I spent the past couple of days back at my family’s ancestral home in Middle of Nowhere, Iloilo to attend to some family matters, so I missed the second game of the Philippine Cup finals between Purefoods and Alaska. Quite serendipitously, I ran into Patricia Bermudez-Hizon and Vince ‘The Prince’ Hizon in the airport just before my flight back to Manila, and they filled me on what happened in game 2.

Back at home a couple of hours later, I watched video of referee Maui Maurillo calling a bailout foul on Alaska’s Joe Devance while defending Kerby Raymundo’s desperation jumper with 1.7 seconds left.



That call was bullshit. Complete, utter bullshit.

I hate the call as a Purefoods fan – and, if I may, a prominent enough fan for the team’s coach to feel the need to address my comments – because I don’t want to win half as much as I want to win the right way. The controversy of this call undermines all the efforts of my team, from James Yap’s game-long brilliance (32 points on 20 shots), to Kerby Raymundo’s clutch hit, to the excellent work by the Purefoods coaching staff in preparing the team for Alaska’s adjustments after game 1.

After the game, Alaska team manager Joaqui Trillo said, “I don’t think Purefoods was happy with the win. I think they would have wanted to earn the win instead of it being given to them on a silver platter.” I’m not too sure about the Purefoods team, but this Purefoods fan completely feels that way.

Now the only thing people will remember about this game will be Maurillo’s bullshit call, instead of the Purefoods furious rally at the end of the game. The only video people will be watching from the game will be that last play, instead of excellent James Yap sequence that Dre Gonzales described, “James Yap just hit the shot of the year. An alley oop caught with one hand and with one motion laid it up with a finger roll.” It sounds like a highlight for the ages, and I don’t know if it will ever see the light of YouTube.

I hate the call as an admirer of the Alaska basketball organization. I could only imagine how the whole team feels today, but I’m sure that the Alaska brain trust is trying their best to get the team to move forward and not feel too sorry for themselves. As Francis Ochoa deftly points out, Alaska has taken the high road in their response to the incident.

I hope they come out fighting today, and give their fans a good effort. Fans like Steve Racelis, who apparently suffered a heart attack at the end of the game and underwent brain surgery yesterday.

I hate the call, most of all, as a PBA fan. My favorite kind of feedback is from people who tell me that they haven’t been watching the PBA, but have done so again because of stuff I’d been writing, and they’re always surprised by how great it is. This is the best Philippine basketball has to offer, the game Rafe Bartholomew passionately raves about, most recently in FreeDarko.

Maurillo’s bullshit call undermines my case. Over the course of this tournament, there has been a lot of righteous indignation over the Wynne Arboleda incident and the Talk N Text walkout, and in each instance, the offending party were assessed heavy penalties.

This is almost as bad, because it robs fans of the opportunity to witness two great teams duking it out for the win. Hell, I’m a Purefoods fan, and my team got the win, and I’m pissed off about Maurillo’s stupid call. I don’t see any reason why significant penalties shouldn’t be assessed by the PBA on Maurillo, who also happened to work the Talk N Text walkout game.

Think about how big a stage the PBA finals is, and how much money the PBA will lose from fans turned off by this bullshit call. If this were any other industry, Maurillo would be fired by now.

Alaska is perhaps the most Internet-savvy organization in the PBA. Its coach, Tim Cone, has been holding court on Twitter for several months now, sharing invaluable basketball knowledge to fans. We had this initial exchange a few months ago.

Me: “I hope you do continue with your candid tweets, coach. I’m sure everyone appreciates it. You’re almost turning me into an Alaska fan. Too bad I’m dyed in the wool for Purefoods. Heck, I’m still bitter about the ’96 All-Filipino.”

Tim Cone: “At least you’re different. You could be like everybody else and be a Ginebra fan! Chot is still bitter too, by the way.”

Even their team owner, Fred Uytengsu, is known to browse certain blogs and give fans a piece of his mind. So it should come as no surprise that Alaska, long the choice of egghead Pinoy basketball fans, enjoys quite a following online, with a lot of meaningful blog posts dedicated to the team.

On top of the list, of course, is my idol and Alaska fan no. 1 Rafe Bartholomew (author of Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball, available for pre-order now!), who wrote a must-read entry about the team on his blog a couple of days ago. Rafe enjoys a unique perspective, joining the team for the better part of the 2006-2007 season as part of his research for his book. He focused on Alaska’s up-and-down record the past few years, and tried to figure out why this happens:

For players, it's much easier to buy into the team ethic during good times. When Alaska's on a roll, the team really does feel like a family. Willie Miller's pranks will have the entire team and coaching staff in stitches, players will show up unannounced at JoLas's summertime clinics for kids and step in as coaches, and you'll find half the team sitting around a bank of Monoblock tables at Metrowalk, drinking San Mig Lights and making kuwento. Players who came to Alaska from other teams or left the Aces to play elsewhere said that while locker rooms are always tight-knit, nothing compares to Alaska.

