The Interbasket forum for Philippine basketball is home to some of the most passionate local basketball fans, particularly of the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Basketball Team. Because of the rabid fandom of its members, the message board has attracted the attention of basketball insiders, including officials of the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP), the country’s national basketball federation.

One such personality identifies himself only by the handle Namamangha, and is acknowledged by everyone to be an official of the SBP. Oddly, the past couple weeks, Namamangha started badmouthing Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman in the forums:

Continue reading "SBP official badmouths Coach Rajko Toroman online, as Smart Gilas descends into heavy turmoil"

Philippine basketball sports has started to develop a small but vibrant community on Twitter, and Fire Quinito rounds up the best messages from athletes, broadcasters, and fans, in 140 characters or less.

Continue reading "The Sweetest Tweets, featuring Chris Tiu, broadcasters, and fans"

A couple of weeks ago, Howie Severino contacted me to talk about basketball. His i-Witness team had started reading Rafe Bartholomew’s Pacific Rims, and it inspired them to do a basketball documentary. They were playing around with the idea of featuring James Yap, particularly to show a side of him beyond being Kris Aquino’s controversial husband. Howie had also read my recent blog entries about James Yap, and his interest was piqued by James Yap’s amazing performance despite his marital woes. The only concern was that James might not be so forthcoming, because of all the controversies surrounding him.

Continue reading "Airing tonight: Howie Severino’s i-Witness documentary featuring James Yap and Philippine basketball"

It’s a common chorus that people from UP do not care about basketball, which is not exactly accurate. The school has had tremendous contributions to Philippine basketball the past few years, despite the lack of success of the Fighting Maroons due to a lack of star players. Consider: 3 of the 10 coaching positions in the Philippine Basketball Association are occupied by UP alumni. That’s 30 percent of the most coveted jobs in the country, considering that every guy who watches PBA basketball wants to be the fucking coach of his favorite PBA team, and he’d gladly tell you why if you check out his posts in your favorite Internet basketball forum.

Continue reading "The UP Fighting Maroons have their own coaching mess"

From his latest mailbag:

I figured out why the LeBron/Wade alliance bothers everyone beyond the irrefutable "Jordan would have wanted to beat Wade, not play with him" argument.

Continue reading "Simmons nails the LeBron/Wade issue right on the head"

Philippine basketball has started to develop a small but vibrant community on Twitter. The Sweetest Tweets is a round-up of the best messages, in 140 characters or less.

Continue reading "The Sweetest Tweets supersized, featuring Rod Nealy’s farewell, the Jones Cup, fashion advice from Chot Reyes, and much more"

After my trip to Thailand last week, I went straight to Boracay to catch up with my buddies for a quick vacation. Obligatory player sighting story: I saw Renren Ritualo a couple of times around the island, the second time, he was with his wife walking at D’Mall just past the booth where they have the basketball shooting machine. The guys at the booth were calling out to him to try out the shooting game, but he ignored them. I kinda wish he took them up on it; I would have loved to see Renren laying waste to the D’Mall basketball shooting game record.

Continue reading "Back from the dead bullets, starring Renren Ritualo, UAAP presidential contributors, Chot Reyes, Norman Black, and Cyrus Baguio"

Just a quick advisory: Updates will be light this week because I’m in Thailand right now because of the day job. Other people would take an opportunity like this to enjoy and explore a new country and culture – and I probably will – but it’s killing me that, being in another country, I can’t watch the PBA, the Jones Cup, and the college leagues this week. I’m the type of schmuck who goes to Boracay and stays in his hotel room to watch Purefoods games. Some people would say I need help. Look at me, blogging from my hotel room.

Continue reading "Checking in from Thailand, and a quick Congressman Pacquiao story"

Thumbs down to the UP Fighting Maroons, who lured their fans into getting their hopes up with an improved team featuring rookie Fil-Am Mike Silungan, whom Coach Aboy Castro described as a cross between James Yap and Dondon Hontiveros. True to form, they got plastered by La Salle. They should just go ahead and change their name to the UP Sucking Maroons.

Read my report on the UAAP Season 73 opening weekend over at FHM.

Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh will all be playing for the NWO, este, the Miami Heat

Continue reading "LeBron James turns heel"