How an Mbala-Ayo scuffle nearly prevented a La Salle title

UAAP history will remember the 2016 De La Salle Green Archers as one of the most accomplished teams to ever win a collegiate basketball title. 

Led by then new head coach Aldin Ayo, league MVP Ben Mbala, and closer Jeron Teng, the Green Archers of Season 79 completed a championship run with a total record of 16-1, losing only to the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the elimination round.

However, that La Salle run may have never happened had two important personalities with major roles for the team not gotten back on the same page. 

In the episode of At the Buzzer, a Rappler Sports podcast, guest Ben Mbala opens up about some of the unforgettable experiences he had as a Green Archer.

One of them was a “scuffle” that took place in practice between him and his head coach. 

“There were always heated moments,” Mbala recalled about La Salle’s practices. 

“He (Ayo) wanted us to be bullies and for you to learn how to be a bully, you have to start it in practice.”

“Some guys would not take it the right way,” Mbala remembered. “Some guys would get pissed. Some guys would get mad and it would lead to some kind of scuffle, fights, but at the end of the day we understood that we were doing it for the good of the team.”

But in certain situations, to get to that point would require some time.

This was one of those instances.

“Being able to play with Aldin, you’ve got to fully surrender yourself, and I was a guy with a big ego,” Mbala admitted about his old self.

“He was asking us to do crazy things, [like to] go run at 5 in the morning, run all over Manila, and then go to the gym, lift, and practice in the afternoon. We were just doing a bunch of crazy things that I was not used to.

“In the beginning, it was a little tough because I had a lot of pride. It was tough for me to just surrender and [to] go with the flow, go with the system.”

It came to a boiling point when during one practice in the offseason, Ayo and Mbala got into a fight following a disagreement. It wasn’t physical, but the exchange of words created a rift between the two that resulted in Ben being kicked out of practice, and subsequently missing training for nearly a month.

“For weeks, I was just going on my own to the gym,” he said. “Before them or after them I would lift, I would do my shooting, I would just try to stay in shape.”

Mbala said both he and Ayo had “big pride,” which was why neither man was willing to make the first move in an effort for reconciliation. 

Ultimately that task landed on the shoulders of the late Danding Cojuangco, the former chief patron of De La Salle’s basketball program, who was also known as “Boss ECJ.”

“May he rest in peace, Boss Danding called us one at a time and spoke to us,” said Mbala. 

“He was like, ‘Man what the f**k is going on with both of you? You guys got to put your pride aside and think about the team!’”

According to Mbala, Cojuangco also said, “We need both of you,” which brought the head coach and his most important player back to speaking terms.

“That’s how we were able to find a way in agreement to sit down and talk, or else… we both know coach Aldin had big pride, and I did too, but we wanted the same thing.”

That same thing, simply, was to win, which La Salle would do numerous times, as Mbala had the first of a dominant two-year run as league MVP.

But had they not made up, the Archers would have likely failed to win the championship.

“I think that same thing helped us find a common ground and find a way to settle whatever was going on.”

Mbala also admitted that incident brought the two closer, to the point that it became like a big brother and little brother type of relationship, and that also translated to their understanding of what each other wanted to do on the basketball court.

“Sometimes I’d go out, sit down, have a drink with him, eat, talk about everything.”

“I feel like that scuffle helped me and helped us create this relationship we have,” he added, “because sometimes I would just be in the court and he would just look at me; we would have this connection of, ‘Okay, do this, or do that.’ 

“I know he had my back, and he knew I would do what he asked to do on the court because we both wanted to win.”

Fast forward to 2020, and the two are now on different sides of the world. Mbala is playing professionally in France, while Ayo, who now coaches the UST Growling Tigers, faces scrutiny for his role in the Sorsogon “bubble” training. 

However, Mbala also noted that he will always have respect for his former head coach. 

It seems that sometimes, conflict leads to great results. – Rappler 

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