This weekend, basketball fans subscribed to Global Destiny Cable were shocked to find that Basketball TV was no longer part of their channel line-up. The cable company announced that Solar, which owned the channel, had signed an exclusive deal with their competitor, which everyone took to mean Sky Cable, the country’s biggest CATV provider. It’s a curious turn of events given the history involving Solar, Sky, Destiny, and BTV.

In 2007, Solar Entertainment Corporation had a falling out with Sky, which at the time was broadcasting six Solar channels: BTV, Solar Sports, Jack TV, Crime/Suspense, ETC, and 2nd Avenue. Reports differed on the reason of the rift between the entertainment companies; some said that it had to do with Manny Pacquiao – Solar, which owned the rights, chose as its broadcast partner GMA-7, the biggest rival of Sky Cable’s owner, ABS-CBN – while others Sky simply wanted to drop some of Solar’s channels in favor of its own.

Continue reading "Solar screws Pinoy basketball fans, pulls Basketball TV out of Global Destiny Cable"

In 2007, after Noli Eala was forced to resign by the Philippine Basketball Association as commissioner due to his disbarment, two candidates were up for the position: former telecommunications executive Lambert Ramos and lawyer Chito Salud. Neither man had enough votes to be appointed commissioner; San Miguel, Ginebra, Coke, Welcoat, and Red Bull – the SMC bloc – voted for Salud, while Air 21, Alaska, Sta. Lucia, and Talk N Text – the MVP bloc – voted for Ramos.

However, each man needed six out of the nine votes (voting rights haven’t been restored to Purefoods at the time) to be appointed commissioner. Unable to break the deadlock, the board decided to appoint Renauld “Sonny” Barrios, who at the time was OIC of the PBA, to the commissionership full time.

Continue reading "The curious politics of Sonny Barrios’ appointment as SBP executive director"

So what do Chot Reyes, Tim Cone, and Ryan Gregorio – the coaches of the last three PBA championship-winning teams – have in common that set them apart from other coaches?

They all read Fire Quinito.

Of course, the fact that they are all brilliant coaches who led talent-laden squads probably had more to do with their victories. But hey, if Quinito Henson can talk about birthdays and biorhythm during the PBA broadcast and pass it off as “analysis”, then I can claim to be the reason for these coaches’ success, right? Let’s take a look back at how they got here.

Continue reading "The secret to PBA championship success"

Just a quick update: posting will be light this week because I’m in Palawan for most of the week for the day job. Meanwhile, if you missed it, check out this classic from our favorite writer:

WBO women’s superbantamweight champion Ana (Hurricane) Julaton declined the other day to reveal the secrets of her love life but manager Angelo Reyes admitted while not insinuating a romantic relationship, she’s “good friends” with Miami Heat’s Fil-Am head coach Erik Spoelstra.

Taenang Quinito yan, ginawan ng issue sina Erik Spoelstra at si Ana Julaton. Uso na rin pala sa sports yung pag-gawa ng gimmick para i-hype ang event. Parang Piolo-KC lang eh.

Continue reading "Quick advisory, and Quinito the chismoso"

In his column yesterday, Quinito Henson wrote about the flap caused by a tweet by Sol Mercado criticizing him. If you’re not on Twitter (and if you’re a PBA fan in this day and age, you really need to be on it), here’s what happened: Mercado was watching the broadcast of the Talk N Text-Derby Ace matchup which Quinito was announcing. After a stepback move by James Yap, Quinito compared the reigning MVP to Michael Jordan, which pissed off Mercado; he swore he wouldn’t watch another minute of the game until the PBA hired an announcer who actually knew what he was talking about.

Continue reading "Quinito Henson vs. irreverent Twitter users"

It was a little late, but Santa’s gift for me this past Holiday season was simply perfect, as two of my least favorite sportswriters, Ronnie Nathanielsz and Quinito Henson, took passive-aggressive shots at each other in a series of columns about the comparative television ratings of the Philippine football team matches and PBA games.

Nathanielsz kicked off stupidities with his report that the first Azkal semifinals game broadcast by Studio 23 (with him as the lead anchor, something he fails to mention in his story) rated better than the previous day’s PBA game, an elimination round game featuring Meralco vs. Rain or Shine. In a follow-up, Nathanielsz wrote that the second Azkals game on Studio 23 brought in higher ratings than the Air 21-San Miguel quarterfinals game that aired that same evening, although the football match still failed to garner as many viewers as that week’s quarterfinals match between Alaska and Barangay Ginebra.

Continue reading "Ronnie Nathanielsz and Quinito Henson have a holiday bitchfight over TV ratings"

It was Rafe Bartholomew who emailed me this morning about this story by Filipino-American boxing writer (and friend of the blog) Dennis ‘D Source’ Guillermo on some beef between Freddie Roach and everyone’s favorite sports writer, Quinito Henson. In his December 20 article in the Philippine Star, Henson quotes Roach directly as saying that if the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley pushes through, the Filipino champion’s camp would push for drug testing, citing previous allegations against Mosley on steroid use:

“It won’t be an easy fight for Manny,” said Roach who arrived here to celebrate Pacquiao’s 32nd birthday and was scheduled to leave Manila for Los Angeles last night. “I think he’s a tougher opponent than (Andre) Berto or (Juan Manuel) Marquez. He can punch with either hand. But if the fight pushes through, I’ll insist on a drug test. He’s been known to take steroids and it shows in his body.”

Roach, however, denies ever saying those words. In an interview with Lem Satterfield of Boxing Scene, he goes ahead and basically calls Henson a liar:

“That's a lie. I never said that. We turned that [drug testing] down once ourselves, so I would have to be a hypocrite to have said that,” said Roach. “So some Filipino writer has written that I had said that, but that’s not true. So I never said that. The thing is that I think that we’re taking the fight that would bring the most money to the table, and that's what the deciding factor will be.”

Continue reading "Freddie Roach calls bullshit on Quinito Henson over Mosley drug testing report"

Hehe, who would have ever thought “Kris Aquino” and “Lou Gatumbato” would appear in the same headline? Only on Fire Quinito! Also, a reminder for everyone that the Philippines vs. Burma game tonight will be broadcast on ESPN at 8:30 PM.

Anyway, here are some interesting reads to get you through humpday:

Continue reading "Wednesday bullets starring the Azkals, Kris Aquino’s leading man, and Lou Gatumbato"

Quinito Henson had an interesting series of articles last week about Manny Pacquiao’s claim as the greatest fighter ever, and by “interesting,” I mean “incredibly stupid,” even by Quinito’s usual standards. He prefaced the two-part column by saying that he would compare the achievements of four of the greatest boxers of all-time against those of Manny Pacquiao, and promised at the end of the first installment that he would try to make a “logical conclusion” as to which boxer deserves to be called the greatest.

Continue reading "Manny Pacquiao and the greatest fighters of all time"

I let out a chuckle when I read the blurb for Chito Salud’s appearance on the GMANews.TV sports show FTW, which said that the new commissioner’s mantra is “constant innovation.” It was funny because so far, the only real innovation under his tenure has been the changes in the opening ceremony. In fact, most of the ideas the new regime has trotted out, so far, has been recycled.

The “time-tested” three-conference format? It’s obviously a return to tradition, and Sonny Barrios actually proposed the very same thing in 2008.

Continue reading "Constant innovation or recycled ideas? A very early look at the PBA under Chito Salud"