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:

Mac Baracael has been playing at the four position most of the time and he has been way more effective there when compared to Japeth. Japeth hasn't been rebounding too well and has been making good decisions. Plus he has not been playing good defense.

As for the PBA players, no coach Raijko is not interested in Asi at all. He was simply using him as a measure for the size that he needs. the only PBA player that he really wants (which i think finally came out publicly today) is kelly williams because he would be a perfect fit for the 4 position because of his rebounding and shooting.

As for the guards, Toroman is completely happy with all of them and he is just waiting for Lutz to come then his lineup for guards will be complete. I know a lot of people dont like Tiu, but when he averages the most minutes on the team, that says alot for a guy who is so short. Watching their games, it would seem that it is his fault when the guards score but truth is, he does everything coach Raijko asks him to on defense. he follows their defensive philosophy to the letter and often enough it is due to his teammates' mistakes in following their help side rules on defense that lead his man to score. He is just the leader of the team and sticks his team together. A true role player indeed.

Baracael has been great and Jvee Casio has been very good too. Barroca is actually not playing so well anymore and is getting berated at times for not passing the ball and setting the plays up properly.

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:

• Rajko Toroman is preparing his team to defend against bigger teams, and so far it’s working. It shouldn’t come as a surprise though, because the team did well too against bigger teams in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup last year even when CJ Giles went down. Does anyone else find it funny that the strategy works for 6’11” American imports but not for 6’3” PBA forwards? Good thing Gilas won’t have to play against Richard Yee or Chad Alonzo in the Asian Games.


• Mac Baracael was the breakout star for Gilas in the tournament, especially in the last few games. I’m curious to know, from those who’ve been watching, what position he has been playing. Back in the Champions Cup, he saw a lot of action as an undersized power forward and stepped up big-time. Interestingly, Toroman’s wish list before the Dubai tournament if he had a choice of PBA players consisted of Kelly Williams, Gabe Norwood, Jared Dillinger, and Arwind Santos, all of whom play Baracael’s small forward position. I wonder if the list still looks like that today, or if he plans to go small-ball with a wingman playing the four-spot.


• Curiously, Toroman has name-dropped Asi Taulava in interviews after the Dubai tournament as someone who could fill in the team’s needs. Interesting.


• Chris Tiu has been quite a surprise. He’s really, actually good. He’s bulked up, and he’s surprisingly athletic—although PBA 2-guards still gave him a lot of trouble. It’s not as much of a problem against Middle Eastern club teams, who probably don’t run as many isolations and pick-and-rolls for their shooting guards. He gets a lot of cheap points in the Gilas half-court set, not just off jumpers, but backdoor cuts, screen-and-rolls, etc. He’s not a superstar, but he’s mind-numbingly solid. He’s just so steady, which was probably why he kept playing well in the PBA even as the rest of his teammates were struggling. I apologize to Tiu for calling him the next Alfie Almario.
  
  (This was actually originally part of an email exchange with Rafe Bartholomew, who suggested the title: “Giving credit where credit is Tiu.” Rafe’s book on Philippine basketball, “Pacific Rims” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.)


• Is Jayvee Casio the Franz Pumaren to Mark Barroca’s Hector Calma? And is this girl the Christine Jacob in this analogy? Does that make JR Cawaling the Elmer Reyes of this team? One thing I’m sure of: Magi Sison is definitely not the next Yves Dignadice.


• As Bill Simmons would say, the turd in the punch bowl is definitely Jamal Sampson, who has reportedly been kicked off the team. I thought it would be funny to go back and read Quinito Henson’s series of stories building up Sampson’s credentials before joining Gilas. And you know what? They’re fucking HILARIOUS.

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.

And I know that, yes, I have been posting about all the details of all the crap going on with Kris and James (Krijames?), but the thing is, not all blog entries are equal. That is, some posts just take more energy than others, and for the past week, cupcake-gate offered the path of least resistance.

Consider:

1. In my day job, each of us has been assigned a presidential candidate to profile, and we have to keep track of our candidate. I happen to be assigned to Kris Aquino’s brother, so it’s actually part of my job to keep track of what’s happening with her, especially since the issue took on a political color early on. It’s weird, but yeah, I seriously have to keep track of these stories for work. Most of it anyway. The rest, I’m just chismoso.


2. I am a Purefoods fan, and I’ve been a fan of the team before I’ve been a fan of pretty much anything else in my life. Lord knows I would stop being a fan of the team if I could. It hasn’t been fun having to cheer for the “Tender Juicy Hotdogs” or the “Chunkee Giants,” and neither has watching Ryan Gregorio’s coaching performance year in and year out.


3. Kris is compelling. I’m sorry, but she just is. Even Lourd de Veyra admits as much on his blog.

So basically, putting together a blog post on the issue would involve the following:

1. Taking the juiciest part of articles that I’ve already read (and, if available, video I’ve already seen)


2. Writing a short note tying them all together


3. Writing a joke about Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio and/or Jondan Salvador

Voila! I have a post that, judging from the amount of traffic generated by the blog last week, people are actually interested in. Plus, I can work on it bit by bit, over the course of the work day, during breaks. I put it up whenever I’m done with it.

