FIBA Asia Championships: the good things about 4th place

News: Korea beats the Philippines

The 2012 Olympic dream for the Smart-Gilas is over and the 4th place finish is actually one of our best finishes in recent years. Here is some good things that I think of after the loss.

1. Manny V. Pangilinan or MVP will be able to save up some money for other sports and charity. If the Gilas won then he would have to bankroll the Gilas' campaign in a tougher Olympic qualifier. He can use the money to pay for the boxers and the taekwondo jins who could have better shot of an olympic medal than the basketball team. He can even use the money to buy an NBA team. ;)

2. We lost to a familiar foe. Korea and the Philippines are evenly matched but it seems that we are cursed against those Koreans. We seem to lose in the final minutes of the game. At least, there was nothing new about the game. I was at the edge of my seat watching the 3rd place battle on TV with Olsen "Crying" Racela being the color commentator. Of all the people that they chose, why him? I'm sure Olsen was crushed watching a heartbreaker do over.

3. It is gonna be an exciting PBA season. The Gilas draftees will surely crowd the PBA rookie of the Year race (if they are considered rookies).

4. Respect. Somehow we got the respect of our Asian neighbors now. They cannot take us lightly once we learn how to win in crunchtime then they better be ready to bow to the future brown kings of Asian basketball soon.

5. National team formula. Our system is working and coach Toroman has elevated our standards. I hope that the Iranians will not try to snatch him back. We probably have the best center in Asia performance-wise. We just need to surround him with a mix of pros and trainee amateurs. Slaughter, Ravena, and Parks should be integrated to Gilas as early as next year. We need to have a new Alapag (a fast PG who is a dead-eye in the 3 point region). If only Alapag was 3 inches taller..hehehe.

It is sad but basketball is still the No.1 team sport in the country. No offense to football but we are No.4 in Asia in this sport. We just can't give up this slot for a sport where we are just No.4 in Southeast-Asia.  The future of Philippine basketball might not be as rosy but the Gilas program should be continued and we should stop the habit of rebuilding often. We have to add on to the Gilas and hopefully the PBA and MVP's rival San Miguel will help.

Jordan ends Gilas' dream run

News: Jordan beats Gilas in the FIBA Asia Semis

The winning streak of the Pilipinas Smart-Gilas 5 in the FIBA Asia Championship for Men in Wuhan, China ends at 5. The Philippines missed a chance to be in the finals after it crashed against a very experienced Jordanian team. A lot of people had high hopes for a breakthrough for the Pinoy ballers as Jordan eliminated the seemingly unbeatable Iran. Jordan fell to the Gilas in their first meeting in the 2nd round. It was not meant to be.

The Olympic dream might never be over though as they can still qualify for the final Olympic qualifiers if they win the bronze medal in Wuhan. There is still hope but historically, the Gilas do not fare well in 3rd place matches. They also seem to lose to a team that they beat in previous rounds (another example was in the Jones Cup against Iran). I hope that they can get out of the emotional rut and win the battle for 3rd place. The Gilas has shown that they can compete with the best of Asia.

If they lose tomorrow, will there still be a Gilas program? With the core going pro, what happens to the team? Our past performances in Asian level competition has been badly affected by the constant rebuilding of teams. Instead of continuously improving, we prefer to start from scratch often. Once the PBA starts, a lot of basketball leaders forget about the national team. They always say that there are new players waiting on the wings but these players need to develop chemistry and learn the system. The system of coach Toroman somehow works and we got a gem with Marcus Douthit. It is just sad that Lassiter and company will be donning different colors as early as next week.

Is the Olympic dream really over? We will surely find out sooner than later. ;)

May the Gilas win 3rd place so that there will be a flicker of hope for the program to continue.

Related Links:
Gilas stuns Japan (sportsreaktor)
Rebuilding the Gilas (past article)

26th FIBA Asia Championship: GIlas playing sans Lassiter, Lutz

NEWS: Gilas plays without Lutz, Lassiter

The Pilipinas Smart-Gilas played its first 3 games in the 26th FIBA Asia Championship for Men in Wuhan, China without wingmen Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter. The result? A 2-1 record. The Gilas beat UAE and Bahrain but fell to the taller Chinese basketball team.

