Wala pa ring tatalo sa Alaska!

Congrats to the Alaska for effortlessly winning the Fiesta PBA conference over San Miguel. I am a longtime SMB fan but I felt all throughout the series that SMB was not in it. For one, the coach is a known choker. He just could not close out games. If they lead by less than 10 going into the last quarter, I always expect the other team to catch up.

So the most talented team got a so-so talented coach. So Alaska, a great team with a great coach, had excellent chances to win it all. Whereas before, SMB had 75 percent of the crowd going for them, Alaska and other teams like Talk and Text, now command more fans. Clearly, losing despite a talented lineup eroded the fan base. The coach has to go.

Is the PBA for Noynoy?

Basketball and politics are two of the Filipino's favorite pasttimes. It is no surprise that the two often mix. Like some movie stars who used their fame as springboards into politics in the twilight of their careers, there are basketball stars who turn politicos after retiring from play.

There is now even a party-list group called PBA. I just don't know what marginalized sector of society they represent. Danding Cojuangco himself, who controls at least three teams in the PBA, ran for the presidency in 1998.

Today Purefoods and other players campaign for Noynoy. They are led by James Yap, who is the husband of Kris, who is sister of candidate Noynoy.

The import-laden conference started last night. But Purefoods won't be playing until maybe April 4. By then many teams have had played three games each. Is it because of some quirk in scheduling? Or is it to give Purefoods players time to recuperate after a tiring and injury-filled championship run? Or is it to give the players a chance to barnstorm the country in campaign sorties? While Danding is so far plays coy on who he is supporting, the PBA or the San Miguel league, seems to be supporting Noynoy.

The legions of fans are not complaining. Many are for Noynoy too.

Sweet sweep for Purefoods

Congratulations to the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs for sweeping the Alaska Aces 4-0 in winning the All-Filipino Cup 2010. Their 10 point margin in the last game is the biggest win in the series. The 2nd and 3rd games were just 1 point wins and both came from questionable calls or non-calls in the end game. But this last win is also the sweetest because they won it in a clear and uncontroversial fashion. They deserve this title.

Alaska came out flat in the series, unable to match the energy of the supposedly tired Hotdogs. Wala pa ring tatalo sa Alaska?

It looks like my son 7-yr old Popoy will also be an avid sports fan. He roots for Purefoods. He took an interest in the game because of the fine semifinal series against SMB. To keep his interest I told him I'm for Alaska. Now he has bragging rights till the next championships.

PBA is still a San Miguel league

San Miguel Beer and Ginebra San Miguel may be out of the finals but there is still a San Miguel company competing for the crown. Purefoods is enjoying a 3-0 lead over Alaska in a best of seven affair. It could have been 2-1 in favor of Alaska if not for questionable coaching and inconsistent officiating. Tim Cone himself admitted bad coaching did them in. But he was being modest in taking command responsibility. He was not to blame. Blame falls squarely on the assistant coaches' failure to plot defensive and offensive plays down the stretch. Joel Banal, Dickie Bachman and Trillo do not match the scouting and planning skills of their Purefoods counterparts.

Then there is the sh*tty officiating. In game 2, there was no foul at all no matter what angle you look at the final play. Yet one was called and Kerby made the decisive free throw. The correct call in that dying situation is a no call. Purefoods benefited in that miscall.

In Alaska's final offensive thrust in game 3 there was a clear foul made on Miller and calling one would be justifiable. A no call is OK if we go by the reasoning why there should be no foul in game 2's last play. But this time Purefoods, once again, benefited from the no-call.

Coincidence? Or not.

San Miguel wins - at last, in the San Miguel league

Congrats SMB! The San Miguel Beermen ended four years of frustration by smashing a depleted Barangay Ginebra Kings in the 2009 PBA Fiesta Conference. San Miguel came from behind after being down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.

San Miguel was much too deep the injury-riddled Ginebra who was simply too tired in the final game. San Miguel coach Siot Tanquincen finally won a crown for SMB.

The San Miguel team was actually a very deep team in all positions for several years now. But the potential never came to fruition under Tanquincen. I was so frustrated with his inability to win a champinship that I initiated a 'fire Siot' movement in a basketbal forum thread/poll. There were many others who were equally dismayed and the thread ran for a long time. The poll showed 70% wanted Siot out as coach since last year.

But with the win, Siot made a lot of SMB fans happy at the moment. His tenure is safe for another conference at least.

The best of seven series still produced a lot of thrills notwithstanding the corporate relations between the two teams. The PBA is truly a San Miguel league with three of the 10 teams (can be actually four) from the San Miguel conglomerate. That makes SMB, Ginebra, and Purefoods (and maybe Coca-Cola) sister teams. In this situation, accusations of a 'scripted' series abound. With its vast corporate resources, SMB teams manage to corner the top players money can buy and go circuitous routes to go around league rules on player transfers. So with the supposed 'script', Purefoods is poised to win the next championship.

