Philippine basketball has started to develop a small but vibrant community on Twitter, and Fire Quinito rounds up the best messages, in 140 characters or less.



Rain or Shine import Rod Nealy tweeted this shortly before his team was blown out by Ginebra last Friday. I think Rod got stood up by Destiny for their date. There are rumors though that Destiny was seen later that night leaving Ginebra import Chris Daniels’ apartment. You know what they always say… Destiny is a fickle bitch.



This tweet makes me wonder: Did Ed Ducut have foot surgery during his rookie year too? What about Boy Valera? Kevyn White?



Heh. In fact, the women who left a comment about James’ statement are just about ready to give him a “Husband of the Year” award. Yay to the power of social media!



Ok, I’m beginning to think Robby Reyes is tweeting these things to try to get into Fire Quinito.



Longtime favorite PBA scribe James Ty III (he’s the guy at the games constantly speaking into his tape recorder) fighting the good fight for Ateneo courtside reporter Jessica “Jessilicious” Mendoza. Chocolates, nice! Hard to argue with his taste.

It was beer and pizza night for me and my buddies this weekend, watching World Cup quarterfinal matches with a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie thrown in for good measure. I was a bit bummed out by Argentina’s loss, because I was endlessly fascinated by Diego Maradona at the sidelines acting all crazy. He actually reminded me of Jawo out there. I kept waiting for him to put his overweight son Dudut Maradona into the game, to the absolute horror of the Argentine fans. Never happened though.

Anyway, lots of good stuff to read for this Monday afternoon, to start the week right:

• Nice article in the Staten Island local news about a former Wagner State standout by the name of Dan Seigle, who has since gone on to stardom as the PBA’s Dynamite Danny. [H/T @Rafeboogs]


• Topex Robinson is back, according to Patricia Hizon on Yahoo. Not sure how he fits in with Alaska’s style of play, but the Aces desperately need ballhandling help for LA Tenorio. Also funny: the comments thread in the article has been hijacked by people talking about Patricia’s gum-chewing habits while in church.


• The Patay ang Butiki blog is alive, coming out with a two-part piece on the best performances in the ongoing PBA Fiesta Conference (here’s part 1 and part 2). It would be interesting if they ever write about the reason they’ve been away for so long.


• Reuters has named the two foreign private equity firms that are looking into buying San Miguel Pure Foods: Carlyle and CVC. According to the story, bankers advising potential buyers are saying that the whole company might be sold.


• FHM came out with a list of the prettiest PBA wives and girlfriends. My all-time favorite PBA wife is still Rio Locsin, who married Padim Israel. Actually, I think she’s my favorite Pinay sexy star of all time; there’s a reason why Hotdog namechecks her in “Langit na Naman.” She was hot and hilarious in Ishmael Bernal’s classic comedy Salawahan.
  
  I love the seeming randomness of all these PBA player-sexy star hookups, like Chris Pacana and Paloma. I always thought the most random hookup was Lowell Briones and Rita Magdalena… until I found out that Paeng Santos was the father of Via Veloso’s kid. Now that’s random.


• While we’re on the topic, last month UNO Magazine posted previously unreleased photos of the lovely PBA courtside reporter, Cesca Litton, from a shoot last year.


• And finally, more updates on the Kris Aquino-James Yap front: “James Yap admits he’s wooing Kris Aquino again,” reports ABS-CBN, while Yahoo has some good news, with “Kris still open to reconciling with James”. Okay then.

Controversy and uncertainty seems to be hounding the Derby Ace Llamados since the Purefoods franchise won the Philippine Cup last March. There have been questions about the corporate status of the team, with talks rife that its mother company, the San Miguel Corporation, is looking to sell a stake in San Miguel Pure Foods, which owns the ballclub. More recently, James Yap, the team’s best player, has been embroiled in a controversy that has captured national attention, although he has done a great job tuning out the distractions and stepping up his game (with a little help from Peter Cetera).

