Back to Blogging: The PBA Expansion vs PBA D-League

As of yesterday evening, one of the most evenly matched and star-studded Philippine Cup Finals in recent memory is tied at 2-2. The San Miguel Beermen, led by Jay Washington and Arwind Santos, have won games 3 and 4, and look to get that penultimate win on Wednesday. Talk n Text will have to ride the shoulders of Ryan Reyes and Jared Dillinger to gun for the same advantage as well. These two teams were expected to be here, in the finals, tied, and they have not disappointed so far. What is more surprising though is that Olsen Racela and Danny Ildefonso are starting to taste like fine wine once again, and Jimmy Alapag and Jason Castro are seemingly running out of nitro.






With this kind of series, one might say that the PBA is in a pretty good place right now. The product on court has not been disappointing. Even the semifinal series that had Barangay Ginebra and Derby Ace, were also good games that filled up stadiums and made people tune in at home. However, I feel that the PBA still has a problem with their product - especially when we begin looking at the teams at the bottom and the upcoming D-League initiative.



Teams such as Red Bull and Air21, in recent years have been seemingly selling players in lopsided deals. Rumors have it that the cash considerations lumped with trades are being used to simply operate the teams, forgetting about the quality of the team fielded in. While this situation is sad, it is also an undeniable true part of business. Sometimes you have to liquidate your assets to make sure your business survives. This, understandably leads to blow out games against the more financially and talent loaded teams like SMB, TNT, Ginebra, Derby Ace and Alaska.



This downgrade in the quality of games is why I question putting up a D-League in the first place. In the NBA, the D-League was made to keep young, developing talent at home in the US. We, on the other hand, don't have that problem. Our good players aren't being imported (except for the Asean League), so why put them in lesser competition when the top competiton is already lacking in participants. Putting up a D-League would provide more reasons for powerhouses to stockpile talent and weaker teams would once again have to make do with less. The PBA could probably still survive and look like a more competitive league if there were 12 competitive teams playing, not just 8 teams with 2 feeders.



Just to elaborate on the topic, let's take San Miguel Beer as an example. Their depth chart can be seen below:
PG: Cabagnot, Racela, Artadi, Miranda
SG: Hontiveros, Yeo, Salvacion
SF: Santos, Seigle, Tugade
PF: Washington, Ildefonso
C: Pena, Pennisi



Their 4th string PG, Denok Miranda was the starter on the Sta.Lucia team that won the Philippine Cup years ago. If they can afford to keep a starter-quality point guard sitting on the bench, then what's going to stop them from getting good players and hiding them in the D-League for situations such as next year when an older player retires. If the PBA D-League works the same way the NBDL does, they might see sister teams SMB, Ginebra & Derby Ace fielding a team that could be competitive in the PBA itself.



The PBA's games have been struggling for a good quality product when it's not the playoffs. Probably because of the fact that only 2 teams are eliminated at the end of the classification phase. Put 2 more teams in and teams will have to value each game more as more teams can steal spots away from them. Maybe then, we won't have to wait for the playoffs to see good PBA basketball.

Coach Tim Cone, Alaska Get an Assist from Coach Siot

Last week, the Alaska Aces took an overtime decision over the San Miguel Beermen. They withstood an all-out late 4th quarter run led by Arwind Santos who put up 22 pts and 14 rebs. It was a pretty big effort on their end as Willie Miller wasn't playing well. Thankfully, the other half of the league's top backcourt, LA Tenorio responded wth 29 pts and 5 asts. Tenorio has been playing well as of late and some would say is actually a candidate for the Best Player of the Conference and year-end MVP awards due to his much improved and stellar performance this season.

What people often forget about that game is that, in a rare moment of negligence, Coach Tim Cone, actually called for Joe Devance to miss his second free throw and allow SMB to rebound the ball with time left and them only leading by 2. The rare error by the multi-titled coach was that he thought the Beermen had no timeouts left and could not advance the ball. This cost them an extra-difficult 5 minutes of additional court time as Dondon Hontiveros received a backpick and took an alley-oop to tie the game.

Wednesday, the Aces seemed to be on the other end of a beatdown from Talk n Text and down deep into the 4th. Jimmy Alapag played the role of Willie Miller as he was absent due to a hamstring injury. Similarly, Mac Cardona rattled off 32 points to play LA Tenorio and carried the team late in the game. Alaska would stage a comeback and with around 2 seconds left, the game was tied and it was Aces ball.

Coach Tim picked up from the brillance of Coach Siot Tanquincen in their previous game and drew up a pretty familiar play. LA Tenorio, similar to Hontiveros, was given a backpick at the elbow and was spotted by Tony Dela Cruz for an alley-oop lay-up! Eeriely familiar? Alaska was up 2 points and they won the game as there was only 0.5 seconds left on the clock.

Now, in the stats, that assist was credited to Dela Cruz. I'd personally give it to Coach Siot.

Thanks to that, Alaska now sports an 11-1 record, leading the entire league.

Tainted Basketball - Is the PBA Really Behind Smart Gilas?

Basketball in the Philippines, as much as we hate to admit it, isn't pure. Just by the sheer number of people carrying interest in it, it would not be surprising that some would try to capitalize on the sport. There's game-fixing, commercialization, governing-body politics, spurned egos and much excess baggage that's tainting the "love for the game" which is so great when one is young.

What drove me to write this is actually something that I had just chanced upon in doing research for another post that I was about to write. I was supposed to write something about how the recent Smart Gilas success comes strangely at a time when they are dealing with a number of things on their plate. Not to take away anything from them, but it seems to be more than just a coincidence.

Here's an outtake from what I was intending to write:


Honestly, as a kid, what made me love Philippine basketball was the PBA, more specifically the San Miguel franchise. I was born in 1986, coincidentally the year San Miguel won the Grand Slam. Growing up, I idolized the man whom the Chinese called was "walking on air" - Samboy Lim. There was something about the athleticism and skill of the guy, the high socks and the brush of the hair before taking a free throw that was just mythical for a kid. I grew up idolozing the guy, wanting to wear the number 9 and wishing that I too could be a skywalker.

Sorry, to the Star Wars geeks out there, but Samboy was way cooler than Luke.

The San Miguel franchise was just awesome to me, and it saddened me that they sold out in their game against Smart Gilas. Not to take anything away from Gilas who played a great game, but I think SMB sold out by protecting their corporate interests over national ones. Somebody please explain to me how, 8 points down and 6 minutes to go, Eman and Calaguio are in the game's final minutes instead of Santos, Hontiveros, Miranda or Pena. The game was still win-able for San Miguel, but the starters were pulled out and Gilas was not tested. They weren't tested by the pro team who could have placed them in a very unique situation - late in the 4th and with the lead, but without your import and against a hot, veteran team pushing and pressing you, hoping that you quit.

That should be a very important scenario to the national program when we have to face off against Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Korea and other Asian powers - all winning, veteran teams who will push, pressure and are relentless. It could have been a real learning experience, but it wasn't.


I was supposed to write the peace above in greater detail, present some numbers that would help me drive my point. During the TV coverage, they kept on harping about how impressive Chris Tiu's game was. He supposedly scored 24 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and had 11 assists. Now, I know all the Tiu fans are going to hate me, but Chris isn't that good yet, especially playing against Hontiveros, Cortez, Racela, Tugade, Santos, et al. He shouldn't be able to put those numbers up, and I checked the PBA's official website to get the real statistics from the game. But lo and behold, they weren't there. I checked the other Gilas games since the decision to render the games as "no bearing" and no stats either. This seemed a bit off to me, especially since 3 of those 4 games have been Gilas wins.

Giving the benefit of the doubt, I just thought that maybe it was the National Program's way of keeping the Gilas team a secret to surprise other countries. (Something completely irrational since other countries will scout us wherever the hell we may try to hide.) So, I checked the rest of the PBA's site, and there is very little mention of Gilas, except for results, the schedule and some photos. For me, there just seems to be something very wrong about that.

If the PBA, as it says, is completely behind the National program, shouldn't it help in helping them improve basketball-wise and making people believe in the Gilas Team?

Gilas entered into the PBA tourney to get better on-court and get more people's attention to support and drum up some excitement about the team. The team was supposed to grow up in front of our eyes like some telenovela and then lay it all out in battle during international competitions. However, I honestly believe now that the PBA (no longer just individual teams) as a whole is protecting it's interest as a professional league more than the national purpose. Sad to say it, but as I mentioned at the beginning. tainted basketball isn't surprising in the Philippines/

I think that the following pieces of evidence lead me to believe that PBA support to Gilas is half-assed:

1) The PBA nullifies all games played by Gilas.
2) They protect Arboleda roughing up Gilas, which eventually led to the mayhem with the fan. (Not to mention, Arboleda was only penalized was attacking the fan, but never his on-court actions more than 2 unsportmanlike fouls).
3) They chose not to control their teams, and allowed their teams to waive the white flag early to protect their players.
4) They do not make the public aware of the Gilas team's achievements since it comes at their expense. by news and statistics.
5) They continue to separate themselves from the concerted effort by focusing more on the entertainment rather than the basketball.

It seems to be that the PBA is becoming selfish with their resources. They have the best competition the country can supposedly offer, and yet they do not provide it to the team every night. They are trying to protect the brand from being upstaged by Gilas just because "they're the pros." In short, they really aren't fully behind Gilas after all.

To quote some lines from the Panatang Makabayan, hindi ba dapat

Ako'y kanyang kinukupkop at tinutulungan upang maging malakas, maliaya ay kapaki-pakinabang...

Tutuparin ko ang mga tungkulin bilang mamamayan...

Paglilingkuran ko ang aking bayan nang walang pag-iimbot at buong katapatan...

Sisikapin kong maging isang tunay na Pilipino sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa...

Where in the PBA is...?

After a week of PBA action, we've seen all teams in action already. There have already been some surprises like San Miguel being winless, Red Bull winning it's first game and (sadly) the biggest headline of them all Wynne Arboleda of Burger King being suspended for the rest of the season (more on this later)... But perhaps, the first surprise we all encountered was "(Player Name) is already with (Team Name)?!?"

Yes, the has been a huge amount of player movement during the off-season, some of which we did not even hear about in the broadsheets. (Sort of makes you wonder why the professional league of the country doesn't get much press. Haha) Nevertheless, this entry is dedicated to helping you, the fan, find out the new faces in the 10 teams in this year's PBA season. For all teams, I've also placed their current records and where their new players came from. Now, alphabetically...

1. Alaska Aces (2-0)
Mike Burtscher (Bacchus)

2. Barako Bull Energy Boosters (1-1)
Bryan Faundo (Letran)
Bruce Viray (San Sebastian)
Ben Fernandez (FEU)
Ogie Menor (San Beda)
Aris Dimaunahan (Burger King)
Chad Alonzo (Harbour Center)
Yousif Aljamal (Talk n Text)
Orlando Doroya (Arellano)
Paolo Hubalde (San Miguel)
Donbel Belano (Talk n Text)
Alex Crisano (Ginebra)
Gilbert Lao (Talk n Text)

3. Ginebra Gin Kings (2-0)
Celino Cruz (Purefoods)
Kevin White (PBL)
Enrico Villanueva (Purefoods)
Rich Alvarez (Purefoods)

4. Burger King Whoppers (1-1)
Ronjay Buenafe (Coke)
Ronnie Matias (PBL)
Carlo Sharma (Red Bull)
Richard Yee (Purefoods)

5. Coca-Cola Tigers (0-2)
Chris Ross (PBL)
Ken Bono (San Miguel)
Marvin Cruz (Burger King)
Dennis Espino (Sta. Lucia)
Larry Rodriguez (Red Bull)
Wesley Gonzales (San Miguel)
Norman Gonzales (Sta. Lucia)

6. Purefoods Giants (1-1)
Rico Maierhoffer (La Salle)
Rafi Reavis (Ginebra)
Paul Artadi (Ginebra)
Jonathan Fernandez (Harbour Center)
Marc Pingris (San Miguel)
Chris Timberlake (PBL)

7. Rain or Shine Elastopainters (0-1)
Jeffrei Chan (Red Bull)
Marcy Arellano (UE)
Jervy Cruz (UST)
Mark Telan (Coke)
Mike Hrabak (Red Bull)

8. San Miguel Beermen (0-2)
Arwind Santos (Burger King)
Dennis Miranda (Sta. Lucia)

9. Sta. Lucia Realtors (1-0)
Ardy Larong (Alaska Aces)
Joshua Urbiztondo (PBL)
Gabby Espinas (Red Bull)
Chito Jaime (PBL)
Jason Misolas (Coke)
Charles Waters (PBL)
Chris Pacana (Ginebra)
Mark Benitez (La Salle)

10. Talk n Text Tropang Texters (1-0)
Nic Belasco (Coke)
Mark Isip (Sta. Lucia)


With all the common shareholders in the teams (Ginebra-San Miguel-Purefoods and Burger King-Talk n Text), you would think trading would be more difficult if the non-sister teams would strangle the teams for better pieces for being third parties, but Red Bull, with it's limited budget, has become the Memphis Grizzlies of the PBA and they have taken all offers it seems.

Contrary to what was expected though, teams which stayed almost intact or did not have lots of new faces have actually been the ones that have succeeded so far - Alaska and Talk n Text. Naturally, team chemistry and familiarity is becoming an issue as of the moment. Maybe the other teams will round into shape come the latter portions of the tournament. However, I still predict that these 2 teams will probably get the semis incentives after the eliminations and prove thar solid teamwork can beat a band of mercenaries.

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In related news, Burger King will be short one point guard as Wynne Arboleda has been suspended for the season, losing close to Php 3 million in salaries and fines. He will not be allowed to participate in any games, practices and other leagues. This somewhat resembles the Malace at the Palace NBA suspension of Ron Artest.

This kind of surprised me, but then again, with the PBA trying to get credibility back as a top league in Asia, it was a right decision. The PBA is not a place for 6-foot and above bullies to bare down on simple fans. To the PBA fan though, hurl all the insults you want at the players, but please stay away from their families (like in the Marlou Aquino incident). You deserve your rights as a paying patron, but you have to know your limits just as much as the players do.