• PBA Commissioner Sonny Barrios will fine Talk N Text more than PhP1-million for their walkout. Fidel Mangonon has all the numbers.


• Jude Turcuato, who had a short stint working in the PBA Commissioner’s Office a few years ago, writes in his blog from the perspective of both a fan, and someone who has seen how the Talk N Text organization operates: “Throughout the whole Asi Taulava ordeal about his citizenship, TNT Management always felt that (then-Commissioner) Noli (Eala) was unfair with disallowing their big man to play because of him not having the proper documentation. They even had the PNP ready to arrest the commissioner at one point with cops at the Araneta if he didn't allow Asi to play.”


• Ronnie Nathanielsz, not surprisingly, defended the Talk N Text decision. At this point, Nathanielsz is the closest thing that the Philippine sports scene has to a moral compass; if he’s taking one position, you could almost be certain that the opposite position is the correct one.


• Tito Talao opened his column about Manny Pangilinan with this line: “Like the noble captain of a doomed ship, Talk ’N Text team owner Manny V. Pangilinan waited until everyone aboard had been saved before quietly stepping off deck Sunday night.” Yuck. Will he be faxing this column to Pangilinan’s office along with the solicitation letter for the PBA Press Corps Christmas Party? (I’m kidding.)


• Sometimes Recah Trinidad annoys me.
  
  There is the way he writes one sentence paragraphs, to make all his points seem profound—not to mention to stretch his point across the Inquirer’s column inches.
  
  * * *
  
  But sometimes, it works.
  
  Take his column about game 5 of the Ginebra-Talk N Text quarterfinal series, for example.
  
  He paints a picture of Manny Pangilinan and Chot Reyes’ terrible realization of the game four mistake—the walkout that was unwarranted.
  
  * * *
  
  It left the reader wondering, if there was something up with Pangilinan leaving the Araneta Coliseum so late. There must have been nagging questions.
  
  Could one of those questions be about Reyes’ job?

To follow-up my previous post about the Black Superman, here are a couple of YouTube videos about Billy Ray Bates in his days 1983 stint with the Crispa Redmanizers.

Manotoc even hints at Bates’ alcohol problem, which PBA teams over the course of the next few years were only too willing to ignore as long as Billy Ray put up the buckets.



After the jump, game footage of Billy Ray Bates’ Crispa taking on Great Taste Coffee, powered by Norman Black.

I had a kick out of reading Ronnie Nathanielsz’ commentary in the Manila Standard last Tuesday, “Of truths and lies,” which was about the myths surrounding the drug-testing brouhaha that’s holding up the megafight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. In it, Nathanielsz basically rips into the camp of Golden Boy Promotions, Mayweather’s promoters.

It’s a curious tack from Nathanielsz to lecture about the truth, especially since he was once singled out by Manny Pacquiao himself for spreading lies and making up quotes that put the boxer in a bad light. But I suppose everything’s alright now that Nathanielsz has slinked and ensconced his way into the good graces of Top Rank Boxing’s Bob Arum. In fact, Arum alleges that Nathanielsz heard Golden Boy’s CEO Richard Schaefer suspecting Pacquiao of doping back in September. Golden Boy has since denied Arum’s allegation, and it’s unfortunate that Nathanielsz did not bother to clarify the matter in his column.

Things weren’t always this way between Arum and Nathanielsz. Back in 2006, in the midst of the tug-of-war between Top Rank and Golden Boy, Nathanielsz wrote a series of stories pushing the GBP agenda and dismissing Arum’s claims. He also got great access to Golden Boy’s top management, including this embarrassingly chummy interview with Oscar de la Hoya.

(Incidentally, Golden Boy also signed a broadcast deal with ABS-CBN Sports, which is identified with Nathanielsz. In 2008, Nathanielsz wrote a series of stories pleading with the PBA board to award the television contract to the giant network. Solar Sports won the deal, much to his chagrin.)

Over the past couple of years, Nathanielsz has slowly slithered his way into Arum’s camp, after the veteran promoter won the battle to promote Pacquiao. Again, incidentally, Top Rank and ABS-CBN announced a partnership deal last December.

Newscaster and sports analyst TJ Manotoc was worried over Twitter about how people seemed to be taking Rey Joble’s scoop as gospel truth, and on his blog, he wondered whether Joble’s story is libelous. He compares it to a situation he recently found himself in:

Not too long ago I wrote a piece in my Abante column that got me in some first time major hot water. See I wrote about this private individual (note: not a government official) and how his mis-doings in a private association were to say “manipulative”. I cited a highly credible source who had first hand info that this person in fact admitted to his mis-deeds.

The next week I get the shock of my life, it was a demand letter from that man’s lawyer threatening me with libel if I did not make a retraction and a public apology in my column. I consulted the publication’s lawyers and a personal lawyer. I was so frustrated coz what I knew I was damn sure it was 100% true. But to my surprise, the law says that was not enough. The catch? That dude who did the mis-deeds was indeed a “private individual” and his actions in a private association. The only time the law allows you only site only a source and not even have a shred of evidence is when you are accusing a public official of something like corruption because his actions are of public interest and he is publicly accountable. Add to that, I damaged the reputation or defamed him with what I claimed he did. So since I had no evidence mentioned, nor did my highly placed source have any shred of evidence aside from a story from a trusted insider, I was screwed. Both lawyers advised me to retract and apologize. And so I did. I learned the law the hard way. Lucky for me, the guy was simply happy with an apology and retraction and he did not opt to file a suit.

Personally, I think that the difference between TJ’s case and Joble’s is that TJ pretty much accused his complainant of wrongdoing, while Joble never did. Libel, by definition, damages a person’s reputation. All Joble did was report that Aguilar had received an offer worth P18-million; I personally don’t see anything defamatory about that statement in and of itself.

For reference, TJ’s Abante column is still online, and here’s a key passage:

Nitong last season lang sa UAAP ay nasibak si referee Brian Tabañag dahil sa “crucial errors” daw niya sa end game. Pero ayon sa isa ko pang source, umamin pa nga si Tabañag na game fixing ang dahilan ng “errors” niya.

The demand letter from Tabañag’s lawyer and TJ’s subsequent retraction are also online.

Oh, but I’m not a lawyer. I’m sure lawyers read this blog, and I’d love for them to chime in on this particular issue.

It would be HILARIOUS though to see Ronnie Nathanielsz suing his own newspaper.

UPDATE: My buddy Toff Rada, a sportscaster who just finished law school, had a couple of tweets about this issue: "i'd agree with you that on its face, the joble article doesn't seem to be libelous. but even if it were,i think the aggrieved party should be gilas and not japeth. kasi they're being made to appear as kontrabida."

Rey Joble of the Manila Standard Today with the big scoop:

A highly-placed source told Standard Today that the 6’9” former Western Kentucky University player was offered the whopping three-year contract by the team backed by Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and bankrolled by Smart Communications.

The same source said Aguilar is set to get P350,000 in his first year, P500,000 in his second year and P700,000 in his final year with Smart-Gilas, more than double the P8.7 million Burger King, the PBA team which drafted the 22-year-old cager, offered him.

The Whopper’s offer, which was the maximum salary allowed for a rookie, was rejected by Aguilar’s camp.

Ironically, Joble writes for the same publication as Ronnie Nathanielsz, the agent of Japeth Aguilar. Nathanielsz has been claiming that they haven't spoken to Smart Gilas yet.

SBP officials led by executive director Noli Eala have remained mum on the issue, although a highly-placed source within the organization claimed that it was taking a hands-off approach on the issue.