During one of my first email exchanges with Manila Vanilla’s Rafe Bartholomew, when this blog was new, he cited as his favorite Quinito Henson moment a series of columns last year on ex-Sta Lucia import Lee Benson.

An ex-convict, Benson was part of an “inspiring” feature by Quinito titled “Against all odds”. Benson’s recovery, Quinito wrote: “If there’s anyone who knows what defying the odds is all about, it’s Benson.” Quinito then proceeded to detail how Benson managed to carve out a career as a professional basketball player despite serving 8 1/2 years in prison.

Less than two weeks later, Quinito had changed his tune. He called Benson the “worst headcase” ever among PBA imports, while transcribing the complaints of Benson’s erstwhile agent, Mike Gonzales, against the American.

Of course, because Benson was out of the country, it was open season for Quinito: “Things worsened when Benson had an altercation with a taxi driver whom he had contracted for three days to drive him around town two weeks ago. The scuttlebutt was on the third day, the driver missed Benson who got out of a nightclub very late and took another taxi to his apartment on Pioneer Street. The driver later went to the apartment and asked to be paid but Benson refused. The driver called for the police and Benson even wrestled a nightstick away from one of the responding officers.”

I’m mentioning this because, while the two-week turnaround time was extraordinary (and hilarious), the cycle of building them up and taking them down for imports is not uncommon for local sportswriters. In fact, just before the hiatus of this blog, it happened with Rick Olivares and former Smart Gilas import CJ Giles.

Last May, Olivares put out a puff piece on Giles, dramatically-titled “Soul Train: CJ Giles and the Road to Redemption.” Olivares described Giles as a terrific athlete with a fighting heart, and a positive guy who spends a lot of time in prayer.

I took him to task for it, pointing out how he basically ignored Giles’ inglorious record with his college teams; the import was suspended and then kicked out of the Kansas Jayhawks squad for various transgressions, before transferring to Oregon State, which was more of the same.

But those things didn’t make it into Olivares’ piece, of course, because it didn’t fit in with his narrative of how awesome the Smart Gilas program was, and how his buddy, SBP executive director Noli Eala, is such a genius for building it up. Olivares went on to write about how the SBP performed a background check on Giles, and found nothing amiss.

A few months later, Giles was reportedly booted out of the team for causing trouble. Funnily enough, it was Quinito who broke the news. Of course, as the unofficial spokesperson for the SBP, Olivares had to get his licks in. He wrote of Giles’s problems with Gilas coach Rajko Toroman: “Giles sorely tried Toroman’s patience. His late night escapades, while a little tolerable among some of the team’s management, was inexcusable for the Serb who preached discipline above all. When Giles’ younger brother Malcolm and then former college teammate at Oregon State, Wesley Washington, arrived in Manila, Giles would take them about town and would saunter back to his expensive condo unit in the wee hours of the morning. That affected his focus during practice and in one film viewing session on the eve of Gilas’ game versus Talk ‘n Text, the American fell asleep and Toroman finally blew his top.”

According to Olivares, it got even uglier, with Toroman suspecting that Giles was taking drugs. Olivares detailed Giles’s last days with the team: “Within days of his promising that he would be a changed man, in a drunken stupor, Giles beat up his younger brother that required several stitches. And after a practice where he seemed out of it, the team’s braintrust finally had enough. Giles was sent packing. It didn’t help that Giles didn’t pass the drug test. He nervously tried to stay away from it if not delay submitting urine samples. But once he did, he nervously muttered, ‘I’m going to fail this.’”

Incidentally, Olivares lists Quinito as a sportswriting idol. Figures.

(To be continued tomorrow.)