Mark Caguioa

Mark "The Spark" Caguioa

No. 47 – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel
Position	Shooting Guard
League	PBA
Personal information
Born	(1979-11-19) November 19, 1979 San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines
Nationality	Filipino
Listed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Listed weight	190 lb (86 kg)
Career information
High school	Eagle Rock High School
College	Glendale Community College
PBA draft	2001: 1st round, 3rd overall pick
Selected by the Barangay Ginebra Kings
Playing career	2001–present
Career history
2001–present	Barangay Ginebra Kings
Career highlights and awards
1999 Eagle Rock High School - Most ValuablePlayer 2000 Glendale Community College - Mythical First Team Philippine Basketball Association 2001 Rookie of the Year 2001 Mr. Quality Minutes 2004-05 PBA Most Points 2004-05 PBA Most Minutes Played 2004–05 Mythical Second Team 2005–06 Mythical Second Team 2006–07 Philippine Cup – Best Player of the Conference 2007 PSA Professional Cager of the Year 2007–08 Mythical First Team 2010–11 Mythical First Team 2010–11 PBA POW Order of Merit Award 2010-11 PBA Most Points 2010-11 PBA Most 2-Pointers Made 2011–12 Commissioner's Cup – Best Player of the Conference 2011–12 Governor's Cup – Best Player of the Conference 2011–12 Mythical First Team 2011–12 PBA Press Corp Comeback Player of the Year 2011–12 Most Bakaw Player 2012 PSA Professional Cager of the Year 9x PBA Finals Appearances 4× PBA Champion (2004, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2008) 8x PBA All-Star Game Selection 3x scoring champion 2004–05, 2006-07, 2010–11 Member of 8,000 PBA career Points FIBA Philippine Team 2007 FIBA Asia Mythical Ten Selection 2007 Jones Cup Mythical Five Selection

Mark Anthony "The Spark" Caguioa (born November 19, 1979 in San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association who plays for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. He is also known, along with backcourt tandem Jayjay Helterbrand, as one-half of the so-called, The Fast and the Furious.

Collegiate career

Caguioa was born and raised in the Philippines. He later spent his adolescent days in the United States and played collegiate ball at the Glendale Community College. He was named into the First Team All-Western State Conference honors of the 1999–2000 season.

Barangay Ginebra Kings (2001–present)

In 2001, Caguioa was drafted by Barangay Ginebra Kings as third overall pick. Expectations were not high as Caguioa started as a role player and reliever to superstar but aging Vergel Meneses. However, after showing strong performances and leading the Kings to the 2001 All-Filipino finals, he became very popular. With his killer cross-overs, slashing drives to the basket, and penchant for making clutch plays, Caguioa earned the respect and admiration of the Filipino basketball fans. His exciting brand of play earned him the moniker "The Spark." At the end of his first season, Caguioa was the third Ginebra player since Dondon Ampalayo in 1986 and Marlou Aquino in 1996 to win the Rookie of the Year award. He recently won the Most Coveted MVP plum last conference topping Gary David to bag the prestigious award.

The Fast and The Furious

In the 2004–2005 season, Caguioa along with his comeback partner Jayjay Helterbrand, formed a strong backcourt tandem, which ABC Sports later dubbed as the "The Fast and The Furious". Their tandem enabled Ginebra to win back-to-back championships. Caguioa also set his then career high during the season, scoring 43 points (he later eclipsed this by scoring 45 points) in Game 4 of the Philippine Cup Finals against the Talk 'N Text Phone Pals.

In the 2006 Philippine Cup, Caguioa was still showing brilliance in his game earning him the Player of the Week honors thrice. He also led the league scoring at 24 points per game, and broke his previous career high by scoring 45 points despite a losing effort to Red Bull in the quarterfinals. He became the first guard ever to finished a single season as the league's leading scorer since Allan Caidic in 1995.

In the 2007 Philippine Cup, Caguioa averaged 24.7 per game in the 23 games he played. He also led the league in statistical points for the Best Player of the Conference Award. Caguioa piloted Ginebra to their seventh championship in franchise history by besting the San Miguel Beermen in a best-of-seven showdown by ending it in Game 6. During their series against Talk 'N Text in the semifinals, Caguioa scored 34, 31, 26, 35, and 31 points respectively. Mark Caguioa won the 2007 PBA Best Player of the Conference.

Caguioa again helped his team during the 2008 PBA Fiesta Conference by grabbing their eight championship. He also led the league in scoring.

There were also speculations that the Sydney Kings of the NBL in Australia was really impressed with his performance, and they offered him a contract to play for their team. But unfortunately, the NBL terminated the license of the Sydney Kings after the club’s ownership failed to remedy outstanding player payments outlined in a default notice issued to the club.

In the 2008–09 season, Caguioa failed to suit up for Kings due to his therapy in the United States for tendonitis on both knees.

Caguioa had several chances to win the MVP

2004 - 05: Lost in the media voting to teammate Eric Menk.

2004: PBA All-Star Game: His output of 36 points would have won him the All-Star MVP but North All-Star team lost.

