Philippine basketball sports has started to develop a small but vibrant community on Twitter, and Fire Quinito rounds up the best messages from athletes, broadcasters, and fans, in 140 characters or less.




Here’s hoping that when we vote for Chris Tiu as our president in 25 years – you know, after he serves as Manny Pacquiao’s vice president for 6 years – he’ll still have a full head of hair.




I miss Ed Picson doing the coverage. Always loved him, especially kapag binabara niya si Quinito.




Nice. I wonder though if there’s a workout to make Dyan a better boxing announcer.




Yeah, go for it Boyet! Just remember: Flirting on Twitter is ok, but writing love letters leads to disbarment.




Cool. And it’s high praise too, because Howie and I have spoken before about David Halberstam’s classic “The Breaks of the Game.” Also, if you missed it, he left a comment on the post about his James Yap documentary, and called The Genius “cutie coach Ryan.”




And the fans concur. Ayos si Coach ah, parang (500) Days of Summer lang eh noh.




An underrated, amusing part of Howie’s documentary: FEU center Aldrech Ramos chilling out wearing a jejecap.




Had a nice, quick chat with Mico after last night’s game. He’s one of my favorite sportscasters. Plus, he gives hope to all of us short guys who want to be involved in basketball. Also, he’s married to Pia Arcangel, so that gives us even more hope. I should probably stop writing now before I get into trouble.

Anyway, I had a good time at the game even though Derby Ace lost. Speaking of which...




Yeah, this was after Marc Pingris had a monster, two-handed putback slam dunk to cut the San Miguel lead to 4. The Beermen called timeout, and the arena DJ played Baby. Pati pagkatalo ng Purefoods, kasalanan pa rin ni Bieber. While we’re on the subject of music…




If there ever was a Sweetest Tweets hall of fame, Robbie Reyes would be a first-ballot inductee.

A couple of weeks ago, Howie Severino contacted me to talk about basketball. His i-Witness team had started reading Rafe Bartholomew’s Pacific Rims, and it inspired them to do a basketball documentary. They were playing around with the idea of featuring James Yap, particularly to show a side of him beyond being Kris Aquino’s controversial husband. Howie had also read my recent blog entries about James Yap, and his interest was piqued by James Yap’s amazing performance despite his marital woes. The only concern was that James might not be so forthcoming, because of all the controversies surrounding him.

So Howie and I chatted for about an hour, just shooting the breeze about potential Philippine basketball stories. I told him that the James Yap docu would be really interesting, because so many people only know him from his rocky marriage, which is a shame, because when all is said and done, he’ll probably be the most important PBA player of his generation. Howie, a big-time fan of Ateneo basketball, meanwhile also wanted to do something related to the UAAP, because of the league’s growing popularity.

I started telling him about young high school phenoms such as Kiefer Ravena and Ray Parks, kids who are highly-prized because of their precocious basketball talent. I said that they could still tie up the story with James Yap, because he himself had once been a high school and UAAP phenom. We exchanged a couple more emails about the UAAP, and Howie and his team went off to work.

I had no idea how the docu was coming along, or if they went along with the idea, until late Saturday night, when I caught an interview of my main man Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio in a promo for i-Witness, talking about his star player. Turns out that apart from James, they’re also featuring a couple of UAAP players with provincial roots: Aldretch Ramos of FEU and Cocoy Hermosisima of NU.

So tonight, after Saksi, tune in to Howie Severino’s “Bilog ang Bola” on GMA-7. Pretty apt that it airs on the night of Noynoy’s first SONA. I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a Howie docu since he interviewed Governor Vi.

BILOG ANG BOLA
Documentary by Howie Severino

The general public knows James Yap because of Kris Aquino and their colorful marriage, now falling apart in front of everyone.

What many may have forgotten is that James is also one of the most talented and charismatic basketball players of his generation, a phenom ever since his high school days. With the influx of Filipino-American players, James is now a rare breed - the local college player who has become a superstar in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Howie Severino and his documentation team get to know James' basketball prowess during his team Derby Ace’s dramatic playoff series against Rain or Shine. Hurting from his recent separation from Kris, and from a black eye suffered in a hard-fought game, Yap has to lead his injury-plagued team against a strong and healthy opponent. Will the phenom deliver?

While Howie's team follows Yap's playoff performance to its exciting finish, they are also shadowing two collegiate phenoms who will soon face off against each other, stars for opposing UAAP teams National University and Far Eastern University.

NU's Joseph ‘Cocoy’ Hermosisima and FEU's Aldrech Ramos are like many Filipino talented young players, rooted in poverty, and dreaming of PBA riches and becoming the next phenom. But as the spots on professional teams increasingly go to Fil-Ams, they must prove themselves first in college hoops and lead their teams to victory. But only one of them can win.

Young dreamers and troubled pro - two faces of Philippine basketball that represent the hope of rising stars all over the nation.

I-Witness airs this Monday after Saksi!

After my trip to Thailand last week, I went straight to Boracay to catch up with my buddies for a quick vacation. Obligatory player sighting story: I saw Renren Ritualo a couple of times around the island, the second time, he was with his wife walking at D’Mall just past the booth where they have the basketball shooting machine. The guys at the booth were calling out to him to try out the shooting game, but he ignored them. I kinda wish he took them up on it; I would have loved to see Renren laying waste to the D’Mall basketball shooting game record.