Is this situation healthy? The other team owners do not seem to mind, after all PBA continues to provide good exposure for their products. But the rigodon of the players around the league leaves sports fans lost. In the Toyota-Crispa days, PBA fans are fans of the teams. Either you're a Toyota fan or a Crispa fan. When these teams disbanded and the players dispersed to other teams, the players took along their fan base to their new teams. So San Miguel acquired a lot of new fans with the arrival of Mon Fernandez. It was the same with Ginebra when Sonny Jaworski came on board.

What happens when players move around a lot? Team fans lose their identities too. Fans don't root for a team anymore, they root for the players. As a fan, I think rooting for a team is much better than rooting for a particular player, after all basketball is a team game. When fans start to root for a player and not for the team, and if the players move around teams a lot, that defeats the purpose of maintaining a team for product marketing purposes. With the grand exception of the San Miguel teams. The PBA has to do something about the San Miguel stronghold over the league.

Good Sport, bad sport, bad sports fan

Congrats to Roger Federer for once again making history by winning his 15th major. It's not his fault that Nadal's gimpy knees kept him from defending his title. Federer is not only good, the's the best, and on top of it all, he is lucky. Of the only one time that Roger will break Andy's serve, it will break Andy' heart as well. Roger won the 5 setter on a tie-breaker 16-14. But Andy Roddick is a good sport. And the crowd chanted his name to acknowledge the great effort.



Which cannot be said of Danny Ildefonso and a Ginebra fan. The fan heckled the entire San Miguel squad the whole game. After the game, Danny I went after the fan who initially stood his ground until he realized that Danny is not joking. That was when he scampered for safety, then cried afterwards. The TV coverage missed the action because it switched cameras.

Heckling is part of the game. It makes watching live games more exciting. Cursing, flashing the dirty finger sign, challenging the the players to fistfights - fans do what it takes to get the players off their game. What Danny I (and Pingris too) merited fines and suspension. For that, they were not able to play in their next game and their team lost.

But I can understand why Danny I acted that way. His daughter is gravely ill. He missed the all-star game just to be with her. When the fan shouted "ang yabang mo, kaya nagkakasakit ang anak mo, hindi na gagaling yun, gag0", he must have snapped. He must have thought, heckle me all you like, wish me to miss my shots, but don't wish my daughter dead.

Below are photos from Patricia Hizon's blog. The heckler at first stood his ground. He was not able to walk the talk. He ran after he talked.

Deserving and undeserving

Congrats to Kobe and the Lakers. They deserve every bit of the accolades that come now. The Magic deserve to lose. With Lee's botched lay-up in game 2, Howard's missed free throws and the bad defense against Fisher's 3-pt shot in game 3, they do not deserve to win.

Gasol has toughened up a lot since last year's debacle against Garnet. And Howard softened up, perhaps the previous series' exposed him. Perhaps the law of averages that was absent against the Cavs caught up with the Magic. Lewis and Terkoglu can't pull out rabbits from their hats now.

In a similar vein, in the PBA, Rain Or Shine says TY to TY Tang for the ala-Horry and Fisher 3pt shot that gave them the deserving win over the deserving-to-lose Purefoods. When you bench your best and highest paid player, you immediately lose at least 25% of your productivity. When you do that for the last 3 quarters, you do not deserve to win.

Turning to boxing, Miguel Cotto deserve a fight against Pacquiao after fending off Clottey's challenge. Cotto fought 9 rounds bleeding from a nasty cut on his eyebrow. Clottey was not able to capitalize on the wound brought by an accidental head butt. The fight was close and could have gone either way. People wouldn't mind a draw. But Clottey suffered a flash knockdown in the last seconds of the 1st round after doing very well in the first 2.5 minutes. For that carelessness he doesn't deserve to win.

The cut clearly bothered Cotto. But if he fights like that against Pacquiao, he does not deserve to win.

Not a fan but glad they won

I am not a Ginebra fan, but I am happy the Gins and not the Thunders won last night. Yeng is a bad coach (Chua comes a close second). He has all the material and he wastes it. What makes him (and Alfrancis) even worse is that he doesn’t realize his shortcomings and instead blames the referees. Yeng says they’re a come-from-behind team. With the talents he has, they should not be left behind. Even without Miller, they’re the best team, with much to spare in every position.

Red Bull wins big games not because of their talent but because of the failings of their opponents. Art Long’s recent mysterious drop in game form easily comes to mind. Asi also had a dip in game when they met once. The Thunders should start asking what happened to Harp’s game. But they don’t ask, as in Miller’s case. They let go.