This morning, fans of the team got another jolt when Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Beth Celis wrote that Meralco, which is seeking to become part of the PBA next season, is looking at Derby Ace coach Ryan Gregorio as a candidate for its potential head coaching vacancy. Gregorio’s brother, Patrick, is the head of Smart Sports, which is in charge of sports-related initiatives for the group of Manny Pangilinan, who is president and chief executive officer of Meralco.

I quickly asked Coach Ryan, who’s known around these parts as “The Genius,” about the matter, and he replied back promptly: “I am too focused on leading the Derby Ace Llamados to another title crack. I am not entertaining anything other than that. I was surprised to read my name in the column of Beth Celis.”

It would be hard to imagine Gregorio leaving the Purefoods franchise, which gave him his first big break, and whose top brass has remained loyal to him even when the team struggled under his watch. He told me when we met up last March that he had even offered his resignation to Purefoods management, but they urged him to stay on and gave him a vote of confidence.

He delivered for the team last conference, and it has been a remarkable turnaround for Gregorio. The team’s Philippine Cup victory has earned him much praise from fans, like me, who had been calling for his head only some weeks before. One could imagine that fans who were once lobbying for his resignation are now getting worried that the team might lose him.

And we should. Look at his record: he has led the Purefoods franchise to the Philippine Cup finals three times in the last five years, winning two championships and narrowly losing a third one in a tight seven-game series against Sta. Lucia. Of course, some would say that he’s just lucky that he has a superstar like James Yap on his team. But Gregorio was also the same genius who orchestrated a 2004 draft day deal with Shell that made sure his team would end up with Yap. Sometimes, you have to make your own luck.

Nice, rainy Friday, with a couple of huge PBA games tonight: Rain or Shine versus Ginebra for an outright quarterfinals spot, and Derby Ace versus San Miguel for an automatic semifinals berth. Just how important is that semis spot, particularly for Derby Ace? My main man, Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio has never lost a semifinals series in his PBA career.

Meanwhile, some good reads to tide you over till tipoff:

• Charles Tiu, the younger brother of Smart Gilas team captain and all-around good guy Chris Tiu, wrote a good blog post on Yahoo! about the recently-concluded Manila invitational tournament. He’s a little biased, sure, but his post has got a lot of great tidbits for Gilas fans: “During the awarding ceremonies, I approached Coach Mario Palma and told him that as an Asian, I wish that his team will do well and represent Asia well in the World Championships. Without introducing who I was, he said thank you, gave me a hug and told me to give my brother a hug (he said we look alike and that’s how he knew) because he was a great player and he wasn’t able to congratulate him. I couldn’t have been any prouder after hearing a coach like that have such high regard for my brother.”


• The Philippine Star’s Joey Villar reported yesterday that Ray Parks, son of legendary PBA import Bobby Parks, will be suiting up for NU next year. Is that accurate? Doesn’t the UAAP have a two-year residency rule for players coming from foreign high schools? Parks has been playing high school ball in Tennessee.
  
  UPDATE: Ray is in the Philippines right now, and it isn’t clear whether he’s going back to Tennessee’s Melrose Academy for senior year in high school. If he spends the year in a local high school, then he’d be eligible for the UAAP next season. I think.


• Ugh. GMANews.TV reports that Air 21’s Lito Alvarez is likely to be named the next commissioner of the Burea of Customs. I hope he doesn’t run the bureau the same way he ran Air 21, where he sold players and helped richer teams cheat by acting as conduit in lopsided trades. The appointment feels like a political ploy; Alvarez’ boss, Bert Lina, was BOC commissioner for several months before he resigned from the Arroyo cabinet along with the Hyatt 10. If there’s any bright side to this, at least Alvarez will be out of the PBA. I hope he stays out. Hell, I hope Air 21 sells its useless franchise already.


• The Queensberry Rules is my favorite boxing blog bar none, and I really enjoyed the latest piece: The Six Deadly Sins of Internet Boxing Writing. It doesn’t just apply to boxing though, but all kinds of Internet writing. Good read for both fans, who should know what to expect from Internet writers, and for aspiring writers and bloggers.


• Finally, happier moments for Kris and James, which happened just this March. Makes you wonder what the hell happened between then and now.