FIBA Asia Day One: Close Games

In case you were living a life of luxury or misery and managed to be clueless of everything that is going on in this feast of Asian basketball, well you're in luck... you have ME! Side stories and reactions from seven games in the 27th FIBA Asia Championship Preliminary Round.

• Just as I opened my laptop, someone texted me that Gabe Norwood was called for a foul while stepping out of the locker room.
• Chinese Taipei has turned it up a bit in this edition of the championships. Lin Chih Chieh was a beast in their game against Jordan, masterfully dissected Jordan's offense. In consolation to Jordan, they were pretty strong... er I mean Jimmy Baxter was strong as well despite not getting the "apple of the eye" title from the critics. Indeed this Jordan team appeared like an 80's PBA team in an Open Conference, where they solely relied on the import. Had the locals not lost confidence especially in the end game, they could have avoided turnovers and they might have won the game. Close game nonetheless.
• Speaking of imports/naturalized players, everyone showed up and performed as they were expected by their respective teams. Unhonorable mentions include JR Sakuragi who was a lost soul in the 2nd half of their game against Qatar, Quincy Davis who seemed to gas out in their game against Jordan, and Jerry Johnson playing slightly hurt.
• I am really convinced that the Qatar-Japan game was really played in slow motion. I fell asleep while watching that game. Their movements were slow. They're bringing the ball down really slow. Their offensive execution was slow. Everything! Good thing fouls were minimal, or else that would've become a loooooooooonnnggg game.
• I fell asleep for five minutes... and in that five minutes I saw LA Tenorio whistled for a foul after ordering an oven baked ziti over there at Sbarro.
• I don't really know if it is the officiating or the size of the Arabians that defied the defense of Gilas Pilipinas. We all know that our boys prepared for physical action. And what a way to test our physicality by matching it up with people that are less than quarter the size of Ryan Buenafe. Plus we displayed our secret motion defense to those well nourished people, no wonder we'll get called for a ton of fouls... Look!

Photo courtesy of Nuki Sabio/InterAKTV.

•  And those fouls are the reason why Gilas' offense never got it going. That's why don't feel bad if we didn't win the way Iran won today. See the upside! They don't let us win, we'll break their ribs... right Marc?
• While everyone was complaining about opening day jitters, the Iranians doesn't give a shit about it. The only sympathy they gave on that Malaysian team was a moment of silence for Jack Ng Kiat Kee. Once the 60 second silence was over, it was murder time, and it was in the tune of 90 points.
• Now going to the other side of the "Group of Death", defense-oriented people surely loved that China-Korea game. China's individual defense was so solid, not letting up a bit. Korea's defense meanwhile was so complicated that just when you thought Sun Yue was free, a double team will come all of a sudden. Everyone always gets out of their spots, yet the rotation of the defense was so on target. For an offense-oriented guy like me, I'd be so pissed with that kind of defense.
• Last thing on China, I wonder if there is a bit of internal issues in the team right now.
• Bahrain put up a good game and a good overtime win against India tonight. Too bad we weren't able to see it. 
• The last game of the night will always turn out to be the forgotten game of the night. Only tweeted a couple of times for that Kazakhstan-Thailand game.
• Last thing. Nice, decent floor. Please keep it MOA Arena. Don't remove it. Ever.

Games today!

11:00 - CHN vs. MAS
13:15 - TPE vs. KSA
15:30 - JAP vs. HKG
17:45 - KOR vs. IRI
18:00 - BRN vs. KAZ (Ninoy Aquino Stadium)
20:15 - PHI vs. JOR
22:30 - THA vs. IND

PS: Coach Chot Reyes was called for a foul after he picked up the morning paper. Man, those whistles are haunting me.

Follow the games with me! twitter.com/sirjaydelacruz

 

27th FIBA Asia Championships: We're Here!

We're just less than 24 hours away!!!

Less than 24 hours to once again host this very prestigious event since 1973.

Less than 24 hours away to see grown ups play basketball.

Less than 24 hours away to see our neighbors land in our land. Hello China!

