PBA Career
In 1981, Black was playing in the Detroit Pistons' summer basketball league when he was offered a job on the other side of the world. "Jimmy Mariano, who was coach of Great Taste at the time, asked me if I wanted to come over and play in the Philippines," says Black. The lure of guaranteed money, something the Pistons couldn't offer then, helped change Norman Black's life in a way he could never have imagined. However, by the time Black returned Mariano’s call, Big Lew Massey had taken the job. But it didn’t take long before another Philippine Basketball Association club came calling. Tefilin’s General Manager Frank Harn offered the same contract as Mariano and Black immediately took the offer.
In 1981, Black made his PBA debut for Tefilin. In 14 games, Black averaged an outstanding 51 point per game, but he failed to lead his team to a championship. Black returned to the Philippines in 1982, playing 66 games for San Miguel Beer and averaged close to 43 points per contest. With Black, locals Yoyong Martirez, Manny Paner, Marte Saldaña, and head coach Tommy Manotoc, San Miguel won the 1982 Invitational tournament against guest South Korea. In 1983, Black played for Great Taste Coffee and averaged 38 points in 49 games played. Always considered an intelligent as well as a hard-working player, Black became the recipient of the very first "Mr. 100% Award" in that season. Sportscaster Pinggoy Pengson dubbed him "That Old Black Magic" after a song from the 1950s.
Two years later, Black returned to play for Magnolia Quench Plus, norming 43.5 points per game, while scoring his career best 76 points. After Magnolia (later San Miguel Beer), left the league for a while, he played for rookie squad Alaska, after former Magnolia players were put in the new franchise. After a short while, Black returned to San Miguel as their playing coach in some import laiden conferences while acting as a full time coach in the All-Filipino Conferences. In 1989, he played and coached the Beermen to a rare grandslam, the third in PBA history. In 1990, Black played his last complete season as a player before finally focusing his duties as head coach in 1991.
Read more about this topic: Norman Black, Career
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)