The Philippine Basketball Association will be handing out its awards for the season tonight, and James Yap would probably walk away with the season’s Most Valuable Player trophy. Few rational PBA fans would argue with the choice, considering Yap pretty much put his stamp on this season, leading Purefoods to the Philippine Cup championship and carrying his team to a decent showing in the Fiesta Conference despite missing Kerby Raymundo most of the tournament. With this season, Yap also cemented his stature as perhaps the PBA’s last crossover superstar, and while his marriage to Kris Aquino definitely made him a household name, his game all year has lived up to every expectation.

Continue reading "Quick thoughts on the PBA annual awards"

Coach Ryan Gregorio sent his thoughts on the past Purefoods/Derby Ace season a few minutes ago. This was the same message he sent to his family, and he wanted to share it with fans of the team:

Continue reading "Purefoods / Derby Ace season postmortem by Coach Ryan Gregorio"

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.

Continue reading "The Sweetest Tweets, featuring Chris Tiu, broadcasters, and fans"

I mentioned earlier that I had been planning to write about the Smart Gilas victory in the recently-concluded pocket tournament over Jordan. However, like everything else, including her brother’s inauguration, it had to take a backseat to an issue concerning Kris Aquino. I apologize for that.

Anyway, here are the things we learned from the invitational, apart from the fact that Mac Cardona punches like a chick:

Continue reading "Putting the Smart Gilas victory over Jordan in context"

To the naked eye, the last two games of the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup finals series between Purefoods and Alaska have been pretty much alike. They have been low-scoring games, with Purefoods pulling out the win at the last possessions.

Continue reading "Purefoods finds ways to win, takes 3-0 lead over Alaska"

At the start of most PBA games, some announcer (usually Quinito Henson) would throw out some meaningless statistic like “If Purefoods holds Alaska down to less than 85 points, they’ll probably win the ballgame.” I keep waiting for them to say something like “If Purefoods holds Alaska to fewer points, they’ll probably win.” Yeah, and if they do it four times, they’ll win the series.

Continue reading "Purefoods-Alaska game 1, in numbers"

“Kung sa ice tubig nga, nagpapatayan sa barangay court, ngayon pa, eh milyon milyon ang bonus.”
-- Marc Pingris on the PBA finals

I loved this quote from Pingris because every Pinoy guy who has ever played basketball outdoors, in the playgrounds, in barangay courts, or in makeshift rings in the middle of the street could relate to what he said. All of us still remember those summer afternoon games with ice tubig as the wager.

Continue reading "Ice tubig and the PBA finals"

After a crazy quarterfinal round, the stage is set for the PBA Philippine Cup final four. The cast features 3 teams that belong to the San Miguel Corporation, which again reinforces perceptions by the league’s critics that the PBA is an SMC league. Some even say that the PBA is set up so that SMC teams would always end up on the winning end of most tournaments.

The grand conspiracy argument doesn’t hold much water. If it were true, there’s no way Sta. Lucia would have won the 2008 Philippine Cup over Purefoods in a close seven-game series wherein James Yap was suspended for one game for the same flagrant 2 penalty called on Ranidel de Ocampo last Friday. Imagine David Stern suspending Kobe Bryant on an iffy call in an NBA finals series against a team like the Milwaukee Bucks.

Continue reading "The SMC League"

Alaska Aces

Looking back: Alaska started the 2008-2009 PBA season well, as the team came a Willie Thriller layup short of winning the Philippine Cup. The loss, however, seemed to weigh heavily on coach Tim Cone’s wards, and an unhappy Aces team finished second to the last during the Fiesta Conference. Things got even worse in the offseason when star guard Miller asked to be traded, a request Alaska denied.

Continue reading "Fire Quinito 2009-2010 PBA preview, part 1"

Dominoes fall with some big news. Burger King finally completes the Arwind Santos trade, and they receive Marc Pingris back in return, who's apparently headed to Purefoods. I love Pingris as a player, but I hate the fishiness of all of these deals. Patricia Hizon also reports on Twitter that Rain or Shine and Barako Bull are working on a couple of minor trades: Jeff Chan for Rob Wainwright and Mac Andaya, and maybe Mike Hrabak to RoS.

Anyway, I made a terrible mistake in my first mock draft, as two prospects, Josh Vanlandingham and Lance Convento, are not in the draft. I know, really stupid. My apologies. It's really a great move for those two, as the next couple of drafts figure to be shallower, and they'd have a good chance of getting drafted in higer spots.

Continue reading "Fire Quinito 2009 PBA mock draft, version 1.5"