GMA News is reporting that the Air 21 Express is on the verge of trading Nonoy Baclao, Rabeh Al-Hussaini, and Rey Guevarra, the top three picks in the 2011 PBA draft, to San Miguel in exchange for the Beermen’s 2011 first round draft pick, Joseph Yeo, and the corpses of Danny Seigle and Mick Pennisi in yet another lopsided deal. Baclao led the PBA in shotblocks in the recently-concluded Philippine Cup, while Al-Hussaini led the Express in scoring and rebounding in the tournament.

Continue reading "Air 21 to send Baclao, Al-Hussaini, Guevarra to San Miguel, continues to ruin the PBA"

Veteran coach Yeng Guiao has left the Air 21 Express to join the Rain or Shine Elastopainters. The news was confirmed to GMANews.TV by current Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia, who will slide down to become Guiao’s deputy on the bench.

Continue reading "Yeng Guiao ends tumultuous run with Air 21, takes his talents to Rain or Shine"

GMANews.TV posted the fourth and fifth installment of my 7,000-word email exchange with Pacific Rims author and the new kilabot ng mga kolehiyala, Rafe Bartholomew. In part 4, we discuss a few more issues about Filipino-American players and get into it about the future of the Alaska Aces franchise. The emails were written a couple of months before Alaska’s championship, and Rafe expressed his doubts about the Cyrus Baguio-Willie Miller. I was higher on the trade than he was at the time, and I guess the next Philippine Cup will bear each of us out, without Diamon Simpson available for the Aces then.

Continue reading "On GMANews.TV: The future of Alaska and the ballad of Willie Thriller"

AFTER ITS semifinals series against Derby Ace, I thought San Miguel would have a very hard time in the finals going up against either Alaska or Talk N Text, who at the time were still to figure in a deciding seventh game in their own semifinals matchup. It had a lot to do with how San Miguel, the much fresher and deeper team, had so much trouble putting away a tired and overmatched Llamados squad whose import, Tony Washam, couldn’t even get a shot off Arwind Santos. That it took a superhuman effort for Gabe Freeman – who dominated Derby Ace’s injured big guys Rafi Reavis and Marc Pingris – for San Miguel to finally advance didn’t really inspire much confidence in me as a basketball observer.

Continue reading "Bel13ve! Alaska, the thinking fan’s team, wins championship #13 with heart"

After my trip to Thailand last week, I went straight to Boracay to catch up with my buddies for a quick vacation. Obligatory player sighting story: I saw Renren Ritualo a couple of times around the island, the second time, he was with his wife walking at D’Mall just past the booth where they have the basketball shooting machine. The guys at the booth were calling out to him to try out the shooting game, but he ignored them. I kinda wish he took them up on it; I would have loved to see Renren laying waste to the D’Mall basketball shooting game record.

Continue reading "Back from the dead bullets, starring Renren Ritualo, UAAP presidential contributors, Chot Reyes, Norman Black, and Cyrus Baguio"

Okay, programming advisory: the blog will be light on updates over the next couple of weeks because of the day job. Anyway, here’s some stuff I wanted to pass along:

Continue reading "Monday night bullets, featuring Smart Gilas, Unilab, Marlou Aquino, and Mon Tulfo"

Patricia Hizon broke news of the blockbuster trade on Twitter this morning: Alaska sent two-time PBA Most Valuable Player Willie Miller to Ginebra in exchange for the electric Cyrus Baguio.

Alaska coach Tim Cone told the Manila Bulletin that Miller had wanted out of the team for the last two years, but the Aces didn’t bite until this offer came along.

Continue reading "Skyrus arrives to resurrect the Alaska Air Force, as Willie Thriller joins the Barangay Ginebra Security Agency"

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.

Continue reading "The SMC League"

I wasn’t able to tweet during the Team Pilipinas game versus Kuwait or post a quick report on it because I was out late partying with Lady Gaga last night. Just kidding. Anyway, this morning, my friends who went to the show couldn’t get over the size of her penis.

Continue reading "Fiba-Asia Championships: Team Pilipinas beats Kuwait, gears up for knock-out quarterfinals action"

When it rains, it pours. After its perimeter scoring went dry as the Ilocos sand dunes against South Korea, the Team Pilipinas corps of snipers made it rain this afternoon, hitting 15 three-pointers against Chinese Taipei en route to a 77-70 victory. James Yap and Willie Miller led the way with 6 and 5 three-point baskets, respectively. Yap keyed a 3rd quarter run that allowed Team Pilipinas to take the lead after trailing for most of the game, while Miller’s last three-pointer with 20 seconds left in the game pushed the lead to 5 and sealed the deal for the Nationals.

Continue reading "Fiba-Asia Championships: Willie Thriller and Big Game James lift Team Pilipinas over Chinese Taipei"