I got this email from Coach Eric Altamirano last Monday, and I figured that readers of this blog would be interested to hear updates from him on the preparations of the youth program for the upcoming Fiba-Asia U-18 championships in September.

Hi Jaemark,

Congratulations on your sports blog. My apologies for not acknowledging any sooner your kind remarks last December about what we are doing with the youth basketball program of the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas.

As you have already mentioned, the Nokia U-16 team placed fourth in the Fiba U-16 championship. We were a game short of a medal, but I think this should not take anything away from what we have achieved with the team in a matter of months. We were able to get enough seasoning the players through a camp in Australia and sharpen their fundamentals through the Nike Elite Camp. We might not have achieved this without the support of TAO Corporation (the largest distributor of Nokia phones in RP) and Nokia Philippines.

You might be familiar with the names in that lineup like Kiefer Ravena, Jeron Teng, Paolo Romero, Cedric Labing-Isa, Mike Tolomia, Kevin Ferrer, Roldan Sara, Von Pessumal, Gelo Alolino, Jeoffrey Javillonar, Nestor Bantayan and Michael Pate. Their names might not ring much for now, except for Ravena and Teng, but I’m sure that international experience has worked wonders to their game as they move up the basketball ladder.

This time, I am forming the Nokia U-18 team (with hopefully majority of the Nokia U-16 players) for the Fiba-Asia U-18 championships in September. There’s also the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (August) in which the Philippines was given a wildcard slot based on our minor achievement in Johor Bahru.

Admittedly, things are even more difficult in U-18. If U-16 players are practically boys, the U-18 players are close to being grown men. While speed and teamwork helped us (we needed to go full court in our offensive sets to offset our lack of height) in the U-18, we might need to add a few more inches to our frontcourt to match up with big men from other countries. That is why I am still in the lookout for tall Filipino players locally or foreign players of Filipino descent in this age group to help us in this regard. I even joked in Johor Bahru that we might need a pill to make our players grow taller.

I couldn’t agree with you more on the fact the most big time players come from the provinces. And for this, I thank the SBP, Tao and Nokia Philippines for helping me out in establishing the Nokia National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) D-League. It’s not your garden-variety league in which the end-all is always winning the title. We come up with unified training programs for the 108 teams and also for the coaches. I believe that in a few years time, we might see more fundamentally-sound players and coaches through this technology transfer during the Nokia NBTC D-League. It is rewarding that the provinces have acknowledged the importance of the Nokia NBTC D-League as a feeder program for leagues like the UAAP, NCAA, PBA, PBL and Liga. Having more fundamentally-sound players in the future is definitely a win-win for everyone who loves basketball.

Thanks for being a believer.

Anyone out there know a tall Fil-Am prospect who’s under 18 years old?

It was an interesting night, to say the least. After all, it’s not every day that one gets to hang out and shoot the breeze with the head coach of one’s favorite sports teams. I took advantage of the situation by conducting a no-holds-barred interview with my coaching idol and favorite, Ryan ‘The Genius’ Gregorio of Purefoods. I think it was different from his usual TV interviews, where he gives cliché answers:



PBA super-expert (and fellow Pisay alumnus) Fidel Mangonon organized the get-together, and Patricia Hizon was also on hand because, well, she’s awesome. (Check out her tweets and pictures from the evening.) The conversation was lively and interesting for most of the night, but I think Fidel and Patricia got a little bored when Coach Ryan and I got too into our geeky Purefoods- and UP Fighting Maroons-centric discussions. Most of the things we talked about were off-limits, but we were able to discuss, among other things, Jerry Codinera, James Yap, Marc Pingris, Paul Artadi, the coaching staff, and a bunch of players that Purefoods traded away.

But perhaps my favorite story (that I could tell) from the meet-up came at the end of the evening, when Coach Ryan related how he became a basketball addict. Apparently, his father, former UP Vice President for Administration Martin Gregorio, was a die-hard fan of Tanduay, even before the Elizalde franchise became a glamour team in the PBA. His dad would take the Gregorio boys out to the games, and make a deal with his kids: they could get seats at the upper box section of the venue, or they could go seat at the general admission section and go to Jollibee afterwards. Of course, the boys usually chose the bleacher seat and the Jollibee treat.

Today, almost a lifetime later, three Gregorio boys are all involved in basketball, with Ryan coaching Purefoods, Allan working as an assistant for Smart Gilas, and Patrick being head of Smart Sports. I’m sure their father would have been proud with his sons anyway even if they hadn’t gotten into the game, but man, it must be a really cool feeling for a lifelong basketball fan like Martin Gregorio.

Last Friday, Bloomberg reported that Kirin was looking into the possibility of raising its stake in San Miguel Brewery. The Japanese beer giant already owns 48% of the company, with San Miguel Corporation owning 51%.

An increase in stake would almost certainly give Kirin control of San Miguel Brewery’s operations, which include significant inroads into the growing Southeast Asian market that the former covets. However, any deal for the Brewery would certainly come at a premium, but if Kirin is willing to dance, San Miguel Corporation might be willing to listen. After all, the Danding Cojuangco-chaired conglomerate has been actively seeking to diversify into high-growth, capital-intensive businesses over the last couple of years. Just this month, San Miguel has been reported to be included in deals involving a power plant in Mindanao, a major expressway from Manila to Tuguegarao, and an MRT project from Manila to Bulacan.

