The Interbasket forum for Philippine basketball is home to some of the most passionate local basketball fans, particularly of the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Basketball Team. Because of the rabid fandom of its members, the message board has attracted the attention of basketball insiders, including officials of the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP), the country’s national basketball federation.

One such personality identifies himself only by the handle Namamangha, and is acknowledged by everyone to be an official of the SBP. Oddly, the past couple weeks, Namamangha started badmouthing Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman in the forums:

Continue reading "SBP official badmouths Coach Rajko Toroman online, as Smart Gilas descends into heavy turmoil"

I rushed to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium tonight after a long day of work in the field just in time for the tipoff of Smart Gilas versus the Jordan national team. Gilas actually played well in the first half, taking a first quarter lead and keeping in step with the taller Jordanians at halftime.

Continue reading "Smart Gilas struggles against Jordan"

After running roughshod over not-too-elite competition in Australia and getting their asses handed to them by excellent professional teams in Serbia, Smart Gilas took its act to the United States to play several minor league teams from the American Basketball Association. A couple of days ago, Gilas began its campaign by going up against the ABA team based in San Diego (which of course in German means whale’s vagina). It was an exciting match, with birthday boy Mark Barroca sinking a three-point shot with 4.3 seconds left to lead the Filipinos to a 94-93 victory.

Continue reading "Smart Gilas planning to join shitty American minor league"

Like I said a few posts back, I welcome any insight about the Smart Gilas squad, given that a lot of people really care about the promising team. A Smart Gilas insider (I know who he is, but for obvious reasons couldn’t disclose the identity) left a very interesting comment on my last post about the team. I’m republishing the most interesting parts of his comment here for more people to see:

Continue reading "Random thoughts from a Smart Gilas insider"

Like I said in the previous post, I hadn’t seen enough of Smart Gilas in Dubai, so these are more general thoughts. That said, I was thoroughly impressed with the team’s performance, and like any other Pinoy basketball fan, I am hopeful that this is the start of the team’s steady climb.

Anyway, some of my thoughts, in bullets:

Continue reading "Thoughts on Smart Gilas, after their sensational bronze-winning performance at the Dubai International Basketball Tournament"

I’ve come under a bit of fire over the past week because all I’ve been writing about has been the Kris Aquino-James Yap-Mayen Austria saga. It’s a perfectly valid point; there are so many other things happening in the Philippine sports world apart from that, and I could understand the frustration of people who read this blog. In particular, the Smart Gilas Pilipinas team has done very well in the Dubai International Basketball Tournament, coming home with a bronze medal, and readers are justifiably upset that I haven’t given this any attention.

Here’s my reason: I just haven’t had the time. It’s a reason, and not an excuse.

Continue reading "Kris Aquino, Smart Gilas, and the anatomy of a blog post"

Seriously:

Continue reading "Mark Barroca is the man!"

A couple of nights back, I was chatting with Rafe Bartholomew to congratulate him on making it to Quinito Henson’s column (an honor that falls somewhere between his Fulbright scholarship and his Bakekang television appearance). Quinito quoted Rafe, who wrote a feature on the Knicks guard last season for Seattle Weekly, as texting that Nate Robinson might have Filipino blood through his mother, and the Philippine Star columnist raised the possibility of the defending NBA slam dunk champion playing for the country in international competition.

Continue reading "Krypto-Nate and the Black Superman"

I wrote a feature about UAAP for FHM, and it includes a wrap-up of season 72 and a sneak preview of season 73. Also, corny jokes:

Continue reading "Fire Quinito's UAAP postmortem on FHM"

I’m trying to find the right words to say about the very impressive win by Smart Gilas, which is hard, especially since after the game I went out drinking with j_myxx and NeekoBoi (and their awesome dad) of Patay ang Butiki, Gary of Basketball Exchange, and Toff Rada of toffrada.

Anyway, some tipsy thoughts, in bullet points:

Continue reading "Smart Gilas plasters Powerade"