Ramon Fernandez - Legacy

Legacy

Fernandez is remembered as one of the most popular players during the PBA's golden years and is also one of the most prominent faces in Philippine basketball, even to this day. He remains the poster-boy of many a PBA Legends Reunion game both in the country and abroad.

Fernandez could actually play all five positions on the basketball court, having mastered every skill needed in the point guard, off-guard, forward, power-forward and center slots. He is known for his dribbling skills (unusual for a center during his era), uncanny passing ability, perimeter jumpers, and unstoppable high or low post moves. In an open court game, it was not unusual to see him collar a rebound then dribble down the full length of the court and finish off the break with a lay-up down the middle or a fancy pass to a streaking teammate on the wings. The fact that he could dribble the ball so well came about as a result of him playing point-guard in high school when he was still too short to play the center slot. He is also well known for his trademark one handed running shot dubbed as "the elegant shot.". He could play facing the basket or with his back to it. One major distinguishing aspect of his game and which, amongst other exploits, showed a level of skill unmatched in Philippine basketball before or since, was his ability to drive towards the basket at will during a half-court game. This was remarkable because centers and power-forwards even in today's brand of basketball usually play near or underneath the basket.

Fernandez is perhaps the most ambidextrous player to have played the game since Carlos Loyzaga a generation before him. Almost always, whenever he would get the defensive rebound he would assume the role of "point-center", lead the fast-break, obviously a throwback to his point-guard days, which he himself admitted was a habit he could not break in the pros. Like a maestro conducting an orchestra, Fernandez would dribble the ball running the middle of the court with the ability to hit the open man on either wing or finish a lay-up with either hand. When taking the shot himself, a lot of times he would switch the ball from right hand to left hand often drawing a foul or setting up a three point play. One of his more famous moves was driving down the middle of the lane coming from the right side of the court, faking a right-handed shot and then, at the very last second when the defender has committed himself, switching the ball to his left hand for an up-and-under scoop shot that almost always drew a foul. He had an ambidextrous hook shot that was almost impossible to stop and a weird looking variation of a lay-up that was executed while "fading away" from the basket which made it equally indefensible. His "elegant shot" often came after a right-handed cross-over dribble and moving away from a defender. He used pivot moves, pump fakes, lookaway or no-look passes, looping shots, fadeaways and an array of trick shots from near or under the basket that he executed to flawless perfection and he was doing this even before Kevin McHale wrote his NBA playbook. He owned what was perhaps the craziest no-look pass that was executed on Philippine hardwood because it came about as a fake behind-the-back pass going to one direction only to go the opposite direction at the precise moment when the recipient is ready to receive the pass. His pinpoint passing ability was so devastating to opponents because he could execute them with either hand as well. It didn't matter to Fernandez whether he was hitting the open man through a crowd of defenders or hitting the same open man via a Hail Mary pass from outside the backcourt. Philip Cezar and Abe King, two premier defenders of local players and imports alike, in television interviews, always said that Fernandez was the toughest assignment they ever had to handle.

Fernandez was also one of the least athletic players to have laced on a pair of sneakers in the history of the PBA. He was too thin for a center who had to go up against imports who usually outweighed and outran him. To be sure, there were many other players in his era who were a lot stronger than him. In addition, he did not possess a high vertical leap, hardly ever doing a slam-dunk during a career that spanned about twenty years. But these limitations were offset by the fact that he had astonishing basketball savvy and mental toughness as well as an IQ for the game that was off the charts. Case in point: Fernandez, even on a bad night, can still cut down an opponent, by baiting him into senseless fouls or getting him to react in an unsportsmanlike manner to many pre-designed tirades. One broadsheet called him, upon his retirement, as the man "who could control every variable of the game".

His MVP-stats in the 1984 season of the PBA, where he averaged in double figures in almost all of the major statistical categories (points, rebounds, assists), turning in an incredible 27 point-15 rebound-9.9 assist performance (an almost a triple-double season), may never be matched as it stands as perhaps the most dominating individual performance in the history of Philippine professional basketball.