Now, consider the Smart Gilas run in Dubai. I would have loved to write about it every step of the way. Like every other Pinoy sports fan, I am curious as to how they would perform. How would Chris Tiu handle defending opposing shooting guards? Without Sampson, would centers Jason Ballesteros and Greg Slaughter follow Rajko Toroman’s defensive help-side rules to protect the guards who will funnel their man to the baseline? Would Toroman go with the small-ball line-up that worked so well for the team during the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup, but he ditched during the Gilas stint in the PBA? Would the Dubai crowd be terrified of Mark Barroca, or will they find him exotic? And so on.

Unfortunately, I’ve had neither the time nor the energy to catch their games on live stream. And it’s not like the news reports of the games have been very informative; basically, we just find out that the other team had big imports, but our guys had bigger hearts, Baracael/Tiu/Barroca/Casio hit big shots, and we won.

(On this note, let me point out that while I’ve gone after Rick Olivares quite a few times on this blog, I still think he did an excellent job covering the team during the Champions Cup last May.)

I wish I had something to add to the discussion but, well, I didn’t. Blogging regularly, and blogging well, about the Gilas stint in Dubai takes a lot of time, and frankly, I just haven’t had the time.

But like I said, that’s a reason, and not an excuse. Insightful analysis and different takes on the Gilas program would be appreciated by a lot of people: hardcore Pinoy basketball fans, casual fans who have gotten back into basketball because of the promise and potential of the Smart Gilas program, pervs who jerk off to grainy streaming video of Chris Tiu, and Alain Katigbak.

So here’s the deal. If anyone out there wants to take on the task of writing about Gilas, go start your own sports blog, and I promise to link to it. Better yet, you could write posts right here on my blog, send them to j@firequinito.com and I’ll run them unedited so you can give me the Jimmy Kimmel-on-Jay Leno treatment if you want. I’ll even buy you a beer. My only requirement would be that the post be original, well-written (with correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, very important!), insightful and/or funny.

Game?

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.

The thing is, because the reports by Quinito Henson and Rick Olivares only reported one side of the story, we never know how true these reports were. Could it be possible then that these imports acted up because they were trying to get out of their contracts in the Philippines for better deals abroad? Could the bitter articles that followed be just mechanisms for our local clubs to save face?

I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, we’ll never know these things because of the way Philippine sports are covered.

For example, very little useful reporting has been done about how the current import search for a great replacement for Giles has been hard, because now the pool is limited to players who couldn’t get a deal in China, where players are paid up to $40,000 a month, or even more.

Instead, we get fluff pieces about the credentials of prospect Jamal Sampson, who’s in town trying to sign a deal with Gilas. No one reports, however, that Sampson was a cautionary tale for players leaving college to turn professional early – he left the University of California after his freshman year – and how that lack of seasoning has had disastrous effects on Sampson’s development; he’s already 26, and as Sham Sports noted: “Sampson is still a pretty awful offensive player, who spent last year in China, where he averaged 10.7 points and 10.7 rebounds for Liaoning. And if he can't score there, he won't score anywhere.”

But for whatever reason, no one is asking why Gilas has not brought (or cannot bring) in anyone else other than Sampson. Considering how critical an import is to the success of the team, you’d think they would tread more carefully, perhaps bring in more than, you know, one guy.

And now, apparently, Gilas is having trouble closing a deal with Sampson. There’s a curious trend that no one’s talking about, with Gilas having problems getting or holding on to players. Consider:

• Japeth Aguilar originally chose to join the PBA draft over signing up with Gilas. Of course, he reversed course, and we all spent months getting worked up over that stupid discussion.


• Top college prospects Rico Maierhofer and Ogie Menor also chose to go pro. It’s crazy, when you think about it: Maierhofer is now being “developed” by Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio instead of Rajko Toroman, while Menor is doing his Tubid 2.0 with Barako freaking Bull, which is just a step up from a Liga Pilipinas team. Both of them could have helped Gilas tremendously.


• 6-11 center Greg Slaughter trained with Gilas in the offseason, but refused to rejoin the team after leading the University of the Visayas to a Cesafi championship, saying he wanted to focus on his studies. Of course, focusing on his studies did not preclude him from playing for UV in the Philippine Collegiate Champions League.


• Rabeh Al-Husseini did not join Gilas in the team’s offseason training abroad, also saying that he wanted to focus on his studies. Of course, this did not preclude him from joining Ateneo’s offseason training in Las Vegas. After leading the Blue Eagles to a championship, Al-Husseini finally joined Smart Gilas.


• Despite love letters from Noli Eala, sensational University of the East guard Paul Lee and promising University of Cebu June Mar Fajardo have refused to join the team.


