The Philippine Basketball Association will pay tribute to the third batch of inductees to its Hall of Fame during a special awards ceremony at the Makati Shangrila Hotel on October 9.

The event to honor the newest batch of Hall of Famers through a special ceremony is a brainchild of the late Tony Chua. Unfortunately, Chua won’t be able to witness it personally following his untimely demise last September 26 at the height of Typhoon Ondoy’s fury that brought heavy flooding in the Metro Manila area and the nearly provinces such as Rizal.

Among the seven new Hall of Fame enshrines are four players who possessed a common denominator during their PBA heyday in the 1980s and 1990s.

Allan Caidic, Avelino “Samboy” Lim, Hector Calma and Fil-Am Ricardo “Ricky” Brown all suited up for San Miguel Beer at one point in their distinguished professional careers. Along the way, the quartet also battled against each other.

Longtime import Bobby Parks, another Hall of Fame honoree this year, additionally was once their SMB teammate.

Others members of the 2009 PBA Hall of Fame cast are the late Emilio P. Bernardino Jr., the league’s fifth commissioner, and Carlos “Honeyboy” Palanca III, the founding owner of the La Tondeña franchise and a former PBA Board chair.

Caidic, Calma and Lim were hotshot amateurs who belonged to the Ron Jacobs-mentored and Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.-owned Northern Consolidated club that went on to represent the Philippines in various international competitions.

Among the overseas stints was the 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation tournament (now known as the FIBA-Asia Championship) in Ipoh, Malaysia. Bannered by naturalized players Jeff Moore and Dennis Still and homegrown stars such as Caidic, Lim and Calma, the Filipinos captured their most recent FIBA-Asia crown via a 76-72 victory over silver medalist South Korea to earn a berth in the World Basketball Championship in Madrid, Spain the following year.

The colorful basketball odysseys of Caidic, Lim, Calma and Brown eventually took them to the PBA.

Brown broke into the majors in 1983 with Great Taste Coffee and earned PBA Rookie of the Year honors. The Chicago, Illinois-born 6-foot playmaker transferred to San Miguel Beer in 1988 and called it quits with the Beermen two seasons later.

Brown normed 23.1 points – the all-time highest career scoring average by a local in PBA annals – and 7.3 assists in 340 games during his eight-year tenure. The Pepperdine University product, a third-round draft choice of the Houston Rockets in 1979, was the PBA Most Valuable Player in 1985 with Great Taste.

Teaming up with the core of the disbanded Northern Consolidated squad, Calma and Lim hooked up with Magnolia Cheese in their pro debut in 1986. Both are among the few men in league history to play their entire career with the same club when they hung up their jerseys with San Miguel Beer in 1994 and 1997, respectively.

A heady point guard who was billed “The Director” for his uncanny ability to orchestrate floor plays, the 5-8 Calma normed 9.8 points and 5.1 assists in 389 appearances overall. The Adamson University alum was a PBA Mythical First Team selection from 1987 to 1989.

Lim, a flamboyant but gutsy 6-foot forward, was among the most popular players in the league during his time. His high-flying and acrobatic acts earned him the monicker “Skywalker.”

Like Calma, an assortment of injuries cut short Lim’s career in 1997. The former Letran ace from Cavite registered per-game clips of 16.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 335 games and 10 seasons.

More on the credentials of Caidic, Parks, Bernardino and Palanca in our next column.