Less than 24 hours away to see our compatriots humiliate and destroy those who oppress us inside the basketball court. Hello Chinese Taipei!

Less than 24 hours away to seeing a new floor design in the MOA Arena. Seriously, it's a kick ass venue with a shit of a floor design.

Less than 24 hours away from trending, cheering, and all-out supporting our National Team.

And I have 24 more different ways of putting up one liners as an introduction for the Gilas Pilipinas, but let's not talk about it here. Let's do it maybe in South Korea-Malaysia game.

This is certainly the real deal. After we had a sneak preview of their semi success last year in the Jones Cup and in Tokyo, to their battle for hosting rights against a semi-politically challenged Lebanon, to their automatic granting of hosting rights, to that botheringly long PBA Commissioner's Cup, to the formation of the pool... er, I mean to the inclusion of Beau Belga, to the highly touted Lithuanian trip, to the cut of Beau Belga, to the travel much farther down under, to the two games that we saw them how they play, to the sight of seeing Beau Belga hurt Kazakhs that are moving towards to his defensive position, and to the impending but not certain inclusion of Beau Belga to the final lineup... (whew... too much Belga. Makes me wanna call KFC delivery and order a bucket of rice and extra chicken.) August 1 is upon us.

The 27th FIBA Asia Championship is here!

This native land will stand witness to first class Asian baskteball as this same country will try to regain it's lost glory in the Asian basketball scene. Never before we were this excited about basketball since... Ever! That's why our National Team prepared long (?) and hard (definitely) to give our kababayans a thrill of their lifetime in the game of basketball. Of course, what would be more thrilling than tweeting this after Gilas finish third or better,

"GILAS PILIPINAS IS GOING TO SPAIN FOR THE FIBA WORLD CUP!"

or this,

"PHILIPPINES IS THE BEST/2ND BEST/3RD BEST BASKETBALL TEAM IN ASIA!!!"

or this,

"MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS! MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS! MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAAAAAS!!!" 

Whoops...

Now that we are THIS close, how about getting a final look on our competition. Since the last post, many things have happened, starting with 

the draw!

THE DRAW

• I remember following the draw live on Twitter inside a KFC store, and I can't eat my lunch properly because of the thrill of this activity. It's a good thing they made this one a "pure" draw, instead of the old one where the top 4 finishers of the previous tournament will be scattered to the four groups, the host will still choose, and the rest will be drawn. This time, only the host chose the group, and everyone was drawn. That's why we have a "Group of Megadeath" this time. More on that later.

GROUP B:  WE'RE IN THE NEXT ROUND

I decided to start in here because I've been longing for this time to come to scream this to the Lebanese FIBA Asia official that has long been a pain in the ass. From denying the country the first time in hosting after a superb presentation, and awarding it to his dear Lebanon the hosting rights after a Lebanese sentence of "We will host the games.", to finally awarding it to us even though it's against your will, to your Lebanon getting suspended, to you giving signs that you yourself will lift the suspension, to finally imposing the suspension by the FIBA Central Board and disqualifying them from the championship... this is for you Hagop Kajirian. KARMA!

Okay now, where were we... oh, Group B, yes...

• Here's what we know about Japan besides having a crazy sex culture over there... their people made a damn good anime series about a guy named Sakuragi, we watched it over GMA or on VLC Media Player, we saw how skillful, lethal, and strong the players over there in that anime, and from then on we built a perception that all real life Japanese basketball players are as skillful as Akagi, Mitsui, Rukawa, and Miyagi. If Japan was Shohoku, then the Philippines must be Kainan, or any other stronger teams than Shohoku in the inter-high. Yep, we beat them the last time around. They were bannering the same players - Kosuke Takeuchi, Ryota Sakurai (not Miyagi), and JR (not Hanamichi) Sakuragi - when we beat them. And they'll be bannering  the same players again this time, so beating them won't be a big problem because we did it before... just not an off night.

