Olsen Racela

Olsen Racela

Alias	Rah-Rah
Position	Point Guard
Current Team	Retired - No. 17
Personal Info
Country	Philippines
Born	November 1, 1970 (1970-11-01) (age 41) Quezon City, Philippines
Height	5 ft. 11 in.
Weight	165 lbs.
College	Ateneo de Manila University
Career Highlights
Draft	1993, 12th overall by Purefoods TJ Hotdogs
Pro Career	1993 – 2011
Also played for	Purefoods TJ Hotdogs (1993-1996)
Awards Received
1993 PBA Mr. Quality Minutes 1998 PBA Mythical Second Team 1999 PBA Mythical Second Team 2000 PBA Mythical First Team 2001 PBA Mythical First Team 2004-05 PBA Mythical Second Team 5-time PBA All-Star 21st member of 2000-Assist Club

Rodericko Cesar Escueta Racela, better known as Olsen Racela, (born November 1, 1970 in Quezon City, Philippines) is a retired Filipino professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association. He is also a part time analyst, assistant coach of the Petron Blaze Boosters, and the current head coach of the Philippines under-16 basketball team. He is considered the best point guard in the league. He is also a former member of the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the UAAP and the Philippine national basketball team on many occasions.

Early life

Olsen Racela, born on November 1, was so named because he was born on All Saint's Day (his brother Nash was born on National Heroes' Day). As a young boy, he started playing basketball early in his life. It was just a game back then. A couple of shots through a hoop in his old neighborhood. Among his brothers, he shone out with the better basketball skills which gave him a spot in Ateneo de Manila University's varsity team.

Amateur career

Racela played for the Blue Eagles in a backup role to Jun Reyes and was a member of the Blue Eagles team that won the UAAP title in 1988. He also played in the Philippine Amateur Basketball League and the RP Youth Team.

PBA career

Purefoods

In 1993, Racela was selected 12th by Purefoods in the 1993 PBA Rookie Draft. From 1993-1996, he played the backup role to Dindo Pumaren and won two titles with the Purefoods franchise under a limited role with the team.

San Miguel Beermen

In 1997, Racela moved to the San Miguel Beermen in what became the turnaround of his young career. Under new San Miguel head coach Ron Jacobs, Racela's skills were noticed under a rebuilding Beermen squad of Nelson Asaytono, Freddie Abuda and Mike Mustre.

In 1998, Racela's game would improve and was rewarded with a spot on the Tim Cone-coached Philippine Centennial Team that took home a bronze medal in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand. A season later, with Racela as its top point guard, San Miguel became the league's new dynasty under Jong Uichico, winning five titles from 1999-2001.

2002 Busan Asiad

He made his second stint in the national team in 2002 for the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. With Racela as point guard, the Nationals made it all the way through the semifinals against host South Korea. In the final minute, Racela scored a three-pointer to give the Philippines the lead. However, after recovering the possession and was fouled, he missed two crucial free throws that could have given the country a four-point lead. Instead, Lee Sang Min's buzzer-beating triple gave the Koreans a dramatic 69-68 victory. Some argued that the blame rest on Jong Uichico's coaching in which he didn't set out a plan to ease Racela's pressure from the 15th foot line.

Despite the missed free-throws, Racela continued to shine in his point guard duties with San Miguel. In 2004, he dished his 2,000th career assist and was the starting point guard when the Beermen won another title in the 2005 PBA Fiesta Conference.

Starting in the 2006-07 All Filipino Conference, Racela occasionally plays off the bench in preparation for his retirement and life as an assistant coach.

On August 11, 2010, Racela became the fifth player alongside Ramon Fernandez , Robert Jaworski , Abet Guidaben & Philip Cezar to play at least 900 games in the PBA.

League's oldest active Player and Retirement

After Johnny Abarrientos announced his retirement, Racela will play for another PBA season with San Miguel. He turned 40 on November 1, 1970 and was the senior statesman of the PBA during that season. He announced his retirement on January 28, 2011 at the Araneta Coliseum at the start of Game 4 of the finals. He had played the entire finals series before he hanged up his #17 jersey in which Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters subdued San Miguel Beermen in 6 games.

