After an eight-year title drought, Barangay Ginebra has once again won multiple championships in the last five years.

The Kings claimed more glory in the Philippine Cup conference last night after beating TNT in Game 5, 82-78.

That’s now the fifth title for Kings in the last five years.

The success of the Kings should obviously be credited to the arrival of the great Tim Cone, who joined the team in 2015. Since his arrival, they have won a title each year.

However, another man that should be credited for their success is Scottie Thompson.

The 27-year-old all-around guard was drafted to the most famous team in the country back in 2015 as the fifth overall pick.

In his first two conferences, Thompson was barely getting minutes until he showed out in the 2016 Governors’ Cup. Since then, he’s continued to be a big part of the Kings success.

In his first five seasons in the league, he has won at least one title a year and now he can proudly say that he has won a title in every conference.

“Sobrang thankful talaga, kasi before nitong fifth championship ko, yung unang apat,ito na lang kulang. May Commissioner’s Cup, Governors’ Cup then ngayong itong All Filipino. So, ito talaga yung best championship ever, syempre bubble pa so sobrang memorable sakin and thankful talaga na early sa career ko, in five years nabigyan agad ako ng five championships,” he said in an interview.

“Talagang dahil sa winning culture ng Ginebra, ni Coach Tim. Nakakahawa lang talaga winning culture nila. Sobrang thankful kasi andami naming napagdaanan. Ang laking bagay para sa experience ko lahat ng championship,” he added.

Thompson, who’s a former NCAA league MVP for Perpetual, never won a title in college despite his great talent and great team.

In his last season in college, the Davao del Sur native could only cry on the bench as they lost to the eventual champions Letran in the Final Four of the NCAA season 91.

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However, since his arrival in the PBA, Thompson has proven that he’s a winner and in his best Finals series, he was crowned as the Finals MVP.

In the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup, against the mighty San Miguel, Thompson led the Kings to the title after averaging 10.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists in just six games of a best-of-seven series.

Thompson admitted that this fifth one is the best out of the five as it was the missing piece for him to complete all three conferences.

“Ito yung best memory, best championship. Ito yung pinaka mahirap na championship kasi hindi lang yung basketball pinaglalaban namin e, dahil sa pandemic, lahat nang nangyari, kalusugan namin. Sobrmag worht it na naipanalo namin yung championship kasi maalala to ng tao e, first bubble ng PBA kami nag champion,” he said.

“Hopefully, next conference kung ano man mangyayari, at least kami yung unang nakakuha ng championship,” he added.

Thompson didn’t have an eye-popping stat line in this series as he only averaged 8.6 points in the five games but he also had 8.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists.

Do you think Scottie Thompson can become league MVP one day? Sound off below in the comment section!