In a way, the Philippine Cup finals showdown between San Miguel and Talk N Text is a hater’s nightmare; for fans like me who relish watching highly-touted teams fall flat on their faces, a series featuring the league’s most loaded teams isn’t exactly the first choice. These two teams have been the most brazen in poaching top stars from less heralded teams. Consider that just in the past three seasons, these teams have made transactions to acquire Ranidel de Ocampo, Arwind Santos, Denok Miranda, Joseph Yeo, Alex Cabagnot, Kelly Williams, and Ryan Reyes in what were obviously lopsided deals with the Air 21 and Sta. Lucia franchises.

In this series, there’s no underdog that a casual PBA fan who’s not among the San Miguel or Talk N Text faithful could get behind.

That said, it’s hard to imagine the level of play being less than excellent in the series, considering the talent levels of both squads. A hardcore basketball fan could then take solace in the fact that at least the games are going to be good.

Continue reading "San Miguel versus Talk N Text: A PBA Philippine Cup finals fearless forecast"

I’ve steadily developed a dislike for San Miguel over the past couple of years. Despite the snarky tone of this blog, this is a rare case for PBA teams; even though I’ve been rooting for the Purefoods franchise since I was a child, I consider myself a fan of the PBA. I usually watch games intently when I’m home and they’re on, whoever might be playing. I like good Pinoy basketball, and the PBA is where you’d find the best Pinoy basketball anywhere.

Continue reading "Love, hate, and the San Miguel Beermen"

If you follow Philippine basketball, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that there was a fight in this afternoon’s game between Burger King and Smart Gilas. Yeng Guiao’s teams, after all, have been known to play a physical brand of basketball, and between the Guiao-Toroman issue and the Japeth Aguilar controversy, there’s enough bad blood between the two teams to know that the air would be combustible.

But who figured that the fight would be between Burger King point guard Wynne Arboleda and a heckler later identified as Alain Katigbak, a fan of Smart Gilas and Ateneo and a friend of Chris Tiu? (UPDATED: Chris's brother Charles left a comment clarifying that the Gilas team captain does not know the person involved, contrary to Fidel Mangonon's earlier tweet.)

Continue reading "Fight mars Burger King’s victory over debuting Smart Gilas"

Some random thoughts about game 5, where Ginebra beat San Miguel, 106-98, to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-7 series:

Continue reading "Quick thoughts on game 5 of the PBA Fiesta Cup finals"

I had hoped to write about this sooner, but I’ve got a lot of things on my plate so I’m only able to blog during short breaks at work. Anyway, San Miguel took game 2 last Friday, 95-78, after a monster game by Marc Pingris, but the dying seconds of the blowout game proved costly after Danny Ildefonso tried to go after a heckler, with Pingris holding him back. This led to suspensions for both players for the third game, which Ginebra won, 116-103.

Continue reading "PBA Finals: San Miguel, Ginebra split weekend games as suspensions mar game 3"

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 returning Marquin Chandler led Purefoods to a 92-85 win over Coca-cola. Tigers coach Kenneth Duremdes was hampered by sore eyes, and sat behind the bench in sunglasses.

The rampaging San Miguel notched win no. 8 against Talk N Text, in a game featuring the return of Danny Ildefonso. Danny I. looked good against the porous Tropang Texters defense. At one point, Ildefonso ran a pick-and-roll with Olsen Racela which resulted in a wide-open jam (raise the roof!). Valerie Concepcion and Danding Cojuangco were both in the house to cheer for the Beermen, while the Talk N Text side featured celebrity Rufa Mae Quinto and BB Gandanghari.

Continue reading "About last night: Danny I. raises the roof again in PBA Wednesday"