Magnolia to retire Marc Pingris, PJ Simon jerseys during Christmas Clasico

In their storied franchise, Purefoods managed to have three playing jerseys retired in their 33 years in the PBA.

That is about to increase come Christmas day as the Manila Clasico clash of Brgy. Ginebra and Magnolia will also feature the retirement of the playing jerseys of former stalwarts Marc Pingris and Peter June Simon.

Pingris and Simon, also known as Pinoy Sakuragi and the Scoring Apostle, respectively, are expected to receive a glass-framed replica of their respective No. 15 and No. 8 jerseys as the two legends combined to collect 18 titles donning the Purefoods jersey.

In their history, only former four-time league MVP Alvin Patrimonio’s No. 16, Rey Evangelista’s No.7 and Jerry Codinera’s No. 44 playing jerseys were able to be retired by the Purefoods management.

“Naririnig ko nga yan pero wala pang pormal na sinasabi ang management. Pero matagal na rin namang plano yan, di ba. Yung kay PJ dapat dati pa hindi lang natuloy,” Hotshot’s coach Chito Victolero expressed.

“Maganda yun kung sakali, Manila Clasico tapos Christmas Day. Para rin sa kanila yun,” he added.

Ironically, the two were about to come out of their respective retirement and play in the MPBL under the Nueva Ecija team only for it to be shut down at the last minute.

Prior to the start of the PBA 46th season, Pingris decided to finally call it quits due to a nagging calf injury while Simon retired just before the Clark PBA bubble last year.

Together with two-time MVP James Yap, the trio were able to complete a grand slam season in 2014 under the helm of former San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone.