On Twitter last night, I wrote that Ginebra’s win over Smart Gilas last night to advance to the finals followed the template of Gary Granada’s (and Bayang Barrios’) original song about the team, “Pag Nananalo Ang Ginebra”. The team trailed in the first half as their fans slowly fell into the grips of despair:

Ngunit ang aga nilang nagkalat,
bawat diskarte nasisisilat
Nagkasundo kaming magkakampi
na ang labo kasi ng referee
Ang barangay parang napeste,
natambakan agad kami ng bente
Parang bansa'y nagkaleche-leche,
at nareelect ang president

Continue reading "Ginebrang Ginebra"

I had wanted to blog about this earlier, but there were more, uh, pressing matters to blog about. Over the weekend, Lawrence Chongson, former coach of the University of the East Red Warriors in the UAAP and current coach of Cobra in the PBA D-League, joined the fray in the popular message board community Pinoy Exchange and began answering questions from its readers.

Answers that involved such topics as UE star Ken Acibar, and the coach’s long, flowing locks:

good morning guys. to answer ur questions for today: #1 yes. Acibar will stil play for d university, unless tanggalin din sya. #2 never pa ako nagapapa-rebond ng buhok in my entire life. if u wud only come closer to me then u'll see. noon pa man pati mga girls nai-inggit sa hair ko kasi straight daw. maybe its my chinese genes, i don't know. at my age hndi na ako masyadong conscious sa ganyan. kung alam mo lang how much hair i've lost or nalalagas sakin since i started coaching UE. syempre super-pressured diba? lalo na kung alam mong marami ang babatikos everytime matatalo ang team.

Continue reading "Former UE coach Lawrence Chongson lets his hair down at PinoyExchange.com"

This blog turns two years old today, so let me take this opportunity to celebrate this blog’s modest achievements.

Over the past couple of years, the level of discourse about sports in this country has deepened and broadened, and I’m proud to say that Fire Quinito has had a little to do with that, even though the posts here aren’t always polite or in good taste.

Continue reading "FQ turns two"

The usual suspects Polo Bustamante, and Carlo Pamintuan were unavailable last night, so I stepped in for a one-on-one podcast with Chuck Araneta in the latest episode of the From the Stands podcast. After briefly eulogizing the B-MEG Derby Ace campaign in the Commissioner's Cup and talking about the controversial Alaska-Air 21 match-up, we broke down the quarterfinals matchups: Air 21 vs Alaska and Ginebra vs Rain or Shine, and how the teams stack up against top seeds Talk N Text and Smart Gilas.

For this week's Old School vs New School, we compare two of the PBA's greatest shooting guards: Jojo Lastimosa and Mark Caguioa, whose fans argue that each guy is the greatest player never to win the MVP award.

Continue reading "From the Stands: Handicapping the PBA quarters, Jojo Lastimosa vs Mark Caguioa"

In 2007, after Noli Eala was forced to resign by the Philippine Basketball Association as commissioner due to his disbarment, two candidates were up for the position: former telecommunications executive Lambert Ramos and lawyer Chito Salud. Neither man had enough votes to be appointed commissioner; San Miguel, Ginebra, Coke, Welcoat, and Red Bull – the SMC bloc – voted for Salud, while Air 21, Alaska, Sta. Lucia, and Talk N Text – the MVP bloc – voted for Ramos.

However, each man needed six out of the nine votes (voting rights haven’t been restored to Purefoods at the time) to be appointed commissioner. Unable to break the deadlock, the board decided to appoint Renauld “Sonny” Barrios, who at the time was OIC of the PBA, to the commissionership full time.

Continue reading "The curious politics of Sonny Barrios’ appointment as SBP executive director"