LA Tenorio
In the world of Philippine basketball every kid playing the game dreams of finding a home in one of the teams of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Lewis Alfred Tenorio took the long road in his playing career.
Born to parents of Batangas stock in Nasugbu, Tenorio grew up with the intense desire to succeed. He put to good use his God-given assets. Although he was small he had extraordinary big hands and feet.
Alaska coach Tim Cone even jokes that Tenorio had the hands and feet of a seven-footer.
As early as his elementary at Don Bosco, Makati he was already a star in the Small Basketeers Philippines Passerelle division. He has always been very agile, playing very fast and intelligent basketball.
We feel that we could get him to be very productive by the All-Filipino, said Cone of his prized recruit. Bringing in a player like Joe is like bringing in an import and teaching him what we are good at.
For his high school education he enrolled at the San Beda College. He came under the coaching of Ato Badolato. With him Tenorio learned the intricacies of playing basketball with a team and bringing out the best from teammates.
After passing the rigorous Ateneo College Entrance Test Tenorio was ready to tackle the academic subjects with the high QPI requirements. More importantly for him he was encouraged to be the best point guard in the UAAP by the new interest of the Jesuits in their sports program.
As a rookie in the UAAP circuit of the Ateneo Blue Eagles Tenorio played his best in the finals in 2001. He scored 30 point in the third game of the championship even though Ateneo lost the championship to the De La Salle University Green Archers.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles won the championship in 2002 as they defeated La Salle. He played five seasons with the Loyola squad. In 2006 he also won his Bachelor of Arts degree that he considers his very important achievement.
After college Tenorio joined the Harbour Centre Portmasters team in the Philippine Basketball League, the quasi-commercial basketball league in the country. He helped Harbour Centre win the 2006 PBL championship.
During his stint in the PBL Tenorio was among the top five scorers of the league with 11.4 points per game. He topped the assist department with 3.84 a game and 3.8 rebounds.
Harbour Centre coach Jorge Gallent says Tenorio has all the necessary important qualities of a thinking player.
“He (Tenorio) has great composure which is important especially at crunch time. Other point guards are skillful as they cross over and make spectacular drives. Tenorio is at his best when the game is on the line.”
In the 2006 Rookie Draft Tenorio was the 4th over-all draft pick by the Magnolia Beverage Masters. He played an average of 25.5 minutes for Magnolia with a respectable average of 7.8 points, 4.6 assists and 3.6 rebounds in nine games.
In a surprise move in March, 2008 the Alaska Aces traded Mike Cortez and Ken Bono for Magnolia’s LA Tenorio and Larry Fonacier. The Aces have been happy with the trade as they got a pure point guard in Tenorio to make life easier for Willie Miller who could now concentrate on his scoring.
Lewis Alfred Tenorio born on July 9, 1984 has finally found the team that truly needs him. He finds the rigid training and discipline of the team in keeping with his boyhood and youth orientation of hard work and perseverance.
In the first four games of the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup Tenorio has not disappointed the Alaska expectation. As a starting point guard Tenorio led the Alaska team to a scrambling victory over San Miguel Beer in their first game. In their next three games Tenorio was ever the reliable point guard who led his team to the top of the standings in the PBA.
After trekking the long road Tenorio has finally found the home where he belongs.
