Since the end of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, the Internet has been abuzz with blind items and rumors about trades that were being discussed by teams around the league. The first domino fell last night, as Waylon Galvez of the Manila Bulletin reports that the Alaska Aces have sent do-everything forward Joe Devance to the Air 21 Express in exchange for the talented if underachieving Jay-R Reyes, pending approval from Commissioner Chito Salud.

Continue reading "Alaska trades Joe Devance for Jay-R Reyes"

I’ve been a fan of SLAM since high school, and up until a few years ago I still bought the magazine every month, until the hefty price tag (~P500-P600 a pop) made me reassess its place in my life’s list of priorities.

Continue reading "SLAM Philippines out now!"

Because both teams are bankrolled by Manny Pangilinan, sports fans assumed that it would not be an issue for the Talk N Text Tropang Texters to lend its players to the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Team, which is scheduled to represent the country in the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championship. Talk N Text team captain Jimmy Alapag and power forward Kelly Williams had been eyed by Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman to reinforce the national squad, along with Meralco’s Asi Taulava and Air 21’s Dondon Hontiveros.

The idea was that lending the players to Smart Gilas would allow the professionals to become familiar with their teammates and with Toroman’s system. But it would also mean that these players would not play for their club teams for the PBA’s season-ending Governor’s Cup.

Continue reading "Smart Gilas, Talk N Text, and Alaska ‘98"

Manny Pangilinan and his Talk N Text Tropang Texters really would have wanted to close out its best-of-seven PBA Commissioner’out last Friday. The problem with winning last night was that Manny Pacquiao was fighting earlier in the day, which meant that news of Talk N Text’s second straight title would be buried under the headlines of the pound-for-pound king’s victory.

Continue reading "Talk N Text survives Ginebra in game 6 epic to win 2011 PBA Commissioner’s Cup"

On Twitter last night, I wrote that Ginebra’s win over Smart Gilas last night to advance to the finals followed the template of Gary Granada’s (and Bayang Barrios’) original song about the team, “Pag Nananalo Ang Ginebra”. The team trailed in the first half as their fans slowly fell into the grips of despair:

Ngunit ang aga nilang nagkalat,
bawat diskarte nasisisilat
Nagkasundo kaming magkakampi
na ang labo kasi ng referee
Ang barangay parang napeste,
natambakan agad kami ng bente
Parang bansa'y nagkaleche-leche,
at nareelect ang president

Continue reading "Ginebrang Ginebra"

I had wanted to blog about this earlier, but there were more, uh, pressing matters to blog about. Over the weekend, Lawrence Chongson, former coach of the University of the East Red Warriors in the UAAP and current coach of Cobra in the PBA D-League, joined the fray in the popular message board community Pinoy Exchange and began answering questions from its readers.

Answers that involved such topics as UE star Ken Acibar, and the coach’s long, flowing locks:

good morning guys. to answer ur questions for today: #1 yes. Acibar will stil play for d university, unless tanggalin din sya. #2 never pa ako nagapapa-rebond ng buhok in my entire life. if u wud only come closer to me then u'll see. noon pa man pati mga girls nai-inggit sa hair ko kasi straight daw. maybe its my chinese genes, i don't know. at my age hndi na ako masyadong conscious sa ganyan. kung alam mo lang how much hair i've lost or nalalagas sakin since i started coaching UE. syempre super-pressured diba? lalo na kung alam mong marami ang babatikos everytime matatalo ang team.

Continue reading "Former UE coach Lawrence Chongson lets his hair down at PinoyExchange.com"

This blog turns two years old today, so let me take this opportunity to celebrate this blog’s modest achievements.

Over the past couple of years, the level of discourse about sports in this country has deepened and broadened, and I’m proud to say that Fire Quinito has had a little to do with that, even though the posts here aren’t always polite or in good taste.

Continue reading "FQ turns two"

The usual suspects Polo Bustamante, and Carlo Pamintuan were unavailable last night, so I stepped in for a one-on-one podcast with Chuck Araneta in the latest episode of the From the Stands podcast. After briefly eulogizing the B-MEG Derby Ace campaign in the Commissioner's Cup and talking about the controversial Alaska-Air 21 match-up, we broke down the quarterfinals matchups: Air 21 vs Alaska and Ginebra vs Rain or Shine, and how the teams stack up against top seeds Talk N Text and Smart Gilas.

For this week's Old School vs New School, we compare two of the PBA's greatest shooting guards: Jojo Lastimosa and Mark Caguioa, whose fans argue that each guy is the greatest player never to win the MVP award.

Continue reading "From the Stands: Handicapping the PBA quarters, Jojo Lastimosa vs Mark Caguioa"