There’s a raging discussion on the Japeth Aguilar issue all over the Internet, and at the Interbasket forums, my last piece on Japeth was posted on the thread. Anyway, one of the commenters, Patay-Butiki, who I assume runs the excellent Patay ang Butiki blog, (UPDATE: the commenter Patay-Butiki is not involved in the excellent Patay ang Butiki blog) had this to say:

well, firequinito does know his reporters. i'll give him that. but i just don't get the analogy with rabeh/ateneo. it's like comparing apples with oranges.

and the problem with blogs (unlike regular sports columns) is that you can hurl accusations and jump to outlandish conclusions and pass them off as facts.

Well, first, let’s tackle the Rabeh/Ateneo analogy. The PBA and the UAAP are both stakeholders of the SBP, which runs the Smart Gilas program. I’m not clear about the agreement between the SBP and the UAAP regarding the participation of the league’s players in the program, but we can deduce implicitly that participation with the varsity teams during the UAAP tournament is prioritized; Dylan Ababou, Mark Barroca, JR Cawaling, and Aldretch Ramos stopped training with the Gilas team to concentrate on the UAAP, while Ateneo stalwarts Rabeh Al-Husseini and Ryan Buenafe have deferred participation in the Gilas team’s international training last summer to concentrate on their commitments to Ateneo.

Meanwhile, prior to the Japeth saga, there were talks that the PBA was going to be willing to lend their players to the Gilas team in the future, pending some agreements. Gabe Norwood, Jared Dillinger, and Aguilar were reportedly being considered by Gilas coach Rajko Toroman to reinforce his team.

All that, of course, went to hell went Aguilar decided not to accept Burger King’s contract offer, and stated that he intends to play for Gilas full-time instead. BK manager Lito Alvarez asks the SBP to speak on the issue, but they prefer to keep mum. At this point, Aguilar and his agent Ronnie Nathanielsz say that it’s a unilateral decision on their part, and they have not spoken with the SBP.

Now, what if Rabeh Al-Husseini, the reigning UAAP Most Valuable Player, unilaterally decided to follow Japeth’s path, quit Ateneo, and play for Gilas exclusively? After all, Gilas had previously expressed interest in tapping his services, and surely it must be a greater honor to wear the Pilipinas jersey than a jersey of just one UAAP school. Will the SBP still maintain a hands-off stance?

The comparison is not apples to oranges, but Burger King apples to Ateneo apples.

Second, let’s talk about “hurling accusations” and “jumping to outlandish conclusions.” Here’s the gist of what I said in my previous post:

1. Ronnie Nathanielsz has been known to be less than truthful if it advances his agenda.


2. Nathanielsz has a good relationship with Ricky Vargas, who happens to be vice-chairman of the SBP.


3. Rick Olivares, a writer known to have close ties with the SBP, broke the news of the meeting between Aguilar (with Nathanielsz) and Alvarez shortly after it happened on Wednesday.


4. Noli Eala, the SBP executive director who loves to grandstand in the media, has been mum on the issue.


5. Word from the SBP on the issue would settle this whole thing quickly, especially if Aguilar’s camp is being truthful that his decision to refuse the BK offer was done without the SBP’s knowledge.

I don’t see any accusation or outlandish conclusion.

I also take issue over the idea that “regular sports columns” never hurl accusations or jump to outlandish conclusions. I can point you to Olivares’ latest column, which is full of innuendo regarding Yeng Guiao’s performance in Tianjin – whether it’s true or not is another matter – or you can Google the term “Ronnie Nathanielsz” and see that the first result is a message board thread about him being a liar.

By the way, message board people, I don’t mind if my stuff is copied-and-pasted everywhere, but I would really appreciate it if you guys linked to the article along with the post. Thanks!