• Hong Kong is another country that has bad blood on us over other things that do not quite make sense today. Remember what they did last time during the Azkals friendlies over there? They kicked us out of the field with curses, trash, and other stuff they could throw at the Pinoys over there. Heck, they even brought up the hostage crisis in Manila that killed some of their fellow. It makes no sense to bring that one up in a soccer friendlies. But since we're known for our hospitality, this country won't do the same kicking out that they did to us. Just take note of these two words when they meet in the 2nd round... National beating.

• Back in 2002, these Qataris were out of the radar in the Asian basketball scene. How terrible this team was? Put that 2002 Qatar team against a team that consists of 2001 Danny Seigle and anyone who could play basic basketball just to complete the lineup, and the Qataris will still lose by 10. Fast forward to 2007, this Arab nation was eviscerating us in tune-up games and pocket tournaments. What happened in between those five years was so mind boggling. Have they completed their genetic research and cloned Michael Jordan's talents? Intensive training and PED intake? God's gift? Who knows! It's 2013 now and I think we know now better. Qatar is beatable, just not on an off night for us.

GROUP D: THE UNKNOWNS

• Well we know a little about Kazakhstan. Their number 7 guy is a bully who is scared to the bigger bully, Anton Pomomarev is an offensive juggernaut, and Jerry Johnson needs a lot of Cobra Energy Drink. We saw them in a tune-up game and from what we see, that was pretty much it for the Kazakhs, no more aces up in their sleeves whatsoever. We beat them in that tune-up and chances are we'll meet them in the quarterfinals. Beatable team.

• We also know a little about Bahrain. Former naturalization prospect CJ Giles is playing there, obviously not a kid anymore and takes basketball more seriously than before. And the return to the Philippine soil of Bader Malabes, ex-green archer. Apparently he's turning out to be the star of this Bahrain National Team... and that's good for him. Only one sad story though, while almost all his ex-teammates already played inside MOA Arena, he might not play a game inside there. All preliminary games of Bahrain are in Ninoy Aquino Stadium. If they get in the second round, chances will be there. Consider this playing inside the MOA Arena are our wish for you on your comeback Bader.

• India... Hmmm... Three Idiots? Yes that was a phenomenal movie. Wait, Indian basketball? No... Haven't known any of it... oh wait! Here's one coming from the part of my brain where it stores useless information and I can't forget about it anymore. Back in the 90's, there was a showcase of PBA all-stars pitting up against the Asian Basketball Confederation (now known as FIBA Asia) all stars. Several Asian names back then played in that game, notably China's Gong Xiao Bin. PBA Stars won that game, but I couldn't forget the slam dunk contest that was done during halftime. It was a tall Indian guy who stole the show that moment. How? By being such a retard dunker! He'd do all the tricky movements with two feet on the ground, and then jumping up for the dunk after those tricks. The worst part is even though he's tall and long, he barely reaches the rim. His higlight dunk? Imitating Kobe Bryant's in between the legs dunk. Imagine him doing that with a foot or both flat in the ground. The best part? After making the dunk, while people are laughing at him, he's celebrating the dunk like he broke the backboard. Please get that retard out of my brain.

• Since we got to Thailand, I should've named this group from "The Unknowns" to "The Jobbers"... hang on, it's not too late.

GROUP D: THE JOBBERS

 

In pro wrestling, a jobber is a one who routinely loses in a match. Considering their neighboring group is Group C, it's pretty appropriate to list this group as the one who'll do the job for South Korea, China, and Iran. To be fair, let's consider Bahrain, India, and Thailand as 3MB, and Kazakhstan as Wade Barrett.

While we're at it...

GROUP C: GROUP OF MEGADEATH

After so much hype of this group during the intro, this portion will be as simple as this...

• Rest in peace, Malaysia. But seriously, all the sympathies to Jack Ng Kiat Kee, who died of heart failure while in preparation for the Championships. A message to his teammates… continue to play your best for him. 

• China. Iran. South Korea. Haaayyy... I cannot wait to see these three teams destroy each other. I CANNOT WAIT!

GROUP A: THE HOST IS HERE

 

Three bullets to show that the Philippines made a proper choice.

