After a crazy quarterfinal round, the stage is set for the PBA Philippine Cup final four. The cast features 3 teams that belong to the San Miguel Corporation, which again reinforces perceptions by the league’s critics that the PBA is an SMC league. Some even say that the PBA is set up so that SMC teams would always end up on the winning end of most tournaments.

The grand conspiracy argument doesn’t hold much water. If it were true, there’s no way Sta. Lucia would have won the 2008 Philippine Cup over Purefoods in a close seven-game series wherein James Yap was suspended for one game for the same flagrant 2 penalty called on Ranidel de Ocampo last Friday. Imagine David Stern suspending Kobe Bryant on an iffy call in an NBA finals series against a team like the Milwaukee Bucks.

That doesn’t mean to say that SMC teams do not have an advantage. The PBA landscape today gives the rich teams a leg up when it comes to acquiring talent, and each of the SMC teams have taken advantage to build up its arsenal.

By my count, Ginebra, Purefoods, and San Miguel have acquired a total of 19 players through lopsided trades over the past 5 PBA seasons. The trend started prior to the 2006-07 season, when Ginebra and San Miguel ransacked the roster of erstwhile sister team Coca-Cola just before the corporation let go of the franchise. Over the next several years, each SMC team found more willing partners in Red Bull and Air 21 who would let go of their star players for a song.

	Acquired by	From	Season	Notes
Marc Pingris	Purefoods	Air 21	2005-06	Traded to San Miguel for Enrico Villanueva in 2008, acquired back by Purefoods in 2009
Rudy Hatfield	Ginebra	Coke	2006-07	Went off the deep end after leading Ginebra to a Philippine Cup championship
Billy Mamaril	Ginebra	Coke	2006-07
Rafi Reavis	Ginebra	Coke	2006-07	Traded to Purefoods in 2009
Ronald Tubid	Ginebra	Air 21	2006-07
Lordy Tugade	San Miguel	Red Bull	2006-07
Enrico Villanueva	San Miguel	Red Bull	2007-08	Traded to Purefoods in 2008, traded to Ginebra in 2009
Larry Fonacier	San Miguel	Red Bull	2007-08	Traded to Alaska in 2008
Junthy Valenzuela	Ginebra	Red Bull	2007-08
Mick Pennisi	San Miguel	Red Bull	2008-09
Rich Alvarez	Purefoods	Red Bull	2008-09	Traded to Ginebra in 2009
Cyrus Baguio	Ginebra	Air 21/BK	2008-09
JC Intal	Ginebra	Air 21/BK	2008-09
Doug Kramer	Ginebra	Air 21/BK	2008-09
Homer Se	Ginebra	Air 21/BK	2008-09
Don Allado	Purefoods	Air 21/BK	2008-09
Celino Cruz	Purefoods	Air 21/BK	2008-09	Traded to Ginebra in 2009
KG Canaleta	Purefoods	Air 21/BK	2008-09
Arwind Santos	San Miguel	Air 21/BK	2009-10

The data does not reflect the indirect benefits of one SMC team acquiring new star players to its sister teams. For example, San Miguel benefitted when Ginebra acquired Hatfield, Mamaril, and Reavis from Coke, because it opened the door for the Beermen to trade for Ginebra’s Rommel Adducul, who had become expendable. When San Miguel acquired Villanueva, Adducul was shipped to Purefoods. Pingris found his way back to Purefoods from San Miguel this season after the arrival of Santos to the Beermen’s camp.

I also did not include in the table the first round draft picks acquired by the Beermen from Coke during the ransacking. San Miguel used the second overall pick in 2007 to draft Samigue Eman, and the third pick in the 2008 draft to trade for Jay Washington. These were non-trivial assets.

Of course, it’s not just the SMC teams doing this. Talk N Text has been just as brazen about stockpiling talent over the past several years. Another rich franchise, Coca-Cola, seems to be going in that direction.

Meanwhile, the Photokina (Red Bull/Barako Bull) and Lina (Air 21/Burger King) franchises have had no scruples about letting their players go to the highest bidders. Sta. Lucia, a franchise beset by financial difficulty, might be going down the same path. In the PBA board, only Alaska and Rain or Shine might be inclined to pursue changes to the system, and even then they are vastly outnumbered.

