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Purefoods sweeps Alaska to win the 2010 Philippine Cup

Posted by Jaemark Tordecilla on March 3, 2010 at 23:50 | Comments (42)

Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio probably believes in it enough to mention that his team was playing on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the year, and 33 was coincidentally the number of Eugene Tejada, the former Purefoods forward who was paralyzed in a freak accident during a game four years ago. The players had dedicated the rest of the conference to their fallen comrade, and they won the Philippine Cup championship that year too.

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Tags: Alaska Aces, B-MEG Derby Ace Llamados / Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants, Basketball, James Yap, Kerby Raymundo, LA Tenorio, Philippine Basketball Association, Ryan "The Genius" Gregorio, Willie Miller

Purefoods finds ways to win, takes 3-0 lead over Alaska

Posted by Jaemark Tordecilla on March 1, 2010 at 16:32 | Comments (17)

To the naked eye, the last two games of the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup finals series between Purefoods and Alaska have been pretty much alike. They have been low-scoring games, with Purefoods pulling out the win at the last possessions.

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Tags: Alaska Aces, B-MEG Derby Ace Llamados / Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants, Basketball, James Yap, Kerby Raymundo, LA Tenorio, Marc Pingris, Philippine Basketball Association, Willie Miller

Purefoods-Alaska game 1, in numbers

Posted by Jaemark Tordecilla on February 25, 2010 at 20:39 | Comments (13)

At the start of most PBA games, some announcer (usually Quinito Henson) would throw out some meaningless statistic like “If Purefoods holds Alaska down to less than 85 points, they’ll probably win the ballgame.” I keep waiting for them to say something like “If Purefoods holds Alaska to fewer points, they’ll probably win.” Yeah, and if they do it four times, they’ll win the series.

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Tags: B-MEG Derby Ace Llamados / Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants, Basketball, James Yap, LA Tenorio, Marc Pingris, Philippine Basketball Association, Willie Miller

On Alaska

Posted by Jaemark Tordecilla on February 23, 2010 at 19:42 | Comments (7)

Alaska is perhaps the most Internet-savvy organization in the PBA. Its coach, Tim Cone, has been holding court on Twitter for several months now, sharing invaluable basketball knowledge to fans. We had this initial exchange a few months ago.

Me: “I hope you do continue with your candid tweets, coach. I’m sure everyone appreciates it. You’re almost turning me into an Alaska fan. Too bad I’m dyed in the wool for Purefoods. Heck, I’m still bitter about the ’96 All-Filipino.”

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Tags: Alaska Aces, B-MEG Derby Ace Llamados / Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants, Basketball, James Yap, LA Tenorio, Philippine Basketball League, Rafe Bartholomew, Willie Miller

An SMB fan speaks

Posted by tiger on February 21, 2010 at 16:12 | Comments (23)

Editor's Note: This guest post comes for Tiger Gimenez, a self-confessed San Miguel fanatic. I figured we needed a voice from the San Miguel side of things to balance things here at the blog. I had no idea he would go Tony Atayde on San Miguel management. Enjoy!

I am a San Miguel fan who wrote to Fire Quinito after the Alaska trade article, hoping to see a follow-up focusing on San Miguel. I was surprised when Jaemark asked if maybe I could do it instead since, according to him, I was “in a better position to give color to San Miguel’s trades over the years.” I think he also wanted it to come from someone who’s an SMB fan and not from someone who’s a huge Purefoods supporter like him, especially now with the hotly contested semi-final battle between both teams currently ongoing (I think it goes 7 games). Now even though I'm a HUGE SMB fanatic (ever since Ramon Fernandez came over), I’ve always been a very critical one – my family laughs at me because I shout advice and invectives at the SMB players and coaches on TV whenever they play – and I wanted to do a breakdown and analysis of all their recent bonehead moves.

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Tags: Alaska Aces, Arwind Santos, Ateneo Blue Eagles, B-MEG Derby Ace Llamados / Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants, Basketball, LA Tenorio, Philippine Basketball Association, San Miguel Beermen

The wacky moves of Alaska

Posted by Jaemark Tordecilla on February 16, 2010 at 13:54 | Comments (49)

While the heated semifinals battle in the PBA Philippine Cup rages on, Alaska quietly made a move to bolster its frontline by plucking little-used Samigue Eman from San Miguel’s reserve list. While the center wouldn’t be able to suit up for the Aces until the next conference, the foxiness of the move wasn’t lost on basketball fans that saw the center play in the PBL, before he got injured prior to joining the PBA draft.

In Eman, Alaska gets a young center who boasts not just untapped potential, but who showed surprising athleticism and a nasty edge during his PBL days with Welcoat/Rain or Shine. Alaska team manager Joaqui Trillo compares Eman favorably with Alaska’s all-star center Sonny Thoss.

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