Powerade Team Pilipinas stalwarts Jared Dillinger, Gabe Norwood, Asi Taulava, Jayjay Helterbrand, Japeth Aguilar, and Ryan Reyes hit the streets of Beijing shortly after the Fiba-Asia Championships and sampled some of the exotic local food. Dillinger and Norwood are both providing updates on Twitter, along with other PBA players Kelly Williams and his brother-in-law Lamont Waters.

The Jordanian national team wiped the floor of Taipei’s Hsinchuang gymnasium with the Powerade Team Pilipinas yesterday, 90-59, as hostilities opened in the 31st Jones Cup. And yes, the 31-point drubbing was every bit as awful as it sounds – the only reason I watched the game all the way through is because I’m a masochist who commits to watching even the ugliest blowouts. Yeng Guiao certainly has his work cut out for him.

The sky is not (yet) falling, however, and we ought to take this loss with a grain of salt. Or maybe take two grains, for good measure. Consider:

Continue reading "Jordan gives Powerade Team Pilipinas a rude awakening"

The site got some nice words over the weekend from Rafe Bartholomew, a former Fulbright scholar who spent several years in the Philippines to study and write about Philippine basketball. He gained a measure of fame in the local scene after writing a couple of stories for the New York Times, first about the Ateneo-La Salle rivalry, and then about Gilbert Arenas' crazy Manila visit last year.

Continue reading "Fire Quinito gets some love over at Manila Vanilla"

The classification phase of the PBA Fiesta Conference ended last night with two tiebreaker games: the Coca-Cola Tigers beat the Alaska Aces, 81-74 to gain 8th, while the Barangay Ginebra Kings beat the living crap out of the Rain or Shine Elastopainters, 114-71, to get the 2nd seed.

Continue reading "Win or go home: Sorting out the PBA Fiesta Conference playoff clusterfuck"

The last leg of PBA All-Star Week caps off tomorrow evening at the Araneta Coliseum with the Powerade-Team Pilipinas selection going at it with PBA All-Stars. Threatening to steal the show, however, is the slam dunk competition, which on paper could be the best slam dunk event the league has ever had.

Continue reading "PBA slam dunk contest promises to titillate"