Jimmy Alapag
Jim Olmedo "Jimmy" Alapag (born December 30, 1977) is a Filipino retired professional basketball player. He is nicknamed "The Mighty Mouse" and "The Captain".
Alapag is the youngest of six siblings and his parents are both Filipino immigrants from Leyte. He was born and raised in San Bernardino, California. He said his greatest influence in playing basketball was his father and older brother Crispin. He started playing basketball at the age of 3.
He played collegiate basketball at California State University, San Bernardino, where he established himself as a clutch three-point shooter. In 2002, he had his first crack of Philippine basketball when he was invited by then-national team coach Jong Uichico to try out for the Philippine National Team bound for 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.
Alapag was selected 10th overall pick in the 2003 PBA draft by the Talk 'N Text Phone Pals and was considered the "steal of the draft". Later on, Alapag formed a dynamic duo with slotman Asi Taulava to lead the Phone Pals to the All-Filipino Cup Championship by beating the Coca-Cola Tigers in the finals, after overcoming the 0-2 deficit to the Tigers and winning the last four games in the series to capture its first ever title. At the end of the 2003 season, he won the Rookie of the Year award by a huge margin after averaging 14.5 points, 7.02 assists and 6.54 rebounds per outing while shooting a decent clip of 35.4 percent from the three-point region.
In the 2004–05 PBA season, Alapag continued his remarkable play by winning his second mythical first team selection and co-MVP honors with teammate Taulava in the All-Star Game held in Cebu. He also led the Phone Pals to two straight Finals appearance but failed to win another championship against the Barangay Ginebra Kings in the Philippine Cup and against San Miguel Beermen in the Fiesta Conference.
In the 2008–09 PBA Philippine Cup Finals, Alapag would add another championship ring by helping the Tropang Texters vanquish the Alaska Aces in a grueling seven game series. He did the same trick in the 2010–11 PBA Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel after beating the Beermen 4 games to 2 and shared the Finals MVP honors with Jayson Castro. In the 2011 PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals, he once again led the Tropang Texters to their back-to-back championships against Brgy. Ginebra, with him and Jayson Castro again both awarded as co-finals MVP. His team made it again in the 2011 PBA Governors' Cup Finals only to lose to the Petron Blaze Boosters in seven games. At season's end, he was minted as the season's Most Valuable Player, beating the likes of Arwind Santos and Mark Caguioa in the MVP race.
...
Wikipedia