·   Jordan is not in their usual self anymore. The 2011 Cinderella team is now gone with their players lost either to retirement or injuries; no Sam Daghles, no Zaid Abbas, no more Rasheim Wright, no more Enver Soobzokov. Their new naturalized player Jimmy Baxter is still having trouble jelling in with the team. They might be stronger, or weaker… we don’t know. We don’t even know if these players already played international basketball. But that could be the key – their inexperience. Gilas Pilipinas can show them a thing or two about international basketball.

·   Chinese Taipei… well… every time this team will appear in my eyes, the first thing that will come to my mind is Tseng Wen Ting, the Taiwanese center who is a cross of an F4 member and The Big Show. I don’t know if he plays that well, but each time I see him, our bigs kick his ass all the time. It’s a different story this time. They have a Quincy Davis who will back up F4/Big Show in the paint. And of course Douglas Creighton, who incidentally seems to be a poor man’s version of Jeremy Lin, the reason why they probably don’t need Jeremy Lin right now. This is a potentially strong team, but we have beat them so many times before. There’s no reason we can’t do it again… just not on an off night.

·   Aaaand Saudi Arabia. Hope they won’t do a Qatar this time. I think they won’t do a Qatar this time. We can beat them.

Note that in the next round, we’ll face the teams from Group B. A handful of winnable games will give us a good place come the knockout round comes.

There you have it… our competition.

How about ours? Well… see it for yourself starting tomorrow. Good if you have TV5 and AksyonTV right now… better if you have Basketball TV.

See you at the games! #LabanPilipinas

follow my personal coverage here! @sirjaydelacruz

56 Days of Gilas Pilipinas: Where are we/they?

Before we answer the question, let us know where we were:

• Some of our players went down with injuries. Kelly Williams' blood disorder returned (get well soon Kels), Jared Dillinger played some real life Grand Theft Auto on Skyway (good to hear you're getting better Jared, keep it up), Sonny Thoss went to China to find some herbal medicine for his back problems (congratulations on the championship), and the curse of Ryan Reyes continues, getting injured come the time for national duty (come on, man).
• In place of these fallen men, the team selected practice players - which I previously called them "The Replacements" - to complete the team in scrimmages. After over a week, "The Replacements" became "The Replacement" as Beau Belga was selected to join the team in Lithuania. You deserve it man!
• On a side note, Calvin Abueva was considered to join the trip. Yes, we all know what he's capable of bringing to a team, but we also know what he's capable of bringing to this team. Maybe just ask them to know what he should really be capable of bringing to a team and be not confused about anything that I said in this paragraph.

And now since we know where we were, nasaan na nga ba tayo?

Gilas is now on it's second of the 15-day European training camp. Whatever is happening on that trip is honestly between them and the Lithuanians. One known fact though is that Filipinos expects them to be like the Miami Heat or the San Antonio Spurs when they return. Expectations are supremely high this time, specially that we are the hosts of this very important event. People are asking questions. People are closely watching.

While many of the fans are busy fantasy booking this national team in their own blog sites, comment threads, or maybe in their classroom arm chairs, I'll happily change my approach on this entire tournament. Leave our own national team alone and check out what the other national teams are doing. Perhaps do some mean criticisms with them, and eventually start World War 5.

So while they're at Lithuania, let's check out the others. Where are they?

• The Jordan national team are currently in their home turf right now. Good news is that Zaid Abbas won't be playing in the championships due to injury. Bad news is that Sam Daghles will return in time for the championships. After Amman, this team will move to train in Greece and participate in tournaments in Turkey.
• The Chinese tsekwas are Australia bound with their highly touted Greek coach (Everyone seems to be revolving around Greece... what's with them?). They'll be getting tough competition from some mates and incidentally to other countries from other continents, as they are a part of the FIBA Stankovic Cup intercontinental tournament this June. This Chinese team showed that they do not need the Jones Cup to get high level competition. Countrymen, we'll find one of our own.
• What you all need to know about the Iranians? Hamed Haddadi is playing. Arsalan Kazemi is playing. The others will be playing. All complete.

As for the others, we'll know... soon.


And to top this all, where to next?

Just you wait, the draw will be up this afternoon. Just you wait.

