It was an interesting night, to say the least. After all, it’s not every day that one gets to hang out and shoot the breeze with the head coach of one’s favorite sports teams. I took advantage of the situation by conducting a no-holds-barred interview with my coaching idol and favorite, Ryan ‘The Genius’ Gregorio of Purefoods. I think it was different from his usual TV interviews, where he gives cliché answers:

Continue reading "An interview with Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio"

Sometimes, I forget that this blog isn’t even a year old, and already so many weird things have happened. Perhaps the biggest highlight came last Wednesday night, when Coach Ryan Gregorio, mere minutes after leading his Purefoods squad to a sweep over Alaska in the Philippine Cup finals, took a moment to record a message to this blog, courtesy of the always-awesome Patricia Hizon.

Continue reading "Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio to Fire Quinito: “We can be friends!”"

The buzz is that after winning the Philippine Cup championship, Purefoods will be changing its name to promote the company’s B-Meg line of animal feeds. An NBN Sports report said that the new name will be the ‘Derby Ace Llamados’ after B-Meg’s gamefowl feeds brand. I don’t mind the Derby Ace name, but do they really have to pander so shamefully to the lo-diyes crowd with the Llamados nickname? Why not the Derby Ace Slashers, which is way cooler?

Continue reading "Welcome the Derby Ace Llamados (?) and other Purefoods-Alaska matters"

Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio probably believes in it enough to mention that his team was playing on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the year, and 33 was coincidentally the number of Eugene Tejada, the former Purefoods forward who was paralyzed in a freak accident during a game four years ago. The players had dedicated the rest of the conference to their fallen comrade, and they won the Philippine Cup championship that year too.

Continue reading "Purefoods sweeps Alaska to win the 2010 Philippine Cup"

In my PBA preview, I wrote:

[Tim Cone’s Twitter account] provides all kinds of awesome stuff, like the answer to the question: “Who’d you pick to take the last shot in the game, Willie or Jolas?” Every PBA coach should have a Twitter account. Yeng Guiao’s would contain Kapampangan profanity while Ryan Gregorio’s would just be a feed full of clichés. Chot Reyes’ Twitter feed would be about fashion and style.

Well, my wish took another step closer to reality, with Talk N Text coach Chot Reyes joining the Twitter bandwagon (@coachot) a couple of days ago. There are no fashion tips there (at least, not yet), but there’s already interesting stuff from the loquacious coach, including his feelings about parting with sharpshooter Renren Ritualo, who was included in the recent blockbuster trade between his team and Air 21.

Continue reading "Coach Chot Reyes takes his basketball knowledge, fashion sense to Twitter"

Charlie Cuna has an interesting piece catching up with Poch Juinio, whom most fans remember as the starting center for Alaska’s champion teams in the ‘90s. Prior to that, Juinio starred for a woeful UP Fighting Maroons squad a few years removed from the glory years of Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc.

Continue reading "Fighting Maroons, rewind"