There hasn’t been nearly enough outrage from the fans. I tried to incite outrage when Burger King sold off Santos to San Miguel, but it was met by general apathy. The Filipino basketball fan’s mindset is rarely about playing fair, and mostly about getting an advantage at any cost. It runs true from college basketball – seriously, check out the message board discussions on high school prospects by fans of elite schools – up to the pros. Hell, think about how Smart Gilas fans wanted Japeth Aguilar on the team, at any cost, relationships be damned.

We want our teams to cut every corner to get the best players. Should it come as any surprise when they do exactly that?

The Burger King Whoppers and the Coca-Cola Tigers opened 2010 with a major trade, swapping starters Gary David and Alex Cabagnot while throwing in Chico Lanete and Wesley Gonzales into the transaction as the French fries in the value meal.

It’s an interesting trade, and on paper, should improve both teams. The Whoppers needed a point guard not named ‘Chico Lanete’ to start for them after losing Wynne Arboleda for the season, while the Tigers didn’t have anyone who can create plays at the wing position for them. David is an elite scorer and Cabagnot is a solid point guard. On the other hand, Lanete and Gonzales are serviceable members of the rotation as long as they don’t play too many minutes.

Knowing all that, I don’t how well the trade would work out for either team. As good as David is, he’s virtually allergic to passing the ball; he makes Jojo Lastimosa look like Mother Teresa on the court. When David gets his dribble stopped on the way to the basket and he’s forced to make an entry pass into the post to Beau Belga, he looks like someone who just threw up a little in the mouth. He’ll be bringing in less order to the already chaotic Coca-Cola offense.

On the bright side, the transfer of Cabagnot would free up minutes for rookie Chris Ross, the PBA draft’s third overall pick, to show what he can do. Hopefully, he’ll play better with the added minutes; otherwise, Coca-Cola will be stuck with Lanete and Marvin Cruz running their offense. Talk about a clusterfuck.

Burger King will be getting a player who puts up solid numbers with Cabagnot, who also doubles as a pretty good defender. Cabagnot is in his fifth season in the PBA, and while he’s consistently produced as a starter with Sta. Lucia and Coke, his teams have never made it to the semis throughout his career. It makes me wonder if maybe you just can’t win in the PBA when Cabagnot is your starting point guard.

Then again, I can’t imagine a better system for him to play in than Yeng Guiao’s, who will love his size and defense, and who will give him a lot of freedom to attack on offense.

Wondering if a lefty scoring point guard can emerge under Guiao’s tutelage? I have two words for you: Paolo Hubalde.

How’s everyone doing? Sorry about the lack of updates. Last week, my laptop’s monitor conked out on me just before the long weekend. I was still able to do a little work by hooking up the laptop to my TV, but I couldn’t get any extended writing. I got the laptop fixed earlier this week, but then other stuff got in the way, so yeah, no updates.

Anyway, here’s some stuff I’d been meaning to pass along the past few days:

• During my review of Rebound magazine last month, I mentioned that perhaps the guys behind the magazine should consider hiring good writers who do not necessarily write about sports all the time to write about basketball. It’s the kind of stuff that happens all the time in the blogosphere, and I was reminded of this point while reading Maverick’s blog. He’s a diplomat assigned in Libya, and he’s got one of the best blogs around, bar none. I first came across his blog when he wrote an excellent post about Alaska’s 1996 grand slam, and he’s been writing occasionally about sports: basketball tournaments in Libya’s Filipino community, the PBA’s decision to render the Smart Gilas games no-bearing, and the ensuing catfight between Burger King coach Yeng Guiao and SBP executive director Noli Eala (broken down Dr. Jack-style).


• While everyone in the sports blogosphere thinks that changing the rules in the middle of the game for the Gilas boys is bad, Tim Cone actually likes it, according to Rey Joble’s latest post. Cone is, apparently, not too keen about having the national team playing in the PBA, citing his own experiences with 1998’s centennial team: “We played in an import-flavored conference. It was a bad experience and was not a big help for our campaign.”