It is quite sad that eligibility issues were only addressed on the eve of the competitions. The Philippines along with middle-eastern power Qatar were most affected. Qatar had 5 players ruled ineligible. Some quarters think that these developments were politically motivated. The one handling the issue is from Lebanon, one of the teams that expect to figure well in this year's tourney.

Some people say that Lebanon is scared to face the Philippines and Qatar. Maybe. It is not nice to see that games are decided in the boardroom rather than in the basketball court. The Philippines is probably a top 6 team with the 2 "barred" players. Without them, the semifinal hopes can be dim.

I know that the SBP leadership will exhaust all means to make them eligible in the next rounds of the championships. Hopefully, they will succeed. If not, then it will have a bigger impact on the recruitment process for the future national teams. A lot of our prized recruits are half-Filipinos. If the issues are not clarified, then the Gilas program will be left in shambles.

Let see what happens in the next few days...

World Cup of Pool: Philippines Teams Eliminated in the Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal Results of the 2011 World Cup of Pool

As the host country of the 2011 PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool, the Philippines had the privilege to field 2 teams in the tournament. The rest of the countries have 1 representative. The Philippine Team A was composed of World No.1 Dennis Orcollo and former World 9-ball Champ Ronato Alcano. The second Philippine team is made of the legendary Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante.

The 2 teams won their first two matches and they ended up in the quarterfinals. Reyes and Bustamante were paired against Germany's Souquet-Hohmann pairing while The Orcollo-Alcano team faced the Ko brothers of Chinese Taipei.

The German team easily disposed of the Philippine Team B, 9-1 while Taiwan won the hill-hill battle against the Philippine Team A.

It was tough to see that our teams lost in the last 8 as we expected at least one of them to make it in the finals. I am sure many people went home from SM North disappointed with the results. It has been a sad day for Philippine sports. Aside from the losses at the billiard table, Ateneo lost against Adamson and the Putra Cup campaign was disappointing.

I am sure so many Pinoy sports fan are sad tonight like billiard fanatics, Ateneans, and golf enthusiasts. I do not want even to read the news tomorrow if I am ultra-avid fan of those who lost. Well, life must go on.  There are more tournaments to come. Dream endings usually happen in dreams only. The loss in billiards cannot erase the fact that the Philippines is indeed the billiards capital in the world. The loss of Ateneo means more meaningful Final 4 games. For the loss of our golfers, well, they are young and who knows they will be in the LPGA in 2-3 years. 

Disappointments may come in life but what is important is that we learn from our defeats. Failure to do so is the biggest mistake one can make. One can have a bad day, bad week, bad year , or a bad decade but all things will pass and hope springs eternal. ;)

Pacquiao for VP in 2016????

News: Pacman to run for VP

Well, it's 2011 and Manny Pacquiao is set to face Juan Manuel Marquez this November but it did not stop the "Pambansang Kamao" to plot his political career this early. Manny knows that he will be around less than 5 fights before hanging up his gloves and it is just right for him to plan for his future. I guess after winning the House seat of Sarangani, Cong. Pacquiao is starting to love politics.

Here is what he is supposed to be planning: 2013 run for Sarangani governor then 2016 run for VP. My reaction? Well, no matter how people discount the abilities of athlete as a politician there are many factors and precedents that are favoring Manny. One is popularity. No matter how we look at it, elections are clearly popularity contests. It is rarely about principles, advocacy, and competence. It is really hard to beat a really popular candidate. Noli, Erap, Jawo, Bong Revilla, and Lito Lapid has shown that popular candidates can win. Second is the dole out culture. Manny has show now that gives people houses, money, and other things. People love givers and having thatkind of reputation can really bring a lot of political mileage.

While there are extremely strong factors that will augur well to his dreams, there are also some factors that could thwart his plans. As early as his plans were revealed, COMELEC reacted that he might not be qualified to run for VP in 2016. Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said that the Philippine Constitution set the minium age for VP is 40 years old. Pacquiao will only be 38 in 2016. 

I guess his plan for VP will be moved to 2022. ;) Well, he still has many options. Senator at 2016 will be a perfect launch pad for a VP or presidential run in the future. The last 3 presidents spent time as senators so it is not remote that the Sarangani congressman can be the gentleman from Mindanao in the senate.