• When Gilas ran a recruitment camp in Las Vegas last summer, top Fil-Am prospects such as Stanley Pringle did not show up. Which might have been for the best, actually. Pringle is now playing for the Passe-Partout Leuven Bears in Belgium.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with what Gilas is doing to recruit players; team captain Chris Tiu detailed, in his usual articulate manner, the merits of the program and why it was the right decision for him.

But I’m curious to know is why all these other players refused. At the very least, there are interesting stories here beyond the usual lackey pieces. Or are we not supposed to talk about anything that’s not part of, as Imelda Marcos would put it, the true, the good, and the beautiful?

(Even more on the topic tomorrow.)

Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Games and Amusements held a hearing to look into the Wynne Arboleda incident that happened during the Burger King-Smart Gilas game three weeks ago. The investigation delved into, among other things, the allegation by SBP executive director Noli Eala (and repeated by Smart Gilas loyalists) that Burger King coach Yeng Guiao had ordered Burger King players to rough up the developmental team players. The loyalists had taken a Twitter report by Patricia Hizon about Guiao’s pre-game speech instructing his team to “put them in their place” as evidence that the fiery coach wanted a hit out on the Gilas boys.

Except it wasn’t true, as Patricia herself attested to during the hearing, and that the statement was taken the wrong way by people with certain biases. There were NO directives for BK players to hurt anyone, according to her.

Here was Patricia’s original tweet of Guiao’s speech: “Malayo pa bago nila makuha spot niyo. Pero pakita niyo that this is your spot. Put them in their place and have pride.”

Now, it’s not hard to imagine Guiao instructing his players to play extra-physical against anyone; it’s part of the image he cultivates. But coaches do that all the time. Last season, Alaska coach Tim Cone threatened physical violence against Mac Cardona if the Talk N Text guard doesn’t stop his taunting. In the US, longtime Temple coach John Chaney was involved in a controversy after he instructed one of his bench players to take hard fouls against an opponent who subsequently got injured.

But what Yeng Guiao’s speech that afternoon betrays isn’t his guilt, but instead his extraordinary understanding of his players’ psyche. It shows why he’s been so successful in taking unheralded players and motivating them to play above themselves.

Consider this: there are only ten teams in the PBA, and each team only has 14 spots. At any one time, the maximum total number of active PBA players is only 140. Think about that number, and consider how many Filipinos play basketball, here and abroad. That number is miniscule and each spot is very precious.

Then take a look at the Burger King roster. They have two marquee scorers, Gary David and Ronjay Buenafe, neither of whom played in the elite collegiate leagues; playing for Lyceum and Emilio Aguinaldo College meant that they had to work doubly hard to get noticed and eventually get to where they are. Arboleda, often mocked for the fact that his father-in-law owns the team, had to take the long route to success. He lucked out in getting a spot for the Laguna Lakers after his college coach at MLQU was tapped to handle the team, and he parlayed that into PBA stints with Pop Cola and Tanduay. He actually made it to the PBA ahead of the Lina Group.

Beau Belga, Aaron Aban, and JR Quinahan were first-round draft picks whose original teams had given up on them. Richard Yee was unceremoniously cut from Purefoods despite spending ten years with the team. Chico Lanete, Mark Yee, and Egay Billones played for no-name collegiate programs, toiled in the commercial leagues, and went unsigned by professional teams before someone finally took a flyer on them. Carlo Sharma once thought that his PBA career was over after he was cut from Shell. Even rookie Ronnie Matias faced crazy odds, playing out of Philippine Maritime Institute (who knew they had a basketball team?) before having an excellent PBL career that led to him getting drafted this year. I got my Yeng Guiao rookies crossed, Larry Rodriguez played for PMI, while Ronne Matias played for the University of Manila Hawks. Matias joined Adamson in the UAAP, but I can't remember him seeing action for the Falcons. He's been around.

Each and every player on the team has worked very, very hard for a spot in the league. Some of these players probably feel that they’re only one step away from losing their spot; some of them almost did.

On the other side were Smart Gilas, a team composed of highly-touted collegiate stars. Most of their players were heavily recruited by the best college programs since high school, and those who weren’t, quickly gained prominence and following in the top two collegiate leagues. The most popular players on the team have starred in television commercials, and all of them have been signed to lucrative long-term contracts to play for the program. Without having proven anything yet, they have been handed the financial security and the popular acclaim that has been so elusive for Burger King players.

What Guiao did merely was to point out the situation to his players: these guys are here to take your hard-earned spot, put them in their place. So they did.

Wynne Arboleda played physical, dirty even. But the others guys on Burger King also put Gilas in their place. Ronjay Buenafe and Gary David kept torching Chris Tiu and JR Cawaling. Richard Yee outfoxed Japeth Aguilar. JR Quinahan abused Rabeh Al-Husseini. They showed that these young guys do not belong on the same court, especially when Gilas plays without an import. At least, not yet.

The Wynne Arboleda incident was indeed unfortunate, and SBP loyalists have taken it as an opportunity to go at Yeng Guiao again. Between those two things, we failed to see what the locker room pep talk really was when taken in context: a pretty good speech.