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.


I sincerely hope everything turns out alright with CJ Giles and his kid. The guy’s got a lot of baggage, as I posted before, mostly because he’s made terrible decisions. In fact, he was sued by the mother of his son for failure to pay child support, which caused his first suspension from his college team, the Kansas University Jayhawks. He was later cut from the team after a battery charge, and transferred to Oregon State, where he got kicked off the team again. He’s hung around the NBA training camps and the D-League, but his stint with Gilas is his first chance to have security and stability in his life.

It’d be interesting to see how this issue plays out, and if it would throw a wrench into the preparations of Smart Gilas to compete for a spot in the 2012 Olympics. As Jude Turcuato points out, the team doesn’t have much of a chance of competing without Giles. All of a sudden, Gilas’ Serbian coach Rajko Toroman doesn’t look like such a genius without an NBA-caliber talent playing the center spot for his team.

UPDATES:

Weird update on the issue by Alex Magno, este, Rick Olivares. He does point to the story of the ailment of CJ’s son as the reason for why the import’s head was not on straight during the game, but he also reveals that there were concerns about Giles enjoying the Manila night life too much. Olivares hints that it might be Giles’ last game with the team.

Also, Chris Tiu, who missed the game with a minor injury, blogged about the tactics that Talk N Text coach Chot Reyes unveiled against the Nationals, specifically the gimmick defense that flustered Smart Gilas. I’ve seen the scheme, wherein the defending team starts out in a man-to-man before falling back to a zone after the play is initiated, used once in the PBA, in a memorable 2006 game between Purefoods and Ginebra; Purefoods went into a zone as soon as Jayjay Helterbrand made a pass to the wing and cut down the middle. Ironically, just a few days ago, Ginebra used a junk zone against Purefoods. Perhaps even basketball mastermind Rajko Toroman also has a thing or two to learn from the local coaches.