Negros Slashers
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-20

Negros Slashers, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10102418 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Basketball_teams_established_in_1998
#Metropolitan_Basketball_Association_teams
#Basketball_teams_disestablished_in_2002
#Sports_in_Negros_Occidental
#1998_establishments_in_the_Philippines
#2002_disestablishments_in_the_Philippines
The Negros Slashers also known as the RCPI-Negros Slashers were a professional basketball team in the Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2002.
The team enjoyed considerable success, winning the MBA National Championship in 2002, the last season of the said league.
The team was based in Bacolod, Negros Occidental.
The team was named "Slashers" based on the cane knives' slashing motion used by itinerant sugar workers to cut sugarcane stalks.
Sugar is the main product of Negros Occidental.
Bacolod businessmen Oscar "Dodong" Bascon and Babes Alvarez painstakingly formed the team composed of amateur standouts mostly from the Visayas-Mindanao leagues and former professional players from Philippine Basketball Association.
Ronnie "DJ" Dejarlo was the first player to sign a contract with the team.
Among the players that formed the team were Maui Huelar, Erwin Framo, Johnedel Cardel, John Ferriols, Allen Sasan and Jack Tanuan.
Negrense Rolly Buenaflor was named as head coach.
The Negros Slashers played their first two games on the road against the Batangas Blades and Manila Metrostars, losing on both occasions despite having a solid team with a mix of veterans and newcomers.
Rolly Buenaflor was relieved of head coaching duties shortly after and was replaced by Junel Baculi.
But tragedy struck the team on the eve of their third game in Cebu City when their main player, DJ Dejarlo, was found dead in their hotel room due to pancreatitis.
Fueled by Dejarlo's unexpected death, the Slashers won their first game against eventual archrival Cebu Gems.
Since then, the Slashers found their winning ways and became one of Southern Conference's formidable t...