“Fire Quinito is a very, very impressive Philippine sports blog, and I'm not saying that only because the guy who runs it reads my stuff. The blog's take on Philippine sports is funny and right.”
-- Rafe Bartholomew, author of Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball

“Gutsy.”
-- Tim Cone, Alaska Aces coach

“Irreverent, objective, witty, straight to the point. Just as sports reportage should be. Yes, even when it attacks the 'numerous dick moves' of Chot Reyes.”
-- Chot Reyes, Talk N Text Tropang Texters Coach

“Fire Quinito reminds us that reading about sports should be as fun as watching or playing them.”
-- Howie Severino, GMANews.TV Editor-in-Chief

“In a culture of kiss asses, it seems [Fire Quinito] has been refreshing in the sports community.”
-- Jude Turcuato, longtime play-by-play announcer and former marketing head of Solar Sports

“I must say it is refreshing to see the reporting as blunt and candid as [Fire Quinito] is.”
-- Fred Uytengsu, Alaska Aces team owner and former PBA chairman

“At 1st why Fire Quinito? I find it really weird to get accolades at the expense of a sports institution. And where is the moral value for awarding you a blog award? You are just an ant compared to someone like Quinito who has been around the writing world as early as your diaper days. You are just a small insect and Quinito won't make patol to you ever and never...”
-- Boyet Dones on Twitter

Since the influx of emails from personalities such as Jamal Sampson, Rajko Toroman, and a comment from Chot Reyes these past few days, people have been emailing me left and right about messages for these people, including a lot of suggestions for Coach Toroman regarding team strategy and player recruitment. Apparently, I am now the official receptionist of all of Philippine basketball.

Anyway, whenever I feel pretty good about myself with how much this blog is being read, I always get an email that starts with Dear Quinito. It puts me back in my place, just like Burger King put Smart Gilas in their place in that controversial game.

I’m posting this particular email from a certain ‘Redentor Castro’ not to make fun of it (although it is hilarious), but also because I figured that someone could forward the message to Quinito himself. Not only would he be thrilled with the idea that someone thinks he should be an adviser to the SBP, but it contains something about someone abroad possibly being related to a Filipino, and Quinito just lives for that stuff. It’s like shabu for him; remember, this is the same guy who spent the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals writing about Karl Malone’s biyenan. You could almost hear him banging out a column now.

Oh, right the email. Here it is, as it was sent:

Good morning Quinito,

First of all i would like to thank you for continuously providing valuable insights to Philippine Basketball. I am just wondering that inspite of your knowledge and expertise, how come that SBP is not taking you as one of their advisers.

Anyways, I am sending you this e-mail just to make a suggestion for the Smart Gilas that currently facing difficulty of looking for a reinforcement. I have watched Smart Gilas during the recently concluded basketball tournament in Dubai, and I was impressed on how they adopted the system of Toroman (how I wish that it is a filipino calling the shots and not a foreigner, nothing against with Toroman but just call it patriotism), but if you would analyze the style and system that Mr. Toroman is trying to put with Smart Gilas, it is basically the same formula that Ron Jacobs instilled with NCC during the 80's, although just a minor tweaking (it's because the level of the basketball then is comparatively different from now) but still the foundation is the same; a dominant big man ( remember Dennis Steel, who needs not to score but willing to protect the paint; offensively and defensively) a high flying wing man (Jeff Moore, who is very athletic and agile who's percentage of his shots is very high) and a shooter(Chip Engeland).

Among the three positions that mentioned, the last two is not hard to find specially within this generation of Pinoy players or even fil-ams. but having a big man in the middle who's priority is to clog the lanes and get the rebound but of course a threat in the paint is the most difficult one, since it is very seldom that you will find it. That is why Adam Parada (ex Red Bull import) came to my mind.

Why Adam Parada, well if you will see his approach in the game, it is basically the same thing as what Dennis Steel and CJ Giles were doing for the team, he rebounds well, blocks good and if needed he can really score, not to the fact that he is a member of many times of the Mexican national basketball team, that makes him knowledgable of the Amateur International Rules of basketball. One more thing that makes Adam Parada more quallified to become the reinsforcement of GIlas is that he is engaged or married to a Filipina who happens to be a daughter of a former amateur player named Raul Inoferio (I am not sure if it with Maisagana) who is now reciding here in Canada, who was married BEFORE to the daughter of Elias Tolentino. So with this facts, I guess calling him and to be part of a Philippine Basketball again will not be difficult, what can you say?

Have a nice day and more power to your blog.

Red Castro
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada

Had a good chuckle when found this in my inbox a couple of days ago. I could understand the confusion on Twitter, but does it still confuse anyone who goes through this site and finds the email address?

Mr. Joaquin Henson
The Philippine Star

Dear Sir Henson:

Greetings!

The show that started investigative reporting on Philippine TV is on to a new brand of probing. To explain issues relevant to the public, Probe, the longest running investigative news magazine show in the country, takes a harder look at the men and women of the hour.

Renamed “Probe Profiles”, the show features a weekly in-depth profiler of the hottest figures in the news. Every Wednesday, veteran broadcast journalist Cheche Lazaro and her team peel off the layers of the country’s newsmakers by going over their past and examining their present lives—lives which affect the Philippine society in general. Among featured personalities are cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Vicki Belo, Billiards icon Efren “Bata” Reyes and former president and inspiration, Cory Aquino.

For the coming episode this 2010 we will feature Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) legend, Mr. Rudy Distrito. The story will focus on the person himself—a comprehensive profiler of the contender—as a man, as a son, a father, a husband and an athlete.

We saw an article you did regarding Mr. Rudy Distrito, and having the knowledge that you are also a part of the PBA family; we would like to ask for your permission to provide us any contact details of him. Please understand that this information will be of great help in our production.

I will call your office to follow up on our request. However, should you have any questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact the Probe office at [phone number withheld] fax no. [fax number withheld] or have your reply at [email address withheld].

Thank you for your time and attention.

[Name withheld]

I could just imagine the poor person calling up Quinito at his office and telling him about this email, as he becomes confused. “But sir, I sent it to your email yesterday. Here it is, j at firequinito dot com.”

Also, I saw a promo on a Rudy Distrito feature on (I think) Rated K. So na-scoop-an na ng Rated K ang Probe Profiles.

Rafe Bartholomew quickly parlayed his star turn in Quinito Henson’s column into an interview with former PBA courtside reporter (and crush ng bayan) Jannelle So, who now hosts Kababayan LA, a talk show for Filipino-Americans in southern California.



In the interview, Rafe gets tongue-tied when asked what it would take for Nate Robinson to become eligible to play for the Philippine national team. He also confirms that people from the SBP have been in touch with Robinson’s camp.

I have some questions, none of which really relate to Rafe:

1. Ria Tanjuatco or Jannelle So?


2. When you think about it, isn’t Lia Cruz basically Jannelle 2.0?


3. In the opening billboard of the video, why is Jannelle dressed like she’s going to Hollywood Boulevard to turn tricks after the shoot? Was it ‘Pretty Woman’ night?

Anyway, pictures of the lovely Jannelle, after the jump.

To follow-up my previous post about the Black Superman, here are a couple of YouTube videos about Billy Ray Bates in his days 1983 stint with the Crispa Redmanizers.

Manotoc even hints at Bates’ alcohol problem, which PBA teams over the course of the next few years were only too willing to ignore as long as Billy Ray put up the buckets.



After the jump, game footage of Billy Ray Bates’ Crispa taking on Great Taste Coffee, powered by Norman Black.