There They Were... And Now They're Here (Part 1)

JUST before we start this semifinal craze in the current PBA Commissioner's Cup... JUST before I start my separate story of "Whatever happened to the Sportscast Engineer that he stopped giving weekly sporting insights?"... and JUST before we go on our trip to Boracay... it's high time to say all the things that I have witnessed, observed, and made up during office drinking sessions and put it in a multiple part mega-post. You shall not worry! Fine tuning is the only thing I need before putting up the other semis pairing, the rest of the PBA teams, and other sporting teams that exist in the country.

---

Being a Sportscast Engineer is easy. All you need is a regular day job as an engineer, a regular gig as a sportscaster, and talent in time management. I have the first one and the third one right now. So to keep up, writing has always been the fallback. Bad news is I don't have the incredible gift to write stuff in a snap. During the run of "This Week in Philippine Sports", it usually requires me five hours (Breakdown: Two hours staring at the wall waiting for the light to crack up. One hour playing anything that is playable on the computer. One hour typing all the stuff that came into my mind. 30 minutes reading related news. 20 minutes watching the entire Ashlynn Brooke video that I downloaded prior to writing. 10 minutes trying to finish everything up.) to finish a thousand words or so. THAT IS if I were able to see anything sports within that week. If not, due to a case of heavy day job demand, Xbox demand, or living the life of leisure at some point (or majority) of the week, then I'll have a problem.

So I was there a month ago... and now I'm here... making a mega-post out of what have happened the past month. (I already spent two hours now. We'd better do this.)

ALASKA ACES

How do we start the conversation without mentioning Tim Cone?

.

.

.

.

(After eight days of self-deliberation...)

There is no way that we cannot include the departure of Tim Cone from Alaska if we are going to talk about this team (by far). Even though there were NO changes from the roster during that transition, his departure made a huge impact that people immediately speculated that this Cone-less team of Alaska was headed south. When the games began, it was way worse than we thought. It's as bad as the lie LA Tenorio made up when he tried to cover Joel Banal that giving up the triangle  was the best thing that happened to the team. Even when they were under a 50-feet pile of horse crap that first two conference without coach Tim, nobody thought they were wrong. Now, both of them are gone from the team. They were there one full season ago.

One Trillio, one Abueva, and a couple of Moves like Trillio, now we're here...

The Aces are on the top of the standings.

Again, the ACES are on top of the standings.

And easily trashed Air21 in the process during the quarters.

No joke... and the rumor is not true that the Talk 'n Text Tropang Texters changed their moniker to Aces. It's them. The team that wears red, white, and black jerseys (I wonder what happened to their black alternate jerseys... Those unis rock!).

And it's not a joke too that the younger Trillio, Luigi, is the one running the show. Yes, that young dude who had a semi successful stint at the D-League until management (his dad) decided to fiels him in as the head coach. Perhaps Mr. Uytengsu and the fans are not used to seeing this team play without a system, which happened under Joel Banal, so they (his dad) chose to field in a guy who is a known student of the triangle. Better bring the old recipe of success back.

While LA may have loved/hated the triangle, it still took some roster tweaks to bring the Aces to where are they now (Did I mention that the Aces are on top of the standings?). First, there was the draft pick made in heaven (Calvin Abueva), then the "Tampo Me!" trade (LA gone, Casio and Dondon in). When you have Calvin Abueva, a player who gives everything - scoring like it's a pick up game, rebounding like an import, running and hustling like he's on Red Bull, and flopping so badly (In fact, he's the starting power forward for the PBA Bad Floppers League. Others are Jason Castro, Chris Ross, Mark Yee, and the immortal Mick Pennisi.) - and adding two typical Alaska type of players JVee Casio and Dondon Hontiveros - high caliber point guard and a shooter, who are relatively cheap - to combine with a big man Sonny Thoss, who probably is the best post player in the league now and a Cyrus Baguio... a wingman, or a hang-man, who has now evolved into an excellent half court player as well, you now have the same grand slam roster similar to what they had back in the 90's. No joke.