Will the Filipino people vote for him? He is definitely more sellable than Lito Lapid. In a list of 12, he can surely sneak in and I am sure some politicos would try to ride on his popularity. In a few years time, it is remote that will see that the "People's Champ is the People's Senator".

Preview of 2013 and 2016??? (Photo from: http://celebrities.wikinut.com/)

Links:

Manny Pacquiao charts his political future
Manny eyes vice-presidency

Pacquiao and his websites

If Manny Pacquiao were a thing, he would have a been a rope. It seems to me that a lot of people loves to play tug of war for him. Take for example his promotions, Manny Pacquiao became the subject of the tug of war between Top Rank's Bob Arum and Golden Boy's De la Hoya. There even came a point that the case went to the courts. In the end, Pacquiao stayed with Arum.

The second incident is between local networks. Pacquiao was and is still being coveted by ABS-CBN and the Philippine's largest network almost had Pacquiao. Manny remained with Solar Sports and his fights are televised at GMA network.

There was also an instance that he was rumored to be falling for a girl and wife Jinky was so jealous about it. Well, the wife won this rumored one-sided "tug of war".

It is not surprising to see that Manny Pacquiao is now the subject of another virtual tug of war. Now, it is in the cyberspace. Years before when Manny was not as famous as he is now, a boxing fanatic named Dong Secuya launched a website that showcases the exploits of Filipino boxers. The website had a nickname of Pacland, short Pacman's land. This site was where fans from around the globe converge and learn more about their boxing hero and interact with each other. Dong Secuya worked so hard to make the site relevant and interesting not only to Pinoy fight fans but also fans from other countries. The site's popularity grew as fast as Manny Pacquiao's ascent to super stardom.

Fast forward 2011, Manny Pacquiao is now a congressman, an 8-division champ, and a businessman with various interests. He now has countless of consultants and advisers. He became a top endorsers of products and itself a very sellable product. Pacquiao became a commodity. Eventually his team realized that it is time to make an official Manny Pacquiao website. The in-charge of this project is Timothy Sladeck. Sladeck launched a site mpboxing.com which was eventually renamed as mp8.ph. It has practically the same goals as Pacland. Since it was the site endorsed by Manny himself, mp8.ph has exclusive footages and articles about the Pinoy boxing hero.

At first Pacland and Sladeck's site co-existed. Until one day, the sites were supposed to be consolidated as Secuya's mannypacquiao.ph becomes the official web domain of Pacquiao. The merge was not harmonious and it prompted Secuya to drop the old domain and create a new one in pinoygreats.com. 

As this development happened, the fans were also divided on their stand about the issue. I can see in the forum that an annoying word war is happening. People try to put down the other side. It is quite sad to see how a site like Pacland disintegrated into a virtual war zone.

In a different light, it is quite funny to see people taking this issue seriously. Maybe there are so many feelings that were hurt along the way that wounds are deeper than I thought. It is even odd that some are even waiting for Manny to settle this problem.  I do not know but I think Pacquiao is not a good referee. He hates to see people hurt and I do not like that idea of him wasting his energies trying to appease some people. 

Let Manny do what he does best, which is fight in the ring. For the business side, let the advisers handle it.  It's too much of a headache and it probably hurts more than an uppercut to the chin by a heavy weight. Pacquiao is not a rope, and it is time to let go.  ;)

Tim Cone leaves Alaska

It's a sad day for the fans of the Alaska Aces in the PBA as Tim Cone his 22-year tenure in the Uytengsu franchise. I remember the days that I hate Alaska because they were so good. I remember the days that they battle my favorite team then the Ginebra San Miguel.

Great Pinoy players like Jojo Lastimosa, Johnny Abbarientos, Bong Hawkins, Poch Juinio, Jeffrey Cariaso, Ali Peek, Tony De la Cruz, and LA Tenorio have donned that the Alaska jersey under Coach Tim Cone. The 22 years resulted to 13 titles and countless finals appearances. They even won a grand slam in 1996.

Coach Tim has been a fixture in the PBA. He popularized the triangle offense in the Philippines and his emotional coaching style is a joy to watch. I wonder, where will he coach next. It would be exciting to see a coach of his caliber develop the next batch of Smart-Gilas. I think he can give Philippine National cager a basketball identity. It will also be surprising to see him in a rival PBA team but anything can happen.

To Coach Tim, good luck!