The Smart Gilas Pilipinas national team has competed twice before in the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup since the squad was first organized, and could now be considered veterans of the tournament. Only months after it was formed, Gilas saw action in the club competition in 2009 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Powered by former import CJ Giles, the team ran off to an impressive 3-1 record in the preliminary round of the tournament. But the team lost wind in the knockout quarterfinals round, bowing to the Al-Arabi team of Qatar. The team managed to win its last two consolation round games to salvage fifth place.

The team traveled to Dubai for the 2010 edition of the tournament. Gilas barely made it past the preliminary round with a 1-3 record, before losing to Lebanon’s powerhouse Al-Riyadi team. The national team won its final game to finish seventh in the competition.

Continue reading "Foreign teams’ coaches wary of Smart Gilas ahead of 2011 FIBA-Asia Champions Cup"

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"

You almost have to feel sorry for Frankie Lim, who has worked tirelessly since taking over the management of Smart Gilas lining up import prospects for national team coach Rajko Toroman. Lim, if various newspaper reports were to be believed, was days away from coming to terms with prospect Dwayne Jones before the D-League’s best rebounder was called up by the Phoenix Suns.

Lim’s import search had been extensive, so much so that the excellent D-League blog Ridiculous Upside even wrote a snarky post titled, “Want to play for the Filipino National Team? Be tall, play in the D-League.”

Continue reading "Smart Gilas import search continues after prospect Dwayne Jones signs with the Phoenix Suns"

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a curious source: Smart Gilas import Jamal Sampson. He took issue with an item I posted about his performance in China, where I quoted a ShamSports report calling him “a pretty awful offensive player.” Sampson said that during the season in question, when he averaged a paltry 10 points and 10 rebounds, he was playing with a hamstring injury. He also pointed out that in a previous season in China, he dominated the CBA, leading the Liaoning team to the finals, while averaging upwards of 20 points and 20 rebounds. One report on Eurobasket even called him “arguably the most expensive and impressive import in CBA history.”

Contrary to reports, Sampson said that he is still under contract with Smart Gilas, even as he is working to get a release, with a bigger offer in China waiting for him. In a series of emails to Fire Quinito, Sampson wrote about the problems he has encountered with Smart Gilas.

As always, this blog is open to any response from the SBP and Smart Gilas regarding this matter.

Continue reading "Jamal Sampson speaks on Smart Gilas and the SBP"

I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I honestly enjoy Beth Celis’ work. She always plays the role of the ditz in her columns, but she also writes about a lot of things other writers just ignore; for example, she was the only writer who kept tabs on Rudy Distrito regularly over the last 5 years.

Today she writes about Al-Riyadi coach Fuad Abou Chakra, who’s in Manila to take in some PBA games, look for sports therapists, and potentially work on a program to send young players from Lebanon to the Philippines for training.

Continue reading "Al-Riyadi coach Fuad Abou Chakra visits Manila"

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"

If you’re a fan of the Smart Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team, I would highly recommend checking out the forums at Interbasket.net. Apart from intelligent discussion of the national team program (and the best Jaemark-bashing anywhere on the Internet – I love it!), the threads also feature the presence of SBP insider Nardy Madrasto, who has been helping the SBP with, among other things, getting in touch with Fil-foreign players from around the world.

Nardy’s posts have been both enlightening and entertaining – check out the photos he posted of CJ Giles and his Manila girlfriend – and in a recent contribution to the forums, he explained what’s going on with the SBP and the process of finding an import for naturalization for the team:

Continue reading "Some Smart Gilas questions, answered"

Here’s favorite line from all of Quinito’s articles about the CJ Giles saga: “The final straw was when he invited his youthful teammates to his apartment for a drinking session that lasted until the wee hours. Eala pulled the plug before Giles made things worse for the team with his negative influence.”

I just love how Quinito makes it out like Giles had physically forced the little angels of Smart Gilas to go get drunk with him. What are they, 13?

It’s silly, because the Gilas members are well-educated young men who have been playing competitive basketball their whole lives. I imagine that these guys, the best and the brightest of Philippine college basketball, would be able to say no to too much drinking, no matter how persuasive their import could be, right?

Continue reading "Giles, imports, and Filipino racism"

Apart from troubled pasts, infamous stints in the Philippines, and local columnists drawing knives after they left, there’s one more thing that Lee Benson and CJ Giles had in common: they signed more lucrative deals immediately after leaving the Philippines.

Right after his tumultuous stint with Sta. Lucia, Benson burned the hoops in China and Puerto Rico, without much incident. Meanwhile, Giles flew off to Lebanon to sign with club team Al-Riyadi, the richest team in the Lebanese league, to replace NBA veteran Mamadou N’Diaye.

Continue reading "The CJ Giles saga brings up even more questions for Smart Gilas"

During one of my first email exchanges with Manila Vanilla’s Rafe Bartholomew, when this blog was new, he cited as his favorite Quinito Henson moment a series of columns last year on ex-Sta Lucia import Lee Benson.

An ex-convict, Benson was part of an “inspiring” feature by Quinito titled “Against all odds”. Benson’s recovery, Quinito wrote: “If there’s anyone who knows what defying the odds is all about, it’s Benson.” Quinito then proceeded to detail how Benson managed to carve out a career as a professional basketball player despite serving 8 1/2 years in prison.

Continue reading "The (character) assassination of CJ Giles by the lackey Rick Olivares"