Rafe Bartholomew, author of Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball (available for pre-order now!), wrote a guest lecture discussing Philippine basketball for FreeDarko.com, one of the best basketball sites in the world. It’s certainly worth a read, as most of his stuff is, and continues his theme of putting over the unique Filipino brand of basketball for the rest of the world.

I also appreciated that Rafe decided to go with Samboy Lim highlight videos to kick things off. I came to know how special Samboy was pretty early, when I entered first grade in Letran. Officially, the Colegio listed St. John the Baptist as its patron saint, but everyone at school prayed to Samboy for divine intercession. It had been four years since he led Letran to a third straight NCAA championship, but his presence still loomed over the school.



In the PBA, fans of any persuasion went apeshit whenever Norman Black sent the Skywalker to the scorer’s table. Even the hardcore barangay in the bleachers of the Ultra couldn’t contain their excitement. Mostly it was because he was such an electric player, but part of it was because he was injured so often (with his high-risk style), so any minutes he could spend on the court for us to watch seemed so precious.

Unlike Atoy Co who belonged to Crispa, or Jaworski who belonged to Toyota/Ginebra, or Patrimonio who belonged to Purefoods, Samboy Lim was in the public domain. He belonged to not just to San Miguel, but to all of us.

Here’s the thing: before I was a fan of anything else, I was a fan of Purefoods as a kid, and I still am, despite the ridiculous (and frankly, kinda gay) nicknames like Tender Juicy Hotdogs, Corned Beef Cowboys, Carne Norte Beefies, Chunkee Giants, and Tender Juicy Giants. I’ve remained a loyal fan through the years, Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio notwithstanding.

It should come as no surprise then that I’m absolutely, ridiculously stoked about Purefoods’ upcoming semifinals series versus San Miguel. Not only is the team making its first semifinals appearance in two years (a drought courtesy of Ryan’s genius), but it’s going up against an old school traditional rival. Sure, battling Sta. Lucia and Red Bull was fun, but playing San Miguel evokes pleasant childhood memories of Alvin Patrimonio camping out on the low block and making Yves Dignadice his bitch.

All season long, I had been trying to figure out ways to show my support for the team if they made it to the semifinals. In early January, I finally found the perfect way to express my allegiance: I was going to send the whole team cupcakes! Unfortunately, events that happened over the last few weeks have torpedoed that idea.

So I had to find another way to boost my team, then I realized, Hey, I have a blog! I can do a total fanboy post! I originally wanted to do a fanboy post for my favorite player on the team, barumbado point guard Roger Yap, but there just wasn’t enough material on the web about him; I might be his only fan outside his immediate family and the screaming bading chorus behind the Purefoods baseline. So I’ll just do my fanboy post on James Yap instead.

Let’s start with a highlight for the ages. In the dying seconds of a game against Air 21 in the 2008-09 Philippine Cup, Purefoods was down by three with the ball. Kerby Raymundo threw up a three-pointer and missed, but Yap beat Arwind Santos for the offensive rebound, chased the ball to the corner, tiptoed the baseline and the sideline, and launched a turnaround, fadeaway three-pointer from behind the backboard to tie the game.

Read that paragraph again.

Yeah, it's as awesome as it sounds:



Next, here’s his Nike commercial from the ‘My Game’ campaign in 2007:



It’s easily the best commercial in the series, mostly because James spoke in Hiligaynon, which made his dialogue seem more natural. Speaking in his native tongue betrayed a swagger that’s rarely seen during his TV interviews, especially at the end, when he says, “Basta hampang ka lang ah. Enjoy ka lang sa gina-obra mo. Ina sikreto da.”

Finally, this next one was forwarded to me by Rafe Bartholomew, who now apparently trolls the interwebs for these things. Neither Rafe nor I authored this video. We bear no responsibility, if Kris Aquino decides to pay the author a “civil” visit at home.

In 1993, the powerhouse defending champions San Miguel faced perennial All-Filipino contenders Coney Island (nee Purefoods) in the finals of that year’s homegrown-only tournament. The Beermen were heavy favorites after making a trade for Allan Caidic in the offseason, reuniting the Triggerman with his former national team buddies, Samboy Lim and Hector Calma. The star-studded San Miguel backcourt was rounded out by the reigning Most Valuable Player in the league, Ato Agustin. The two teams’ matchup was a repeat of the previous year’s finals, a series that was capped by 32 points from Agustin in the deciding seventh game.