And let's not forget about the import. Rob Dozier belonged to this batch of imports where one can easily seperate the fresh fruits and the rotten ones. While Dozier belonged to the fresh ones, he probably might be the most delicious fruit in the basket. Like his teammates, he respected the system Coach Luigi imposed in the team; never mind being the monster scorer (sorry Eric Dawson) or the flashy dude (sorry Tony Harris and Billy Ray Bates). Play to your strengths and your team will be rewarded... and you shall be rewarded. (Justin Williams crying over there in the corner crying, obviously disagreeing with me.)

Now looking forward, here's what they got... and of all the teams...

SAN MIG COFFEE MIXERS

I suddenly remembered my personal wish that ruined my Commissioner's Cup following; a winless Manila Clasico that would feature two mediocre imports and two individuals that played like an import that time. Instead, San Mig went ahead to get it's first win not long after Denzel Bowles got it's mojo slightly back. Whatever that means, I'm sure the way he played when they got the first win wasn't the same way he played against Talk n Text the following day. Bowles is not that scary looking and his demeanor is as cool as heaven, but you can compare him to a solid wall. It's not moving, but it does hurt when you run into it.

There's your Bowles wall... and Tim Cone is building his house around Joe DeVance (as the landscape), PJ Simon (as the roof), Marc Pingris (as the house utilities), Marc Barroca (as the interior design), the bench (as the assorted furnitures), and Alex Mallari (as the garage that could either be totally useful or downright useless).

There they were. The great house of coffee. But it was nearly destroyed as soon as it was built. Why? The foundation was missing. James Yap.

Physical injury. Social injury. Emotional injury. He'd be an immortal if he's facing all that and still manage to drop 20 a game. That would be sick. But he was like Achilles with his entire body, except his heart, made of ankles. He was practically discounted on offensive plays in this entire stretch. It was everyone else who were winning and losing games during that elimination homestretch. If James did pop up, it will be a bonus.

And pop up he did in their last game to grab semis.

Finally after a long time since the discovery of GPS, he dropped 20 that game, and kept that Mixers team afloat against that pesky Meralco team. The reason they were not pulling away that game when James was scoring was they went back to the pre-Cone era where everyone else watched in high definition. Thank heavens that wasn't the story in the 4th quarter of that game. The everyone else did their part. And they win. 

And now they're here. ..

This Week in Philippine Sports: Petronovela Season II

I cannot believe that this entire week full of volleyball championships, Gretchen Ho, Wensh Tiu, Manila Clasico, and Junel Baculi's moment of "I need to make a bad decision in my coaching career right now." in replacing Justin Williams, will be overshadowed by some series that must be produced by one of the Kardashians; the Petronovela.

Season I recap: Olsen Racela was the head coach and Rajko Toroman is the "Team Consultant" (Seriously, what does this do? Coach the head coach?) on paper. In reality, Toroman is Jack Sparrow while Olsen was the parrot (And Jay Washington is the maltreated slave in the ship. Even though it was or it was not in the movie, every pirate ship has one maltreated slave.). Petron kept on losing. Management threw Toroman away, and Petron kept losing. The consolation they've got? Stability in the coaching department. Maybe they needed that one more than wins (cut to Jay Washington throwing the mop away and happily hopping all over the ship.).

Season II: Here we are right now. Just when we all thought it was over, somebody ordered a second season of it. Since it's still relatively new, we can break it down episode by episode.

Prologue: The star of the series is named Renaldo Balkman. Former NBA player and the import of the Petron Blaze Boosters. 6'6" dude, athletic, plays like he's drinking Red Bull all the time, and he has tattoos in his eyelids. 5-1 win-loss record in hia name, greater than expected averages, and he has tattoos in his eyelids.

