I spent the past couple of days back at my family’s ancestral home in Middle of Nowhere, Iloilo to attend to some family matters, so I missed the second game of the Philippine Cup finals between Purefoods and Alaska. Quite serendipitously, I ran into Patricia Bermudez-Hizon and Vince ‘The Prince’ Hizon in the airport just before my flight back to Manila, and they filled me on what happened in game 2.

Back at home a couple of hours later, I watched video of referee Maui Maurillo calling a bailout foul on Alaska’s Joe Devance while defending Kerby Raymundo’s desperation jumper with 1.7 seconds left.



That call was bullshit. Complete, utter bullshit.

I hate the call as a Purefoods fan – and, if I may, a prominent enough fan for the team’s coach to feel the need to address my comments – because I don’t want to win half as much as I want to win the right way. The controversy of this call undermines all the efforts of my team, from James Yap’s game-long brilliance (32 points on 20 shots), to Kerby Raymundo’s clutch hit, to the excellent work by the Purefoods coaching staff in preparing the team for Alaska’s adjustments after game 1.

After the game, Alaska team manager Joaqui Trillo said, “I don’t think Purefoods was happy with the win. I think they would have wanted to earn the win instead of it being given to them on a silver platter.” I’m not too sure about the Purefoods team, but this Purefoods fan completely feels that way.

Now the only thing people will remember about this game will be Maurillo’s bullshit call, instead of the Purefoods furious rally at the end of the game. The only video people will be watching from the game will be that last play, instead of excellent James Yap sequence that Dre Gonzales described, “James Yap just hit the shot of the year. An alley oop caught with one hand and with one motion laid it up with a finger roll.” It sounds like a highlight for the ages, and I don’t know if it will ever see the light of YouTube.

I hate the call as an admirer of the Alaska basketball organization. I could only imagine how the whole team feels today, but I’m sure that the Alaska brain trust is trying their best to get the team to move forward and not feel too sorry for themselves. As Francis Ochoa deftly points out, Alaska has taken the high road in their response to the incident.

I hope they come out fighting today, and give their fans a good effort. Fans like Steve Racelis, who apparently suffered a heart attack at the end of the game and underwent brain surgery yesterday.

I hate the call, most of all, as a PBA fan. My favorite kind of feedback is from people who tell me that they haven’t been watching the PBA, but have done so again because of stuff I’d been writing, and they’re always surprised by how great it is. This is the best Philippine basketball has to offer, the game Rafe Bartholomew passionately raves about, most recently in FreeDarko.

Maurillo’s bullshit call undermines my case. Over the course of this tournament, there has been a lot of righteous indignation over the Wynne Arboleda incident and the Talk N Text walkout, and in each instance, the offending party were assessed heavy penalties.

This is almost as bad, because it robs fans of the opportunity to witness two great teams duking it out for the win. Hell, I’m a Purefoods fan, and my team got the win, and I’m pissed off about Maurillo’s stupid call. I don’t see any reason why significant penalties shouldn’t be assessed by the PBA on Maurillo, who also happened to work the Talk N Text walkout game.

Think about how big a stage the PBA finals is, and how much money the PBA will lose from fans turned off by this bullshit call. If this were any other industry, Maurillo would be fired by now.