GIVE coach Leo Austria a good team and he will give you good results.
Through the years, the former PBA Rookie of the Year and multi-titled bench tactician has proven that.
There is no doubt that Austria now ranks as among the all-time greatest coaches in the history of Asia’s pioneering professional basketball league.
In the first 40 years of the PBA, there were a few elite coaches who were in that circle.
First there were the legendary Virgilo “Baby” Dalupan, Tommy Manotoc, Robert Jaworski, Dante Silverio and Ed Ocampo.
The next generation of great tacticians include Tim Cone, Norman Black, Jong Uichico, Chot Reyes and Yeng Guiao.
Hardly been given much credit even although he had won more championships than some of the coaches before him, basketball purists would say that Austria’s success was because of the luxury of coaching a star-studded team.
But what makes him so great was the fact that he was able to mold this team into a solid unit with egos set aside, something that most coaches failed to do.
He was blessed enough to coach “The Death Five” composed of June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and Alex Cabagnot and there, the San Miguel dynasty was reborn.
Three times in the history of the franchise, the Beermen were able to establish a league dynasty — the 1980s squad which eventually won a grand slam in 1989 coached by Norman Black and featured star players of the Northern Consolidated team like Samboy Lim, Hector Calma Yves Dignadice, Tonichi Yturri and even became more stacked with the inclusion of four-time MVP Mon Fernandez and another fellow great, Ricardo Brown.
The late 1990s team also had a share of dominance under then head coach, Uichico, as the team would have its share of multiple-title runs for a six-year stretch with two-time Most Valuable Player Danny Ildefonso, former Rookie of the Year Danny Seigle, Olsen Racela, Nic Belasco and the late Boybits Victoria plus an abundance of supporting cast.
To his credit, Austria was able to surround Fajardo, the league’s most dominant force, with players that would utilize not just his efficiency, but how the Beermen could become a more formidable squad with the 6-foot-10 center serving as the anchor and how this squad could become even better with the Cebuano slotman becoming a decoy.
The 4-out, 1-in offensive set up of the Beermen was tough to beat and time and time again, the squad was able to produce championship after championship and before you knew it, the team had already collected 11 titles in 10 years, 10 of those coming from Austria.
There’s no question now that Austria belongs to the marquee of great coaches after capturing his 10th championship in the PBA while leading San Miguel Beer to its 30th league title, the most in the PBA.
He had no problems to people saying that he was successful because of his players and that these great players made him look good as a coach.
Ever humble as he was, Austria would acknowledge it more but these people would need to look at his track record as a coach.
He was the one who stopped the Welcoat dynasty in the PBL when he helped Shark Energy Drinks win two titles. As a coach of the Painters, he was equally better, helping the team to a championship run.
When he took over the coaching reins of San Miguel in the Asean Basketball League, Austria also piloted the team to a championship.
This guy is no stranger to winning and it’s only fitting that he gets the recognition he truly deserves.
He was a recipient of the PBA Press Corps’ Coach of the Year award four times. He now ranks fifth in the all-time list of winningest coaches in the PBA after Cone (25), Dalupan (15), Black (11) and Reyes (11), but there’s no denying the fact that Austria is now among the best coaches in the history of the PBA.