Episode 1: The Bad Day

- They were up against an Alaska team who is playing the most incredible basketball since Tim Cone left them... and they came from a loss prior to that game. Every team's mindset after a loss is bounce back... and bounce back they did in the usual awesome fashion. Going to the other side, Petron is not having their usual day even though Alex Cabagnot was back. While Petron is not having their usual game, Balkman is having a very bad day. He went like two out of infinity in the field, and Alaska defended him so well.  Come the final 20 seconds of the game, after missing a lightly defended shot his tantrums started, beginning with the referees (Someone forgot to tell him the very important note in PBA officiating: one does not simply understand PBA referees.). Then he started to see all red and Digivolved to a Spanish toro, shoving everyone behind looking for that red cloth. Then Arwind Santos came in trying to sober up Balkman. Just as Arwind pushed him back, Balkman saw the red cloth in Arwind's neck, thus the choking that was seen around the world. It was already past 10 PM and sports news are still blowing up with items from the strangling incident.

Episode 2: AKTV Center

- Balkman was scheduled to guest even before Petronovela Season II existed, so AKTV people were in luck! Ratings! Plus Manila Clasico was happening... Ratings! Balkman and Arwind making up... Bullshit! Just kidding... but seriously, I was making fun of the entire incident by that night. Here are some unpublished tweets that got stuck in my head.

Sinakal mo ako sa harap ng sambayanang Pilipino. #youdontdothattome

While Balkman choking Arwind, " Yo mama taste like Honey Nut Cheerios!"

Latrell Sprewell picture, "That Renaldo Balkman... he's my greatest student..."

WWE Creative might be calling Balkman right now to tag him up with Kane.

But really, that sequence in the AKTV center was so uncomfortable. Perhaps they should've used a guest host too to interview them, like Cristy Fermin???

Episode 3: The Commissioner's Office

- Balkman, and probably the entire organization, said that he's willing to accept the punishment the league will impose in him. Commissioner Chito Salud might have said, "ah ganon ah... sige eto parusa mo!"

250,000 Php fine.

Lifetime ban in the league.

Balkman is not saying a word up to now... as we know it, presumably he accepted his fate. Before we get to the fourth episode, allow me to make my opinion regarding the sanction...

If he had choked somebody in the Alaska team instead, he might have escaped the ban for life part. He has atleast an ounce of logical reason to choke an opposing player. He caressed my butt or breathed into my ears might give him a reason to do that. But choking a team mate? Why??? Because Arwind played bad that's why they are losing? If that was the case, then Arwind should have strangled Balkman instead, because he was so terrible in that game. Absence of proper reasoning was the merit of the sanctions... FOR ME.

Then accountability kicks in. We're gonna hear this word an awful lot of times this season so pay attention. Balkman choked Arwind in front of a decent-size crowd, in front of a live TV, on a very important game, on a Friday night. Using some Newton's Law of Broadcast Relativity Rating (I totally made that up, but sounding it more scientific makes it more believable.), some six million people saw it nationwide... and square that a couple of times due to Internet sharing and memes. Some 30 million people saw what he did to his team mate. Even if he apologizes to Arwind and to the fans, what he did was wrong and some 30 million people can attest to that. And that some 30 million people would say, "We accept your apology but you have to pay for what you did so you'd never ever do that again." For the league, they're protecting their interest of "that should never happen again", thus imposing such sanctions. Yes the penalty was harsh, but the absence of reasoning in his actions resulted in a pretty harsh incident that was seen by a pretty harsh number of people. Kwits!

Episode 4 (I thought we'd never get here): Upper Management.

His agent thought it was too harsh. Coaching staff thougt it was too harsh. Upper management thought it was too harsh. And some motherfucking idiot gave upper management the idea of "re-evaluating" their participation in the PBA. It's still a relatively small incident really; not as huge as steroids or fil-shams or downright terrible Harlem Shake videos. It doesn't warrant an involvement from the upper-upper management, where the three SMC teams are involved. Just because your temporary recruit misbehaved so bad, you wanna re-evaluate your participation in the league? One player lost his job and you're thinking about losing the job of 70 others from your own people???? It's like SMC tolerating and SUPPORTING the action of their foreign recruit whic put their OWN player in harm's way. God! I wanna shoot that idiot in the head and feed his brains to the zombies!

Can we save the drama some other time, and let's just play basketball? 



Follow me: @sirjaydelacruz
Mail me: jhaydelacruz46915@gmail.com