Seigle and Samboy: A Tale of Two PBA Star

MANILA, Philippines – While Danny “the Dynamite” Seigle may be sitting on pins and needles these days, he has had a wonderful career in his PBA career. Whatever happens on the supposed trades being drawn up between by San Miguel Beer and Air21, every Filipino will agree that Seigle is without a doubt one of the greatest players to play in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Looking back to history, Seigle can be compared to the plight of another San Miguel legend. He goes by the name of Avelino “Samboy” Lim otherwise known as the “Skywalker”.

Just like Lim, Seigle’s career had been hampered by a spate of injuries. Perhaps the most serious one that has made “the Dynamite” injury-prone in the latter years was the one he suffered when he joined the RP National Training Pool for the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, North Korea.

It was in this year that Seigle suffered a serious torn right Achilles tendon after making a shot during one of the team’s pre-Asian Games against team Qatar. He was unable to play for the team and sat out most of the 2003 season due to the injury.

Both Seigle and Samboy were never named the PBA’s season MVP. However, Seigle does have PBA Best Player of the Conference Awards (2005-2006) and 3 PBA Finals MVP Awards (1999-2000). He has never played for any other team other than San Miguel Beer and has helped the ballclub win 6 PBA championships.

As for Samboy Lim, he holds the distinction of being one of the 25 PBA Greatest Players, a member of the 1989 Grand Slam team and being the first ever recipient of the PBA Sportsmanship award.

Lim has savored the PBA gold for 7 times, 6 with San Miguel Beer and one with Northern Consolidated back in 1985 under coach Ron Jacobs.

The farthest both players have gone was to be named to PBA Mythical Teams during their tenure. They haven’t relished winning an MVP.
However, with PBA championship rings to their credit, no one can take away the fact that both players did serve the San Miguel Franchise.

Lim now acts as the team manager for PBA crowd darling Barangay Ginebra while Seigle is obviously at the twilight of his career.

On whether the impending trade does materialize, the fact is that Danny Seigle will be always identified as a San Miguel Beerman, someone who helped the ballclub win 6 PBA championships which is an achievement coveted by most professional basketball players for the duration of their career.

source: manila bulletin