Rafe Bartholomew’s seminal book about Philippine basketball came out in bookstores yesterday, and you should really get a copy if you’re any kind of fan of Philippine basketball. I got mine last night at Fully Booked in Rockwell, grabbing the last copy in the store; the lady at customer service said they had four copies in stock, all of which ended up sold. The books are supposed to be available at Fully Booked, Powerbooks, and National Bookstore outlets, but because they usually keep a low number of copies on stock, the availability is hit-or-miss. Or, you can grab a copy from Amazon.

Continue reading "Pacific Rims out everywhere now!"

Haven’t done a bullet/links post in a while, so here we go:

• Rafe Bartholomew had a lengthy, two-part interview at In the Bullpen (part 1, part 2), which delves not just into basketball, but Philippine culture and history as well.


• Ronnie Nathanielsz gave his new favorite sports patron, Manny Pangilinan, a tongue bath (as Rick Reilly would say) in last Friday’s column to show his support for MVP’s plagiarism issue. I laughed out loud when, in an effort to praise the PLDT chair, Nathanielsz compares Pangilinan to… Ferdinand Marcos!

Continue reading "Monday afternoon bullets"

• 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.”

Continue reading "Walk N Text links"

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.

Continue reading "Billy Ray Bates on video"

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.

Continue reading "Ronnie Nathanielsz, Bob Arum, Richard Schaefer, and the other side of truth"

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:

Continue reading "TJ Manotoc asks: Is Rey Joble’s scoop on the Smart Gilas offer to Japeth Aguilar libelous?"

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.

Continue reading "Report: Smart Gilas offered Japeth Aguilar P18m"

There’s a raging discussion on the Japeth Aguilar issue all over the Internet, and at the Interbasket forums, my last piece on Japeth was posted on the thread. Anyway, one of the commenters, Patay-Butiki, who I assume runs the excellent Patay ang Butiki blog, (UPDATE: the commenter Patay-Butiki is not involved in the excellent Patay ang Butiki blog) had this to say:

Continue reading "More on the Japeth Aguilar issue"

I go away for a while, and all hell breaks loose? Apparently, while I was gone, Japeth Aguilar expressed his intention to not sign with Burger King, the team that made him the top overall pick in the 2009 PBA draft, in favor of signing with the Smart Gilas Developmental Team that would compete in the 2011 Fiba-Asia championship. Curiously, Aguilar had every opportunity to sign with Smart Gilas prior to joining the draft, but instead chose to enter to the PBA anyway. In a statement, Aguilar attributed his change of heart to a desire to continue representing the country.

It’s bullshit. A little digging would allow us to connect the dots, and give us a clearer picture of what’s happening.

Continue reading "Pointing out the strings in the Japeth Aguilar puppet show"