Why Gabe Norwood never looked elsewhere

It is rare for a player in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) to stay with one team in his entire career.

Interestingly, not even the superstars during the league’s 45-year-old history have been spared from blockbuster trades at a certain point of their best years. A few of those trades remain shocking until today.

But there are few exceptions. 

Gabe Norwood – a Rain or Shine lifer – is one of them. 

Since being selected with the first pick in the 2008 PBA Draft by the Elasto Painters, their partnership has resulted in two championships, 10 All-Star selections, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and many other accolades for the Fil-Am, now 35, who was born in North Carolina. 

“It’s been a blessing for me, to be honest, to come into a scenario at 22, 23 [years old] with Rain or Shine when they drafted me, drafted Sol (Mercado), and TY (Tang). We came in and we were thrown right into the fire,” Norwood reminisced during the upcoming episode of At the Buzzer, a Rappler Sports podcast.

“It wasn’t like a little, ‘Okay, sit down and learn,’” he added. 

As Norwood hit rewind on his career, he realized that being given integral tasks by Rain or Shine at an early age set up his future, which has been bolstered by multiple impressive stints with the Philippine team in international competition, especially at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. 

“It got my confidence going,” he said. 

But that wasn’t the biggest reason why his trust in Rain or Shine never wavered.  

There’s a saying that if you want something to last in your life, you must take care of it. 

That’s what the Elasto Painters did with Norwood. 

“The relationship is both there with boss Raymond, [Margaret ‘Mommy’] Yu – rest in peace – she passed away, but it always felt like family for me,” Norwood said of the team owners.

“[When] my actual blood family would come out and visit, it was always dinner or [when] holidays would come around and I’m by myself, it’s ‘Come over and eat.’”

“It was [the] things that didn’t have to do with basketball that made me feel like I was part of something that was grounded in some morals and some things that fit me; just who I am as a person.”

Rumors

Norwood’s consistency since entering the PBA can be connected to the consistency of the structure around him. Aside from working for just one franchise, he has spent his career learning under coaches Yeng Guiao and Caloy Garcia, both of whom relied on the former George Mason standout to be a leader. 

Norwood is an all-around talent. He’s not a deadly scorer but he’s still a threat to put points on the scoreboard. His defense, at one point the best in the PBA, remains elite. He’s a valuable rebounder and playmaker, and his positive energy is crucial for the locker room. 

Once in a while, he’ll dunk on an NBA player and put him on a poster.

These are traits that other teams covet. 

Which is why Norwood himself has seen and heard his name mentioned in trade rumors. 

“You hear the rumors and you find the little Facebook groups, things like that, just people throwing stuff out,” he said, looking back at memories from past years.

“I think I heard a couple of rumors – maybe 3 or 4 throughout my career – that actually, if you look back at it, if the deal was on the table, ‘Okay, yeah, it could make some sense.’

“If you’re playing fantasy or something like that, it could make some sense, but nothing too solid of a rumor.”

Norwood admitted that no deal “was ever that close,” and that he was never called to a room by either Guiao or Garcia to discuss a trade that would send him elsewhere. 

The loyalty between Norwood and Rain or Shine is a two-way street. 

That’s what can happen when both sides – in this case, management and the player – display mutual respect for each other.

A few years back, there was a fear factor for minority team owners in the PBA that their best players would eventually want to transfer to larger ownership groups – especially after being handled by these groups during preparations for international tournaments. 

Norwood never considered making the leap. 

“I’d like to think whenever I was with the national team I tried to mention Rain or Shine in my interviews,” he said. 

“If it was coach Caloy at the time or coach Yeng, I tried to keep that in the forefront, because at the end of it we’re all representing our teams; we’re representing the companies that put us in a position to play a game.” – Rappler.com

More from Norwood –  including the future of the PBA and watching his sons grow up – in the upcoming episode. Subscribe to At the Buzzer on iTunes and Spotify.