Personal life

Racela's nickname was based on the day of his birth as it was during All-Saints Day.

His brother, Raoul Cesar or "Nash", is currently the assistant coach of the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters under head coach Chot Reyes. Nash also coached the Batangas Blades in the Metropolitan Basketball Association.

Basketball career

School leagues

• 1984: Ateneo de Manila - PAYA Aspirants
• 1985: Ateneo de Manila - PAYA Juniors
• 1986 Ateneo de Manila - UAAP Juniors
• 1987-1992: Ateneo de Manila - UAAP Seniors

Philippine Basketball League

• 1989: Crispa Redmanizers
• 1990-1991: A&W Rootbeers
• 1992: Pop Cola

Philippine Basketball Association

• 1993-1996: Purefoods TJ Hotdogs
• 1997-Present: San Miguel Beermen

National teams

• 1987 Asian Youth 18 years and below, Qatar
• 1989 ABC Under-18 Championship , Manila
• 1998 Asian Games, Thailand
• 1998 Jones Cup, Taipei
• 2002 Asian Games, Busan, South Korea

Awards and achievements

Philippine Basketball Association

• 1993 Mr. Quality Minutes
• 1998-1999 2-time Mythical Second Team
• 2000-2001 2-time Mythical First Team
• 2000-01, 2003-04, 2006 5-time All-Star
• 2002-2003 Mythical Second team
• 2004 21st member of 2000-Assist Club
• 2010 5th member of 900 Games club

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 July 26, 2011^[1]

Season

Year	Team	GP	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1993	Coney Island/Purefoods	43	8.3	.514	.333	.700	0.9	1.3	.4	.1	3.4
1994	Coney Island/Purefoods	62	15.6	.479	.444	.661	0.9	1.5	.4	.1	3.7
1995	Purefoods	59	24.8	.502	.222	.851	1.7	3.1	1.2	.1	6.7
1996	Purefoods Corned Beef	58	22.6	.454	.115	.795	1.5	3.0	.8	.1	6.4
1997	San Miguel	62	40.0	.439	.316	.876	1.8	4.7	.7	.1	11.4
1998	San Miguel	49	38.2	.455	.292	.847	2.8	4.5	1.1	.2	8.8
1999	San Miguel	53	34.2	.399	.233	.843	2.3	3.6	.8	.1	7.3
2000	San Miguel	58	32.9	.461	.383	.839	2.3	3.0	.6	.1	9.6
2001	San Miguel	70	34.3	.395	.381	.871	2.2	2.8	.8	.03	10.9
2002	San Miguel	12	26.2	.384	.294	.800	1.9	4.6	.9	.2	9.7
2003	San Miguel	50	32.5	.417	.373	.865	3.0	4.8	1.1	.1	10.8
2004-05	San Miguel	78	34.0	.398	.354	.827	2.2	5.3	1.1	.1	11.4
2005-06	San Miguel	43	32.6	.367	.305	.863	2.7	4.3	1.1	.1	8.3
2006-07	San Miguel	62	26.3	.373	.286	.872	2.3	3.5	1.0	.1	8.5
2007-08	Magnolia	47	20.0	.426	.391	.912	1.6	2.5	.6	.1	6.3
2008-09	San Miguel	56	20.0	.387	.327	.828	1.9	3.2	.6	.04	6.0
2009-10	San Miguel	39	11.0	.393	.328	.833	0.8	1.2	.6	.03	3.2
2010-11	San Miguel	24	12.0	.344	.303	.875	0.8	1.7	.3	.0	3.0
Career		925	27.0	.419	.334	.841	1.9	3.3	.8	.1	7.8

References

1. ^ http://www.pba-online.net/profile/Olsen-Racela/

External links

• Love Olsen Racela Fanlisting

Persondata
Name	Racela, Olsen
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 1, 1970
Place of birth	Quezon City, Philippines
Date of death
Place of death