In bad times, however, everyone seems more aware of the business side of basketball. The coaches, feeling like their jobs may be endangered if they don't produce wins, get short-tempered with the players. Fewer won-game bonuses come in, and players gripe more often and more vehemently about their salaries. They start to question the coaches' judgment: Does a younger player deserve my minutes? Why should I lead the team if there are older guys to take that role? Why do we have to spend so much practice time on the triangle?

The excerpt doesn’t do it justice, really. Go read the whole thing.

Also, if you haven’t read it yet, make sure to check out Rafe’s piece about Rosell Ellis and Alaska’s 2007 Fiesta Conference championship run. It’s some of the best writing about the PBA ever printed.

Elsewhere, great Alaska writing can also be found at Maverick’s blog. It’s from the perspective of an Alaska fan who is still bitter that Ginebra’s Chris King thoroughly dominated Alaska’s Kevin Holland back in the 1997 Commissioner’s Cup. His masterpiece is a walkthrough of the team’s 1996 grand slam, a must-read for Alaska fans.

Anyway, I saw Alaska in action during the first round of eliminations, last November 22, in a win over Purefoods, a blowout so awful that I had a Twitter rant when I wasn’t even drunk. Anyway, here are some thoughts about the Aces, in bullets:

• Before anything else, let me revive my campaign for Willie Miller’s nickname to simply be Willie Thriller. Not Willie ‘The Thriller’ Miller, not ‘Thriller’ Miller, but just plain Willie Thriller. It’s cool, and it rolls off the tongue. On the off chance that anyone from the PBA broadcast crew reads this, please take note. It’s Willie Thriller.


• Alaska tried out a different approach in guarding James Yap, starting LA Tenorio out on the Purefoods gunner and sending a double-team. It’s a common enough technique that San Miguel also employed in the semifinals. I also remember former Talk N Text coach Derrick Pumaren going with the same tactic a couple of years ago in the playoffs. Larry Fonacier and Jeffrey Cariaso also took turns manning Yap. Alaska stopper Tony dela Cruz never got the assignment, which is curious because he’d had some success against Yap before. Then again, putting dela Cruz on Yap would leave Alaska’s shooting guard on Purefoods’ small forward, which is usually either Marc Pingris or Rico Maierhofer. That’s no fun.


• The thing I was most impressed by Tenorio was not his court generalship, which was superb, or his shooting, which has become a truly dangerous weapon for him. It was his defense. He now plays defense like Paul Artadi (and if you’ve seen Artadi put pressure on the ball, you’d know that’s a great thing). What makes it so remarkable is that, unlike the much more skilled Tenorio, Artadi has to play defense like that to stay in the league. It’s that feistiness on defense that’s making Tenorio special. A team just gets so much more energy when its lead guard puts pressure on the ball.


• Also, all that annoying extracurricular crap that Tenorio used to pull back with Ateneo and San Miguel? He doesn’t do it anymore. That’s a good thing, because it’s the kind of crap that gets him punched. In fact, Roger Yap already punched him.


• Not enough has been made about Willie Thriller’s role in Tenorio’s development. Miller has been superb all conference long, picking his spots while handing most of the playmaking chores to his backcourt mate. There’s also his amazing transformation into the true leader of the team. He keeps everyone in line, and when he’s on the bench, he rabidly barks out instructions and paces the sidelines like an assistant coach. It’s like he has designs on Luigi Trillo’s job. At this point, it’s possible that Trillo just remains on the Alaska bench to look cute.


• I had a good joke about some other coach possibly being insecure about Luigi Trillo’s good looks on the other bench, but I remembered I can’t crack those jokes anymore.


• Everyone’s focused on the Alaska backcourt this conference, but Sonny Thoss might be the most important player in the Alaska lineup, anchoring the team’s halfcourt defense while finishing cheap layups off the guards’ dimes on the other end. Getting him in foul trouble is sound strategy, but Alaska’s wingmen do such a great job at preventing penetration so Thoss is rarely out of position on the rotation.


• There are a lot of great matchups in the series, but here’s a matchup I’m excited about that no one’s talking about: Reynel Hugnatan and Marc Pingris. Hugnatan does for Alaska what Pingris does for Purefoods. Hugnatan has less hops, but he has a buntot in his hair, so it’s a push. Dapat, magpustahan silang dalawa ng ice tubig.

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.

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.