• I always enjoy Patay ang Butiki’s weekly PBA power rankings. Last week, for example, we found out that, even adjusted for pace, Alaska had the best offense while Talk N Text had the best defense. This week, they point out that Purefoods has been playing terrible defense, and wonder why this is so, despite the presence of supposed stoppers on the team. It’s really because of piss-poor coaching; the reason they lost to Coke was because they couldn’t figure out their rotations on the pick-and-roll. Norman Gonzales got open looks over and over again because his guy would always rotate to the roller, only no one would cover for the defender. I could do a whole post breaking this down, but I might end up stabbing myself in the neck with a spoon.


• Rafe Bartholomew runs with Manny Pacquiao’s comment about wanting to be as big as George Foreman, and he dissects the Pac-Man’s hardcourt game. Also, check out his post from last January about Pacquiao’s participation in the Liga.


• Cocktales has a fun list of all the bigwigs and trust-fund babies in Philippine society who participated in the New York City marathon.


• I was saddened by Bill Walton’s retirement from broadcasting. This definitely has to one of the saddest moments in the history of Western civilization. My favorite Big Red moment was when he waxed poetic about Boris Diaw.


• Ok, this has nothing to do with sports, but remember a couple of weeks ago when I announced that I had a blog on FHM where I could basically write anything I wanted? Well, I wrote a thousand words about Jean-Claude Van Damme. And that’s just the first part. I go for another eight hundred words in the second.


• And just in case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s Manny Pacquiao’s seminal US late night talk show debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live:

Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Games and Amusements held a hearing to look into the Wynne Arboleda incident that happened during the Burger King-Smart Gilas game three weeks ago. The investigation delved into, among other things, the allegation by SBP executive director Noli Eala (and repeated by Smart Gilas loyalists) that Burger King coach Yeng Guiao had ordered Burger King players to rough up the developmental team players. The loyalists had taken a Twitter report by Patricia Hizon about Guiao’s pre-game speech instructing his team to “put them in their place” as evidence that the fiery coach wanted a hit out on the Gilas boys.

Except it wasn’t true, as Patricia herself attested to during the hearing, and that the statement was taken the wrong way by people with certain biases. There were NO directives for BK players to hurt anyone, according to her.

Here was Patricia’s original tweet of Guiao’s speech: “Malayo pa bago nila makuha spot niyo. Pero pakita niyo that this is your spot. Put them in their place and have pride.”

Now, it’s not hard to imagine Guiao instructing his players to play extra-physical against anyone; it’s part of the image he cultivates. But coaches do that all the time. Last season, Alaska coach Tim Cone threatened physical violence against Mac Cardona if the Talk N Text guard doesn’t stop his taunting. In the US, longtime Temple coach John Chaney was involved in a controversy after he instructed one of his bench players to take hard fouls against an opponent who subsequently got injured.

But what Yeng Guiao’s speech that afternoon betrays isn’t his guilt, but instead his extraordinary understanding of his players’ psyche. It shows why he’s been so successful in taking unheralded players and motivating them to play above themselves.

Consider this: there are only ten teams in the PBA, and each team only has 14 spots. At any one time, the maximum total number of active PBA players is only 140. Think about that number, and consider how many Filipinos play basketball, here and abroad. That number is miniscule and each spot is very precious.

Then take a look at the Burger King roster. They have two marquee scorers, Gary David and Ronjay Buenafe, neither of whom played in the elite collegiate leagues; playing for Lyceum and Emilio Aguinaldo College meant that they had to work doubly hard to get noticed and eventually get to where they are. Arboleda, often mocked for the fact that his father-in-law owns the team, had to take the long route to success. He lucked out in getting a spot for the Laguna Lakers after his college coach at MLQU was tapped to handle the team, and he parlayed that into PBA stints with Pop Cola and Tanduay. He actually made it to the PBA ahead of the Lina Group.