Rookie coach Chot Reyes was at the helm of Coney Island, which was making its sixth straight All-Filipino appearance. Everyone knew about the frontcourt of Alvin Patrimonio and Jerry Codinera, but their backcourt wasn’t too shabby either, with Glenn Capacio, Boy Cabahug, and Dindo Pumaren. Curiously, Reyes acquired an eclectic mix of players in the offseason; rookies Dwight Lago, Benny Cheng, Olsen Racela, and Freddie Abuda were drafted to provide hustle and energy, but Reyes also recruited a couple of grizzled veterans: Caidic’s old enforcer from Presto, Abe King, and a rugged guard from Alaska, Frankie Lim.

Lim had been, for many years, the starting point guard for Alaska, but he was let go in the offseason as Tim Cone and the Alaska brain trust decided to overhaul their team’s style and build around rookie point guard Johnny Abarrientos—an amazingly prescient move. Reyes, a longtime Alaska assistant, got Lim to join him with the Purefoods franchise. The veteran guard was there to provide insurance for Pumaren, knock down open three-pointers to take the pressure off his twin towers, and provide the kind of tough, old-school defense on opposing combo guards such as, yep, Ato Agustin.

Coney Island won that battle in 1993, but San Miguel got back at them in the tournament’s 1994 edition. Now, 15 years later, Ato Agustin and Frankie Lim are back facing off against each other in a championship series. Instead of duking it out on the court, Lim’s defending champions San Beda Red Lions are trying to hold off Agustin’s surprising San Sebastian Stags.

NCAA sportscaster Toff Rada, who has watched both teams closely, has some of the best analyses of the protagonists. He details the key weakness of the Stags’ game:

The San Sebastian Stags have been through a historic run in Season 85, with their 15-game winning streak spanning a stretch of almost 3 months. That streak was finally snapped by the Letran Knights of Louie Alas during their second round meeting, and things have been in free fall for the Stags, managing just a 2-3 win loss record, since then.

Much of the credit had been given to the physical play employed by the Knights, as the key to solving the San Sebastian puzzle. However, it is no coincidence that the Knights also utilize what may be the meanest full-court press in the league. I believe the press, more than the physicality, exposed the chink in the Stags' armor: the point guard position.

The coaching battle between the old hardcourt warriors is just as interesting. Ato Agustin has emerged as a surprise coaching maven, despite having had no prior high-level coaching experience. Meanwhile, Frankie Lim still has doubters even though he has led his team to two championships. This series, however, figures to be his biggest challenge yet.

I was dicking around the Internets, and Google news archive, and while they still only have archives of the Manila Standard, wow… you could lose a whole afternoon here. Case in point:

In 1992, San Miguel was playing Purefoods in the finals of the All-Filipino conference. The Beermen took game 1, but the Hotdogs won the next two games. The reigning MVP, Alvin Patrimonio, was the biggest headache for San Miguel coach Norman Black:

Patrimonio has been averaging 31.33 points and 13 rebounds which in Black’s own words, “Is getting away with murder.”

San Miguel ended up winning three of the next four games, capping their victory with a 105-86 victory in game 7. Hector Calma, Samboy Lim, and Mon Fernandez all bounced back in the series, but the biggest star for the Beermen was one Ato Agustin, who keyed a 33-19 fourth quarter run for San Miguel:

[Agustin] sizzled with 12 of his game-high 34 points in the fourth quarter alone. He later said: “Binuhos ko na ang lahat. Nagpahinga nang husto ng dalawang araw at binuhos ko na ang lahat.”

The Atom Bomb ended up winning the league’s MVP award at the end of that season, the most improbable MVP awardee in the history of the PBA.

I also found a gem from Fidel Mangonon from 1994 (yeah, he’s been around that long, hehe). Patrimonio was carrying Purefoods, then known as Coney Island, again as he averaged 20.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.7 blocks. There’s another big man mentioned in the story with numbers as impressive, with 23.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 2.9 blocks a game.

I’ll give you 5 guesses about which big man had those numbers.

Then click here to read.

I have no idea what the fuck happened either.