Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Games and Amusements held a hearing to look into the Wynne Arboleda incident that happened during the Burger King-Smart Gilas game three weeks ago. The investigation delved into, among other things, the allegation by SBP executive director Noli Eala (and repeated by Smart Gilas loyalists) that Burger King coach Yeng Guiao had ordered Burger King players to rough up the developmental team players. The loyalists had taken a Twitter report by Patricia Hizon about Guiao’s pre-game speech instructing his team to “put them in their place” as evidence that the fiery coach wanted a hit out on the Gilas boys.

Except it wasn’t true, as Patricia herself attested to during the hearing, and that the statement was taken the wrong way by people with certain biases. There were NO directives for BK players to hurt anyone, according to her.

Continue reading "Putting them in their place"

The new PBA season is barely three weeks old, but Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio is already in midseason form when it comes to his soundbites. Check them out:

Continue reading "Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio dispenses wisdom"

Cebu has been known traditionally as a hotbed of hoops, and with good reason. Legends such as Mon Fernandez, Dondon Ampalayo, and Jojo Lastimosa first made their marks in Cebuano collegiate leagues, as did more recent stars such as Dondon Hontiveros and Roger Yap.

The University of the Visayas has dominated Cebu’s top collegiate league, the Cesafi, for the last decade, thanks to a program led by a couple of legendary Cebuano hotshots, head coach Boy Cabahug and assistant Al Solis. A few years ago, the Green Lancers scored a coup after signing up 6-11 Fil-Am project Greg Slaughter, and the team is finally reaping the benefits as the behemoth starts to tap his potential. Slaughter, a mainstay of the Smart Gilas Developmental squad coached by Rajko Toroman, is surrounded by the usual bevy of Cebuano shooters who have carried the UV program to eight straight Cesafi titles.

Continue reading "Slaughter’s UV Green Lancers, Fajardo’s UC Webmasters duke it out in Cesafi finals"

The worst moment of my basketball fandom came in September 1994, in an NCAA championship game at the oven-hot Rizal Memorial Coliseum. I was in sixth grade then, and I was with my classmates rooting for the Letran Knights, who were defending their championship against their arch-enemy San Sebastian Stags. We went there expecting to win like we did the year before, but Baste started to pull away late in the 4th quarter behind the exploits of their high-flying swingmen, (the overage) Jesse Bardaje and Rodney Santos.

Watching your team lose was bad enough, but it was what happened after that really made it bad. With the game out of reach, the San Sebastian crowd decided to collectively, sarcastically, start rooting for Letran. Those fuckers just wanted to rub it in, so they started chanting “Go, Letran! Go, go Letran!” and cheering whenever the Knights made a meaningless basket.

Continue reading "“Poging Baste, Haba...”: San Sebastian dethrones San Beda"

I hadn’t seen the first episode of Pacquiao-Cotto 24/7 when I posted my buddy Alekos Orendain’s review earlier, so it was Rafe Bartholomew who gave me a heads up that Alekos had left out a crazy moment in his post.

And boy, it was a holy fucking shit moment.

Continue reading "Freddie Roach threatens to quit over Manny Pacquiao’s meeting with Manny Villar"

Ginebra forward JC Intal has had lots of reason to smile over the past week. First, Lolit Solis reported that his supposed break-up with Rosalinda star Carla Abellana was just a showbiz gimmick to generate publicity for the soap opera.

Continue reading "JC Intal is having a good week"

Apart from Fire Quinito, I will be writing for the brand new Man’s Blog for FHM.com.ph. This project has actually been in the works for over a year now, even before I put up this blog. Lots of stuff happened along the way but I’m just glad it’s up and running.

Continue reading "Shameless plug"

In 1993, the powerhouse defending champions San Miguel faced perennial All-Filipino contenders Coney Island (nee Purefoods) in the finals of that year’s homegrown-only tournament. The Beermen were heavy favorites after making a trade for Allan Caidic in the offseason, reuniting the Triggerman with his former national team buddies, Samboy Lim and Hector Calma. The star-studded San Miguel backcourt was rounded out by the reigning Most Valuable Player in the league, Ato Agustin. The two teams’ matchup was a repeat of the previous year’s finals, a series that was capped by 32 points from Agustin in the deciding seventh game.

Rookie coach Chot Reyes was at the helm of Coney Island, which was making its sixth straight All-Filipino appearance. Everyone knew about the frontcourt of Alvin Patrimonio and Jerry Codinera, but their backcourt wasn’t too shabby either, with Glenn Capacio, Boy Cabahug, and Dindo Pumaren. Curiously, Reyes acquired an eclectic mix of players in the offseason; rookies Dwight Lago, Benny Cheng, Olsen Racela, and Freddie Abuda were drafted to provide hustle and energy, but Reyes also recruited a couple of grizzled veterans: Caidic’s old enforcer from Presto, Abe King, and a rugged guard from Alaska, Frankie Lim.

Continue reading "Ato Agustin, Frankie Lim, and the NCAA Finals"

The broadcast of the game won’t be until tonight, but news of the results of the game between Talk N Text and Smart Gilas leaked out over Twitter already this afternoon, and boy it didn’t look pretty. In fact, you can say that it was uglier than (you know the joke by now).

Anyway, Talk N Text mopped the floor with the Gilas boys, 103-70, handing the national developmental team their second straight loss. According to Fidel Mangonon (you really ought to be following him on Twitter by now), Smart Gilas import CJ Giles saw limited action, playing only the first five minutes before going into the freezer for the rest of the game. Fidel tweeted later that there were reports that there was a problem about the health of Giles’s 4-year-old, which explained why his focus wasn’t on the game. In a follow-up, Fidel said that Giles’s mom called the center to inform him about the potentially life-threatening disease.

Continue reading "Talk N Text dominates Smart Gilas as import CJ Giles plays limited minutes"