball Association. He is widely regarded as one of the best and most popular PBA players of all-time. He was named part of the PBA's 40 Greatest Players and was inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2005.

The Crispa Redmanizers were a multi-titled Filipino basketball team that played in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) from 1975 to 1984. It was one of the nine founding teams of the PBA, winning a total of thirteen PBA championships, including two grand slams. Founded in 1956 by businessman Valeriano "Danny" Floro, the team was owned by P. Floro and Sons, Inc. (defunct).

Ramon Sadaya Fernandez is a Filipino former professional basketball player and current commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission. Fernandez won four PBA Most Valuable Player awards and a record of 19 PBA titles. Fernandez stood at 6'4 barefoot during his prime but due to mild gigantism, he grew to 6'5 during his final seasons. He scored 18,996 points to finish as the PBA's all-time scoring leader. He is also the PBA's all-time leader in rebounds, blocked shots, and free throws made, playing minutes and second all-time in assists, games played and steals. He played for five teams in his entire PBA career starting with the Toyota, Manila Beer, Tanduay, Purefoods and San Miguel. Fernandez played in multiple International Tournaments as a member of the Philippine basketball team. He is regarded as one the greatest players to have ever played in the Philippine Basketball Association with tenured analysts and former (retired) players who had the chance to play with and against him citing him as arguably the greatest ever.

The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The most popular team in the league, it is owned by Ginebra San Miguel, Inc., a subsidiary of the San Miguel Corporation (SMC). The team is one of three PBA ball clubs currently owned by the SMC group of companies, along with the Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots and the San Miguel Beermen. Barangay Ginebra has won 15 PBA championships, the second most overall.

The Toyota Super Corollas were a multi-titled basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) from 1975 to 1983. Founded in 1973 by business and sportsman Dante Silverio, the team - formally named Toyota Athletic Club - was owned by Delta Motor Corporation (defunct) and played under various names - Komatsu Komets, Toyota Comets, Toyota Silver Tamaraws, Toyota Tamaraws, Toyota Superdiesels, Toyota Super Corollas and Toyota Silver Coronas.

In the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the Grand Slam is the achievement of winning all three conference championships (tournaments) in a single season. As of 2020, this has been accomplished five times by four teams and four coaches since the league's inception in 1975.

The 1975 PBA season was the inaugural season of the Philippine Basketball Association.

Abraham Columbus M. King, Jr. is a Filipino former basketball player who was part of the champion Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) ballclub Toyota Tamaraws. He was the starting center of 1976 MICAA champion Crown Motors before its PBA parent team, the Toyota Tamaraws, called upon his services at the start of the 1977 PBA season. Despite being renowned for his defensive prowess, King had recorded a 60-point game.

William "Bogs" Adornado is a Filipino professional basketball coach and former player. He is one of the Philippine Basketball Association's Greatest Players and was inducted to its Hall of Fame in 2005. He was a three-time PBA Most Valuable Player and is considered one of the best Filipino basketball players of all time.

Alfredo Hubalde, also known as Freddie Hubalde, is a retired Filipino professional basketball player in the PBA.

Fortunato "Fort" Acuña was a Filipino professional basketball player and coach.

The Manila Beer Brewmasters were a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) from 1984-1986. It was formed after Basic Holdings, Inc., a company controlled by Lucio Tan, acquired the PBA franchise of Delta Motor Corporation, owner of league pioneer Toyota. The team was named after the brands of Asia Brewery, Inc., another Tan company - Beer Hausen (1984) and Manila Beer (1985-1986).

The 1983 Crispa Redmanizers season was the ninth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

The 1985 Ginebra San Miguel season was the seventh season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

The 1986 Ginebra San Miguel season was the eighth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

The 1984 Gilbey's Gin Tonics season was the 6th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Manila Clasico refers to the rivalry between the two most popular professional basketball teams in the Philippines today, the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and the Magnolia Hotshots, both owned by San Miguel Corporation. The former represents the Ginebra San Miguel franchise while the latter carries the San Miguel Pure Foods franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

The Ginebra–Shell rivalry is the early 1990s PBA rivalry that followed the San Miguel–Purefoods rivalry and Añejo–Purefoods rivalry and probably the decades' best rivalry before Sunkist and Alaska battled in the PBA championship for three straight conferences in the mid-1990s.

The PBA Open Conference was a tournament held during a Philippine Basketball Association season from 1977-1983 and 1985-1989.

References

↑ "Francis Arnaiz remembers". The Philippine STAR .
↑ "The List: Top 10 PBA Players to Never Win the MVP Award | InterAksyon.com | Sports5". Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
↑ "Exclusive Fernandez & Arnaiz: PBA Legends On FIBA World Cup Then & Now!". Youtube. Retrieved August 19, 2023.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Francis Arnaiz remembers". The Philippine STAR .

[2] "The List: Top 10 PBA Players to Never Win the MVP Award | InterAksyon.com | Sports5". Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.

[3] "Exclusive Fernandez & Arnaiz: PBA Legends On FIBA World Cup Then & Now!". Youtube. Retrieved August 19, 2023.

[1]

[2]

[3]