Beau Belga, Aaron Aban, and JR Quinahan were first-round draft picks whose original teams had given up on them. Richard Yee was unceremoniously cut from Purefoods despite spending ten years with the team. Chico Lanete, Mark Yee, and Egay Billones played for no-name collegiate programs, toiled in the commercial leagues, and went unsigned by professional teams before someone finally took a flyer on them. Carlo Sharma once thought that his PBA career was over after he was cut from Shell. Even rookie Ronnie Matias faced crazy odds, playing out of Philippine Maritime Institute (who knew they had a basketball team?) before having an excellent PBL career that led to him getting drafted this year. I got my Yeng Guiao rookies crossed, Larry Rodriguez played for PMI, while Ronne Matias played for the University of Manila Hawks. Matias joined Adamson in the UAAP, but I can't remember him seeing action for the Falcons. He's been around.

Each and every player on the team has worked very, very hard for a spot in the league. Some of these players probably feel that they’re only one step away from losing their spot; some of them almost did.

On the other side were Smart Gilas, a team composed of highly-touted collegiate stars. Most of their players were heavily recruited by the best college programs since high school, and those who weren’t, quickly gained prominence and following in the top two collegiate leagues. The most popular players on the team have starred in television commercials, and all of them have been signed to lucrative long-term contracts to play for the program. Without having proven anything yet, they have been handed the financial security and the popular acclaim that has been so elusive for Burger King players.

What Guiao did merely was to point out the situation to his players: these guys are here to take your hard-earned spot, put them in their place. So they did.

Wynne Arboleda played physical, dirty even. But the others guys on Burger King also put Gilas in their place. Ronjay Buenafe and Gary David kept torching Chris Tiu and JR Cawaling. Richard Yee outfoxed Japeth Aguilar. JR Quinahan abused Rabeh Al-Husseini. They showed that these young guys do not belong on the same court, especially when Gilas plays without an import. At least, not yet.

The Wynne Arboleda incident was indeed unfortunate, and SBP loyalists have taken it as an opportunity to go at Yeng Guiao again. Between those two things, we failed to see what the locker room pep talk really was when taken in context: a pretty good speech.

Last Sunday, with little fanfare about the night’s event, 13,000 fans trooped to the Araneta Coliseum to watch an early season game between Ginebra and Purefoods (and perhaps, the matchup between the returning Mark Caguioa and James Yap). They didn’t seem to mind the dark cloud looming over the league with the Wynne Arboleda incident, or the mushrooming negative sentiment all over the Internet against the league after Powerade Team Pilipinas’ debacle in the Fiba-Asia Championship.

The people who attended the game were treated to an exciting ball game by the league’s two most popular teams (a 2008 SWS survey found that Ginebra had the biggest following in Luzon, but fans from the Visayas and Mindanao preferred Purefoods). It was a fun, action-packed 48 minutes, with the players going hard and making big plays. Ginebra coach Jong Uichico masterfully lured Purefoods’ Ryan Gregorio into playing small-ball with a junk zone defense, neutralizing the Giants’ size advantage. Purefoods almost won anyway—does any other PBA team win in spite of its coach?—behind James Yap’s game-long brilliance and Peter June Simon’s balls of steel. But Ginebra came through, behind big plays from Jayjay Helterbrand, Willie Wilson (who had a career game outplaying Kerby Raymundo), and Ronald Tubid, who was just plain electric throughout the whole second half while hamming it up for the crowd.

It’s a popular chorus that the PBA is a dying league, for so many reasons. It usually comes from people who were never big fans of the league in the first place, or who haven’t been in a while, or who do not know what they’re talking about. A few months ago, I argued that the perception that PBA players play passionless ball (compared to, say, NBA players) is probably not true, or at least, fair. Last year, former Solar Sports executive Jude Turcuato pointed out that PBA viewership actually dwarfs that of the UAAP.

Last Sunday, the PBA was alive and well and beaming and vibrant. A friend of mine wrote about how her husband (a Ginebra fan) took their five-year old to the game, and the boy had a helluva time. It’s been a good opening week for the league, the Wynne incident notwithstanding.

Some more basketball related thoughts about the first week of the new season, after the jump.