STILL GOT IT WRONG.

Guess I spoke sooner than I ought to.

But seriously, who cares?! Miami Heat was beat by the Dallas Mavericks in six games!

Take that LBJ!
I wonder if LBJ will end up just like John Stockton and Karl Malone, two of the "Ring-Less" basketball greats.

But let's see, maybe I am speaking too soon again.

So that's bye bye NBA for now and hello PBA!

Ginebra won last night. :)

I hate the King

Ok, hate is a strong word but really, there is something wrong with this man. Yes, he is a great basketball player, but he’s also one hell of a diva.

Yep, diva.

As I type down these words right now, Miami Heat (LBJ’s new found home) is battling the Cleveland Cavaliers (LBJ’s former home). The boos, teases and taunting are there, but LeBron is dominating the game. He did the chalk toss and got a collective uproar from the audience (mostly boos). I would have been booing him too if I can help it. I don’t know, there’s really something about LeBron that I hate.

Maybe it’s because he’s too “mayabang”. But most players in the NBA are one too, even Kobe. Some of the local players in the PBA also have a long list of bragging rights, but his is different.

“No Ring-King”. Yes he is. So, what’s up with him being so “mayabang”?  Because of his skills? Fine. But you know what, until you put that ring on it and until you learn how to respect your team, we’re not good. And I still hate you.

Whoa! Woes!

Since my rant on the losses of my basketball team in PBA, the Ginebra Kings have rallied a six-game winning streak until last night. They were yet again slaughtered by their "sister" team, San Miguel Beermen, in a one-point loss. Epic. This is just their third loss and all of those are just handed to them with a point deficit. Oh dear. I hate it, but I still love my guys. Jimbo Aquino's been doing very well, Hatfield is starting to dominate the board and Caguioa is starting to regain his spark.

It's still a good run boys. Just...stop messing around with those one point-deficits.

Philippine Basketball Anthology

It’s with a heavy heart that I discuss this matter. Being a die-hard Ginebra fan, of course, a part of me still weeps as they were beaten out of the playoffs series earlier than expected by the team that later on bagged the conference title, the Alaska Aces.

ALASKA WHO?

There are a lot of points that are worth discussing in that win. First, at the beginning of this conference, no one really thought that it could boil down into this.  A lot of people were actually talking of how strong the revamped Talk n’ Text lineup is. After the acquisition of Kelly Williams and Ryan Reyes earlier on the eliminations, TNT rallied a 14-game win stretch that gave them the first outright semis berth into the playoffs. Meanwhile, defending Fiesta Conference champions San Miguel Beermen were also on the spotlight as they have re-acquired their winning import, Gabe Freeman backed up by some of the league’s best players, shooters and defenders. The SMB franchise did not disappoint as they went all the way to achieve the second semis berth and eventually, graced the finals series once again to defend their crown. There are a lot of notable teams that battled it out into the playoffs as well. The Rain or Shine Elastopainters, who gained the wildcard spot gave their all as they tried to snatch the semifinals slot from the B-meg Derby Ace Llamados.  Probably the most controversial team of the conference, what with the personal grievances of their star player, James Yap.  But the team also lost their thunder from the Beermen. The Barangay Ginebra Kings brought controversies as well, as the team acquired a lot of the best players in the league to play along with an already talented lineup, but the problem is that they couldn’t work on the chemistry of the team. They got Willie Miller, Mike Cortez and Yancy de Ocampo but all in all, it was a fail. All those trades resulted to nothing but sorrow, especially to the dismay of the fans.

It was a different story though with the TNT franchise. After a long break, they were toppled by the Alaska Aces in just a snap. It was evident that Chot Reyes and his boys weren’t able to contain the momentum that favored Alaska’s wins. Alaska had its share of complications as well. Every team in the PBA was actually affected with the bout of players traded from one team to another. Alaska lost their top gun Willie Miller to the Ginebra Kings in exchange for Finals MVP-to-be Cyrus Baguio. The trade gave out better results in favor of the Aces as they found a new “Ace” player in Baguio.

THE ROAD TO THE FINALS

 Before facing TNT, Alaska came from a highly momentous and epic battle at the quarterfinals series with the Barangay Ginebra Kings. It was a do-or-die match on both teams, and obviously, the Aces were the better team.

So, the Aces and the Beermen, two of the winningest teams in the PBA went head-to-head to get the conference title that easily went to the Aces in just six games. Finals MVP was awarded to LA Tenorio and Cyrus Baguio. The Aces are now the second winningest team in the PBA, tied to the Crispa Redmanizers of the yesteryears. Incidentally, it is also the 100^th PBA finals game and the last for “The Jet” Jeffrey Cariaso.

 ALL-"NEW" PBA

The next season is just around the corner, which will start with the PBA Draft Pick with former Atenean and Smart Gilas stalwart, Rabeh Al-Husseini leading the pack of hungry PBA wannabes. Aside from the rookies to watch out for, we shall be enthralled with the new system of the PBA, as a regular season will have three conferences just like what it did before. We will also be witnessing the emergence of two new teams in the league, from Meralco (formerly the Sta. Lucia Realtors) and Petron (formerly the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados) along with its new coaching staff and probably players as well.

And so the countdown begins…

'Tis the season of balls

Yes indeed.
Sports enthusiasts all over the world are united this season as a slew of sporting festivities are being catered through broadcast media. Men clad in different uniforms, playing with their choice of ball have invaded our TV screens and even the raucous world of Twitter. It has caused women drooling and men shouting while chugging beers, eating chips and tweeting at the same time. The aftermath? Twitter overcapacity.

Tantalizing Tennis



Rafael Nadal made waves just recently as he bagged the top title for the French Open. As is reported online, Nadal holds the slightest edge over Roger Federer in the final men's world tennis rankings before the draw for Wimbledon. Let us all see soon.

World Cup Wars

Just over the weekend, the world made a few kicks and turns as the FIFA 2010 World Cup started in South Africa. Defending champs, Italy, is out and about to defend their title among other teams from France, North and South Korea, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, Brazil and Japan among others.

Finals Fiasco

This season’s NBA Finals series has been a classic match. The LA Lakers and Boston Celtics are meeting up for the nth time for a championship ring. The series has created such fiasco and excitement as the Boston Celtics led the LA Lakers at 3-2, coming from behind on Game 5. The Lakers are now challenged to push for Game 7 and eventually try to win the series as they bring Game 6 back to LA at the Staples Center. But, if the Celts are able to win their next game, LA won’t be able to defend their championship title against Orlando Magic last year. (and will also break my heart. :( )

People are highly emotional when it comes to expressing their points on every sporting event that they follow. But please people, spare Twitter. Do not over do the updates. I've been growing tired of seeing that whale being carried by those tweet birds. Haha. But seriously, do not over do it. :D
:D

NBA (not-so) All Star Weekend

The 2010 NBA All-Star Weekend in Dallas just wrapped up this morning. Finally.

It has been one of the most boring All-Star Festivities ever. The slam dunk competition was quite lame. Nate Robinson is such a high flier and has mad skills and creativity to back it up to prove his win for the title, but he hasn't shown any of those in his "winning" dunk. Winning the 3-point shootout competition is Celtic Paul Pierce. Steve Nash grabbed the title for the skills challenge beating his younger opponents in just 29 seconds.


Although the slam dunk competition was a "fail", the All-Star Game was another story. Even without Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul in the Western Conference lineup, the West team still gave a huge performance that led to a close fight with the Eastern Conference lineup. Still, D-Wade and LeBron James pulled fantastic plays. The game ended with the East winning against the West with just 2 points. Dwyane Wade was named MVP of the game.


In another NBA news, Kobe Bryant has just been named as Player of the Decade. He bested other players, including LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal. That's another title to boost his ego.

This All-Star has been so-so. From LBJ's flop Slam Dunk appearance, to Kobe not playing for the ASG. But the game still garnered the most number of live viewers with the total count of 108,713. Let's see how this will affect next year's festivity. See you in LA! (more ego boost for Kobe)

Walk n’ Text

I am a big basketball fan. I watch both the PBA and NBA. I love watching UAAP and NCAA basketball tourneys. It all started way back 1996, Ginebra – Alaska Championship series. And since that day, I have been a Ginebra fan.

Some say that once you’ve become a Ginebra fan, you will always be a fan and I say yes to that. In this conference of the PBA, my team got into the quarterfinals round. They were up against the defending champs, Talk n’ Text. I have high regards in this team as well. Their players are great runners, shooters and defenders. They were actually a threat, especially when they imposed a 2-0 win-loss record against the Gin Kings in their series. Of course I was worried! But then Ginebra put up a fight and got their first win. The next game is a do-or-die match for my team. I decided not to watch the game because I was scared to lose. (yeah, that’s me.) but actually, there isn’t anything to watch. The whole bench of the Talk n’Text team deserted the court. They walked out in the middle of the game.


I was online on Twitter when it all happened. I was just reading the updates and the scores from people on the web. Then came Jason Webb’s post saying that “Talk n’Text walks out of the game”. And then people started tweeting a lot about it, so I went and watched the game. Everyone else is just waiting for the next thing to happen. Quinito Henson tried his best explaining what happened over and over again for the benefit of the people like me.

Apparently, TnT player Ranidel de Ocampo was called for a Flagrant Personal Foul 2 after hitting a running and shooting Ronald Tubid with his elbow. On the video replay, Tubid followed up the act by waving down his arm on Ranidel’s face. Tubid wasn’t called for any charges. After the referee’s call, TnT coach Chot Reyes ushered the whole bench into the dug out.

It was intriguing and quite controversial as even Manny Pangilinan, the team owner, followed them. PBA Commissioner Sonny Barrios was then called to meet with the coaching staff of TnT while the players get locked up in their room. Ginebra players and coaching staff was left along with thousands of people waiting in vain.

After a while, it was announced that Ginebra has won by default due to he walk-out incident. Later on, Chot Reyes went out to the press conference and shared their dismay about the unjust calls of the referees since their last game. Turns out, they were saying that the referees are more in favor of the Gin Kings. Coach Chot even has the statistics to back this up.

That being said, I still don’t think that a walk-out is necessary for this matter. It was just the last minute of the 1st quarter of the whole game. Their intentions and issues were valuable but this is not the right way to do it. Case in point, the crowd in Araneta Coliseum. It wasn’t a jam-packed game, but there are still thousands of people out there, along with the TV viewers waiting for a big game from both teams. There were refunds, right, but still, they should have considered the audience as well. I guess they were a bit self-centered in that situation. They acted like kids that could just quit any game as they wish.

I don’t know about the allegations with the unjust calls by the referees, but one thing’s for sure, this brought Ginebra to another level, as they were given a chance to tie the series, and eventually win on the next game.

I am a huge Ginebra fan. But this does not put me on the line to bash the TnT team. After all, they’ve paid for their actions already. Ginebra is on their way now to the semis. And that’s just what really matters to me now.

(This post just came from an outsider's point of view, for the real deal, click here..)