Ryan Dy

He takes his guard to the top of the key, dribbles between the legs, fakes to the right then goes left. Result: an easy two plus a gift shot.

Such is nothing extraordinary this 5-9 Chinese mestizo playmaker who has dazzled his way to the local basketball scene.

He has even copped an MVP award in the just concluded Cebu City Mayor ‘s Cup 2000 Millennium Challenge, where his team Chariot Power Cabs bagged the title against the M. Lhuillier Jewelers.

By now most Cebuano basketball fanatics should know Ryan Dy, a fair-skinned dribbler whose lean frame complements a boyish face that never fails to flash a smile even if the going gets tough.

But unknown to many, the 23-year –old Dy is one of the so-called late bloomers in basketball; he started dribbling basketballs at 17.

However, dribbling is not a foreign thing to the third year marketing major at Salazar Institute of Technology who used to dribble footballs in high school.

“Actually my first love was not basketball. I played soccer (football) for five long years at my alma mater – Philippine Christian Gospel School. I played striker and forward when we played in inter-school tournaments before,” Dy, who played football from grade six until fourth year high school.

But his agility, speed, hustle, hard work and dedication to football, which he would later pass on to basketball, would lead Him to greener pastures when ex-PBA Mark Anthony Tallo discovered him in a game at an asphalt court across Sto. Rosario Church on P.del Rosario St. in 1996.

Dy enrolled at Sunsport Basketball Training Camp where Tallo, a fancy-playing point guard in his prime, developed his assets and introduced him to scientific basketball.

And from inter-barangay tournaments, Dy went on to play in the city’s commercial leagues, suiting up for Upland Stock Feed’s maiden year in the MICAA where they came out champion in the 1999 MICAA Sinulog Cup.

Ryan started as a bench warmer, spending more time cheering for his teammates who played against Roy Lura and Bruce Dacia of heavy title-favorites Sunpride Food Masters.

Source: RCM