2006: He led the league in scoring but didn't make it to the finals and James Yap got the award.

2006 - 07: Led the league in statistical points & named Best Player of the Conference of All-Filipino conference, but pulled up in the RP National Team and didn't finish the 2007 PBA season and Willie Miller stole the award.

2010 - 11: Always a runner up for all the conferences that season for BPC award and lost only on media votes against Jimmy Alapag who won the MVP.

National team

Caguioa was named in the RP Training Pool for future international competitions. He has participated in several exhibition games against the Iranian National Team and the NBL team Sydney Kings in mid-2005, where he impressed the latter team's coach by scoring 27 points in the said game. He has also played in the 2005 FIBA-Asia Champions Cup held in the Philippines, in which they finished 5th in the event. He averaged 19.8 points per game and 3.4 rebound per game in the said tournament.

However, Caguioa was eventually left out of the team. It was due to national mentor Chot Reyes' claim that Caguioa has failed to appear in several practice sessions.

In 2007, he finally joined the RP Team that won the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship with a perfect record and finished 9th place with a record of 5–2 in the FIBA Asia Championship.

Controversies

• A mini-controversy happened in 2005 when he spoke a Filipino vulgar word during a live interview of a game between Caguioa's team against the Sta. Lucia Realtors. He did not receive any form of punishment from the PBA for his comments.

• Caguioa once had a rivalry with then-Sta. Lucia player Alex Cabagnot, who now plays for the Globalpot Batangpier. It was mainly because Cabagnot broke some of Caguioa's scoring records at Eagle Rock High School. They had several episodes of commentaries regarding each other in interviews, and were seen trash talking in camera during their first two encounters. The rivalry apparently cooled off as Cabagnot failed to live up to everyone's expectations.

• Aside from being left out of the national team, Caguioa was also sanctioned by the league for his failure to appear in the 2006 PBA All-Star Game held in Cagayan de Oro City. Through his agent Danny Espiritu, he said he was suffering from an injury and had to beg off from coming.

• Prior to the start of the 2006 Philippine Cup, Caguioa vowed to run naked (or half-naked) along the streets of Shaw Boulevard if the Kings failed to defend the title during a pre-tournament interview with ABC Sports. His team eventually lost the title, but he reneged on his earlier promise.

• On May 17, 2006, Caguioa was ejected during Ginebra's 99–88 defeat against the Coca-Cola Tigers for two technical fouls. The first technical happened after he vehemently complained a call against then-Tigers guard John Arigo. The second offense was for throwing the ball into the stands after a foul was called on him. The league also suspended Caguioa during their loss against Air21 on May 20.

• He was fined by former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala for failing to attend the 2006 PBA Annual Awards, where he was included in the Mythical Second team.

• He was suspended for one game for throwing the ball at a game official during the Kings-Air21 Express match on May 5, 2010 at the Araneta Coliseum and Commissioner Sonny Barrios also fined Caguioa 20,000 pesos.

• The PBA fined Mark Caguioa P20,000 for his comments against referees following the Gin Kings’ loss to Alaska on September 1, 2013 as well as the issuing statements to media critical of officiating and considered inimical to the interest of the PBA.

PBA Career Statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Correct as of March 16, 2014

Season-by-Season Averages

Year	Team	GP	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2001-02	Ginebra	52	26.1	.467	.422	.870	4.9	1.7	1.0	.1	15.8
2002-03	Ginebra	30	29.5	.438	.333	.865	4.2	2.3	.6	.03	16.3
2003-04	Ginebra	41	35.6	.421	.329	.750	6.0	2.7	1.0	.05	26.3
2004–05	Ginebra	78	37.4	.491	.331	.799	6.3	3.1	1.0	.1	18.6
2005–06	Ginebra	48	37.7	.418	.258	.741	5.8	2.5	1.0	.2	20.6
2006–07	Ginebra	30	38.7	.425	.329	.738	4.9	4.4	.9	.2	24.6
2007–08	Ginebra	39	32.1	.486	.304	.648	4.2	2.2	.8	.1	19.8
2009–10	Ginebra	34	22.7	.428	.225	.785	3.1	1.6	.8	.03	14.9
2010–11	Ginebra	57	28.7	.418	.309	.759	5.3	2.4	.7	.04	16.0
2011–12	Ginebra	41	30.6	.397	.330	.760	4.8	2.3	.7	.1	19.3
2012–13	Ginebra	41	32.15	.403	.283	.728	4.51	2.61	.68	0.02	17.17
2013–14	Ginebra	26	24.73	.404	.385	.803	3.50	2.12	.27	0.12	11.27
Career		517	33.55	.438	.317	.759	5.01	2.51	.84	0.09	19.98

External links

• Barangay Ginebra Kings
• ABS-CBN News: Pipol Episode profile on Mark Caguioa
• Mark Caguioa fan Photo Website
• PBA.ph Player Profile
• Mark Caguioa Basketball Stats
• Mark Caguioa Interview