This was good while it lasted.
LA Tenorio may have defeated the streak of Alvin Patrimonio and extended his consecutive play to 744 games but Father Time, teaming up with Uncle Injury is no match for the surefire Hall of Famer... if the PBA tries to bring back their virtual shrine.
So Tenorio got hit with a season-ending groin injury.
While Tim Cone has stated that the injury is not going to mean the end of LA Tenorio's playing career, it's probably going to at least shorten it.
A couple of seasons ago, Joe Devance has retired, and it made Tenorio the sole representative of Cone's Alaska era in Ginebra. At 38, Tenyente has outlasted most of his Ateneo buddies and DLSU counterparts and frankly, this is because he rarely gets injured and his head is always in the game. But yeah, aging is inevitable and the player formerly known as The Flying LA (good thing he got out of that bad naming predicament) has a solid enough career to take a backseat to the new breed of players.
After all, Tenorio has already transitioned to a coaching role with the Letran Knights. He's more of a behind-the-scenes guy but you can tell his brand of basketball can be seen with the likes of Fran Yu, Tommy Olivario, and Kurt Reyson.
Ginebra, and most SMC teams, have this tendency to vanquish their old wards to either benchwarming hell or in some low-level small market team like what they did to Alex Cabagnot and Arwind Santos. Hopefully, Tim Cone has enough pull to keep Tenorio and I guess this is the key to keep his spot with the Gin Kings. If Leo Austria still had the good graces of the SMC management, then I doubt if the San Miguel Death Five would have been disbanded without getting a grand slam. Austria is severely maligned as a coach but like Baby Dalupan, Tim Cone, Norman Black, and Dante Silverio, he had the best players and he successfully got the best from these stars. This could have been June Mar Fajardo's best way to score a grand slam.
Anyway, Tenorio is one of those guys that will have a basketball career after his playing career is over. He can coach, he is fluent enough to become an analyst, and perhaps his on-court swagger can translate into an executive role.