It would be hard to imagine San Miguel Corporation giving up control of its flagship brand, but stranger things have happened in the world of business. The conglomerate, in fact, has been quite active in major transactions involving large food and beverage businesses in the country. In 1998, San Miguel sold its stake in its ice cream and dairy business to erstwhile joint venture partner Nestle, which led to Magnolia ice cream being off the market for five years. In 2001, San Miguel bought the Purefoods business from the Ayala Corporation, which was looking to raise funds to finance capital expenditure for its Globe Telecom business. In 2007, San Miguel sold its stake in the local Coke business to the Coca-Cola Company, effectively ending a partnership that dates back to 1927.

Curiously, the last two transactions directly involved PBA ballclubs. It remains to be seen how this potential transaction would affect the status of the San Miguel team, who enjoy a prominent spot in the company’s culture owing to Cojuangco’s love of the sport; the Brewery’s corporate website, in fact, reserves a prominent spot for the Beermen. Will the San Miguel Corporation retain control of the Beermen even if it no longer controls the Brewery? Will the PBA franchise be re-assigned to another San Miguel subsidiary, that is, welcome back, Magnolia Beverage Masters? Or will Kirin take control of not just the Brewery, but the team as well?

Sometimes, I forget that this blog isn’t even a year old, and already so many weird things have happened. Perhaps the biggest highlight came last Wednesday night, when Coach Ryan Gregorio, mere minutes after leading his Purefoods squad to a sweep over Alaska in the Philippine Cup finals, took a moment to record a message to this blog, courtesy of the always-awesome Patricia Hizon.



“Well, thank you for lighting up my emotions. I do appreciate you, in spite of, because I know you’re an avid Purefoods supporter, and you are as frustrated and disappointed as I am when I was losing. But you had the only time to articulate it. But we can be friends! You can be an ally! And I get a three-year reprieve, thank you very much! I’ll invite you over to my practices, and let’s see how we can get things done, and probably we can work together. Thank you very much!”

My original post about the wager on Coach Ryan generated – by far – the most enthusiastic response to any single topic on this site. Even on Twitter, over the course of the series, everyone kept asking me about the bet. It made watching my favorite team even more fun for me, and I hope it did the same for everyone else.

All the credit in the world should go to Coach Ryan for being a great sport. People keep asking me if I am going to keep my promise, well, of course I am. At this point, it’s not like it’s going to be tough; he has led Purefoods to two Philippine Cup titles and three Philippine Cup finals appearances over the last five years. The man will go down in the PBA record books as a winner. I’m sure all other Purefoods fans out there feel the same way.

The buzz is that after winning the Philippine Cup championship, Purefoods will be changing its name to promote the company’s B-Meg line of animal feeds. An NBN Sports report said that the new name will be the ‘Derby Ace Llamados’ after B-Meg’s gamefowl feeds brand. I don’t mind the Derby Ace name, but do they really have to pander so shamefully to the lo-diyes crowd with the Llamados nickname? Why not the Derby Ace Slashers, which is way cooler?

Then again, the team is already currently nicknamed the ‘Tender Juicy Giants’ which has to be one of the most awful (and frankly, kinda gay) nicknames in the history of basketball, so rooting for the Llamados wouldn’t be so bad, right? Also it could’ve been worse, as the team could’ve been named after hog pellets or tilapia feeds. Or chick boosters.

Still, part of me thinks that this is San Miguel Corporation management’s punishment for Purefoods for kicking San Miguel’s ass in the semifinals.

Anyway, a lot of interesting stuff around the Internet after Purefoods’ masterful victory over the Alaska Aces last night.

• You should all start checking out IV Point Play, an impressive new Pinoy sports blog by Polo Bustamante and Carlo Araneta. The guys also produce a pretty entertaining podcast called ‘From the Stands’ (episode 4 was particularly good). Both guys behind the blog are Alaska fans, so I enjoyed their analysis of how Purefoods won: “So the Purefoods TJ Giants are kings of the Philippine Basketball world, and they totally deserve it, while Alaska, for the second straight year, is left searching for what prevents them from taking the next step forward. Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.”


• Jude Turcuato attended the game live last night, and raved about the King of the PBA, James Yap: “A smooth operator, he doesn't get too excited or too down. He is like a well oiled machine built to play on the court and get the job done. He is the best offensive player in the PBA right now and it seems his defense is catching up as well. You can tell that although he doesn’t talk much, his teammates rely on him to lead them and James embraces the responsibility. James is a player who has the fans holding their breath in anticipation whenever he has the ball. Very few have that ability.”
  
  There’s also this interesting note on Jude’s discussion with Coach Ryan before the team drafted Yap in 2004: “When Coach Ryan told me that James is the best player in the draft, I thought he was in one of his hyperbolic raves again. I worked with him in the UAAP panel and a little in the PBA and he did have a tendency to get over excited about basketball, which I think is great.”


• The last several games of Purefoods are available on Bit Torrent at IP Mart. You can download using the using these credentials – username: tjgiants2010/password: tjgiants. As always, with these things, kindly seed.


• Finally, Ginebra fans taking on Alaska with a little help from the April Boys: