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Avelino "Samboy" Lim, the former San Miguel Beerman who died Saturday night at the age of 61, regaled PBA fans and baffled opponents in the 1980s and 1990s with his high-flying moves that left even the best defenders shaking their heads. Lim earned nickname "The Skywalker" for his aerial exploits that seemed to defy gravity. Other players may have jumped higher, but Samboy stayed in the air the longest and did the most with the ball. "Si Samboy, matagal sa ere," fellow 80s high-flyer Paul "Bong" Alvarez once said on the basketball podcast An Eternity of Basketball. "Nagga-glide sa ere. Horizontal. Pag-lumay-up, nasa baba ka na, nasa taas pa siya." One running joke from that era that was used to describe him was "nagkakape sa ere", or that Lim floated so long that he could have a cup of coffee while in the air and finish it by the time he reached the floor. "He was doing things that nobody in the world could do when he played," said former national team teammate Jeff Moore on the same podcast. "... He had a game that you could not teach, and you try not to teach. There was a natural instinct that he had. I don't know where he got it. Those are the things that are just in you. "He saw the game in a different light, the angles. He would throw the ball up backwards without looking and it would go in. The first time you thought it was a lucky shot, but then he actually kept doing it." Lim played his entire PBA career with the San Miguel franchise, winning nine championships, including a Grand Slam in 1989, and averaging 16.0PPG over 11 seasons. His best individual season was 1990, when he averaged a career-high 22.1PPG and was the best player on the first-ever all-PBA national team. That team won the silver medal at the 1990 Asian Games where he was named to the All-Tournament starting five. His style of play made him a natural target for the league's enforcers, and he often found himself on the receiving end of cheap shots and dirty moves during the highly physical 1980s. But he never complained, never confronted his defender, never so much as got into any argument on the court. He took all their shots, dusted himself off and kept coming back for more. It was this demeanor that prompted the PBA to rename its Sportsmanship Award after him, an award he himself won in 1993. All those hits eventually took their toll, and Lim appeared in just 335 games. Numerous shoulder, leg, knee, and foot injuries forced him to miss chunks of several seasons. He made the Mythical Team just twice, earning Second Team honors in 1990 and 1993, as he couldn't stay on the court long enough to vie for MVP or a First Team slot.  But when Lim did play, it was like watching an artist at work. Another high-flying forward of that era, Vergel Meneses, said Lim was the best among them. "Si Samboy, go hard palagi," Meneses said on the An Eternity of Basketball podcast. "Iyong galaw niya, minsan hindi mo alam kung saan niya pinapadaan iyong bola. Horizontal ang talon niya, matagal siya sa ere na horizontal." Lim wasn't just an aerial magician. On the ground, he could leave his defender frozen in his tracks. "Mabilis ang first step ni Samboy," his longtime San Miguel teammate Elmer Reyes said. "Once makatanggap siya ng bola, iwan ka na. Ang technique sa pag depensa sa kanya, huwag mong patanggapin ng bola. Ball denial ka." That was always easier said than done. Few sights were more thrilling for fans or terrifying for defenders than that of Lim barreling down in the open court. He would hang in the air flip the ball up the ball for a sure two points. His ability to absorb contact in mid-air and still get off his shot made him one of best one-on-one players in league history. "Kay Samboy, alam na alam mong kapag nakabwelo, kapag binigay mo ang bola, ayan na," said Ato Agustin, Lim's SMB teammate and one of his closest friends. "Dire-diretso na 'yan. He was a good finisher talaga." "Impossible," replied Tim Cone when asked how he tried to stop "The Skywalker." Cone's Alaska teams battled Lim's San Miguel teams numerous times during that era. "Samboy was special. He had a special ability to get to the rim and finish. He was a daredevil. He wasn't afraid, even with all those bad falls and stuff he took. He was never afraid." The Skywalker was that rare player who was admired by all fans, regardless of rooting interests. His appeal was universal and covered all fan demographics - from young to old, casual to hardcore. He hardly ever got booed, not even by diehards from opposing teams. "There are very few Filipino basketball players who could excite the crowd just by waiting to be subbed into the game," explained sportscaster Sev Sarmenta, who has called PBA games for more than 30 years. "When he was healthy, he would thrill the crowd with an acrobatic shot or a dunk. You knew Samboy was getting into the game just by the whispers and then the roar of the crowd when he got off the bench."  There was also another side to Lim that endeared him to PBA fans. He was as gracious off the court as he was graceful on it. The heights he reached while soaring to the basket were inversely proportional to how down-to-earth he was when he walked among fans. "(He was) accommodating...patient...smile lang ng smile sa kanila," recalled Sarmenta when asked how Lim interacted with fans. "He was such a gentleman and a super human being," Cone said. "I was talking to my brother-in-law, Eddie Viaplana who played for La Salle and knew Samboy, and Eddie was saying he was by far the most humble person he's ever been around. His humility was evident all the time. When off the court, he was very, very humble. Super soft-spoken guy." Despite his celebrity status, Lim was also one of the most coachable players ever. Joe Lipa, who coached him on the 1986 national team that won a bronze medal at the Seoul Asian Games, called Lim an "ideal player." "Very obedient, very hardworking, knew his responsibilities," Lipa recalled. "I never had any headache with Samboy when he was playing for me on the national team." Samboy Lim was the embodiment of Pinoy basketball: fearless, exciting, improvisational. That he had a cool nickname and a unique look (he was the only player during his time who wore knee-length socks) only added to his mystique. Even in retirement, he was still giving back to the game, and he was playing that fateful night of November 28, 2014 when he collapsed. "It was really sad that everything happened while he was on the court at the prime of his life, playing basketball and stuff," Cone said. "Then he had to go through all this that went on later. But he was a special guy." The outpouring of love from ordinary fans and former colleagues that followed his family's announcement of his passing stood as testament to his popularity, even if he had been bedridden and out of the public eye for more than nine years. "I really feel sad about the loss of Samboy," Lipa said. "I think he died at a very young age and had that incident not happened, he could still be giving happiness and entertainment to Filipinos."
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