While on my trip, I was only able to take in very little basketball, watching game 5 of the Derby Ace-Rain or Shine game (while jumping to the La Salle-UE game at the other channel). I was absolutely on edge the whole time during the game, and I felt like Sol Mercado bailed the Llamados out when he took a thirty-footer at the end of regulation instead of going hard to the basket. I caught the start of the Ginebra-Alaska game, but I had to leave – a buffet dinner and more heavy drinking beckoned – which was a shame, because people said the main game was even more epic than the opener.

By the way, Ryan Gregorio bringing in Tony Washam? Looks like a genius move so far.

Oh, and how about 20,000 fans turning out for a PBA quarterfinals doubleheader? Not bad for a dying league, eh?

Lotsa news from the past week or so, in bullets:

• The latest PCIJ report on presidential campaign donors brings up some very interesting information. Can you guess which candidate got donations from both Ricky Razon and Manny Pangilinan, who contribute a sizeable chunk of cash to the De La Salle and Ateneo programs, respectively? Will post the answer in the last bullet.


• Even though he’s on the other side of the world, Pacific Rims author Rafe Bartholomew still spends his New York City mornings watching PBA games on live streaming. Last week, he wrote about Talk N Text, the new villains of the PBA, and he received a detailed rebuttal in the comments section from Texters coach Chot Reyes.


• Chot Reyes also revealed on Twitter that he was reading Rafe’s book, which concludes with a best-of-seven series between Alaska and Talk N Text. Curiously, Coach Chot and the Texters will be facing Alaska in a best-of-seven series starting today.


• Nice GMANews.TV report on Cyrus Baguio’s throat-slashing gesture towards Ginebra (which he plays off as a joke). Earlier, I mistakenly attributed the story to Rey Joble.


• Check out Jonas Terrado's excellent sports blog, a must-read especially during the UAAP season. It seems like we've all been reading him forever (actually, since his UBelt.com days).


• From Joble last week: Pitting the NCAA coaches against UAAP mentors in a basketball game. I love how Ateneo coach Norman Black, who’s the epitome of class on the sidelines, gets all competitive and starts trash-talking when asked about his hardcourt prospects: “Don’t make me laugh. I’m an import. No way the NCAA team can beat us.” I agree that the UAAP guys would probably win, but I think the NCAA has a puncher’s chance, if Vergel Meneses and Ato Agustin decide to make a game of it.


• Big NBA week for Asian-Americans: Portland names Rich Cho as its new general manager, while former Harvard standout Jeremy Lin is about to sign a deal with the Golden State Warriors. Also, former 7-UP import Dell Demps is in the running for GM jobs in Phoenix and New Orleans. UPDATE: It looks like Demps is headed to NOLA.


• Cocktales reports that four senior executives of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, including Talk N Text governor and SBP Vice Chairman Ricky Vargas, was given a compensation package last year of P297 million. “Assuming that the generous package is divided equally,” the report says the executives “will still end up taking home an envy-raising P59.4 million each.”


• The presidential candidate that got millions in cash from Ricky Razon and Manny Pangilinan? None other than former President Joseph Estrada.

Controversy and uncertainty seems to be hounding the Derby Ace Llamados since the Purefoods franchise won the Philippine Cup last March. There have been questions about the corporate status of the team, with talks rife that its mother company, the San Miguel Corporation, is looking to sell a stake in San Miguel Pure Foods, which owns the ballclub. More recently, James Yap, the team’s best player, has been embroiled in a controversy that has captured national attention, although he has done a great job tuning out the distractions and stepping up his game (with a little help from Peter Cetera).

This morning, fans of the team got another jolt when Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Beth Celis wrote that Meralco, which is seeking to become part of the PBA next season, is looking at Derby Ace coach Ryan Gregorio as a candidate for its potential head coaching vacancy. Gregorio’s brother, Patrick, is the head of Smart Sports, which is in charge of sports-related initiatives for the group of Manny Pangilinan, who is president and chief executive officer of Meralco.

I quickly asked Coach Ryan, who’s known around these parts as “The Genius,” about the matter, and he replied back promptly: “I am too focused on leading the Derby Ace Llamados to another title crack. I am not entertaining anything other than that. I was surprised to read my name in the column of Beth Celis.”

It would be hard to imagine Gregorio leaving the Purefoods franchise, which gave him his first big break, and whose top brass has remained loyal to him even when the team struggled under his watch. He told me when we met up last March that he had even offered his resignation to Purefoods management, but they urged him to stay on and gave him a vote of confidence.

He delivered for the team last conference, and it has been a remarkable turnaround for Gregorio. The team’s Philippine Cup victory has earned him much praise from fans, like me, who had been calling for his head only some weeks before. One could imagine that fans who were once lobbying for his resignation are now getting worried that the team might lose him.

And we should. Look at his record: he has led the Purefoods franchise to the Philippine Cup finals three times in the last five years, winning two championships and narrowly losing a third one in a tight seven-game series against Sta. Lucia. Of course, some would say that he’s just lucky that he has a superstar like James Yap on his team. But Gregorio was also the same genius who orchestrated a 2004 draft day deal with Shell that made sure his team would end up with Yap. Sometimes, you have to make your own luck.