PBA theme song: Let’s get physical

It should be noted that after Sir Jaemark Tordecillo of FireQuinito’s beloved basketball personality (and I say that with all the sarcasm in the world based on the tone of their somewhat grade school-ish Twitter battle) Noli Eala was stripped of his Philippine Basketball Association commissionership, the league has entered or reverted back to its old “physical” style of play.

First up was Sonny Barrios, whose first mandate was to shy away from all the pussy handcheck fouls being called and let the PBA players show just how good they are. This led to a lot of complaints from all sides, and the league did tighten up a bit—but still allowing extra force here and there (refer to Denok Miranda’s in your face, lips to lips, betlog sa betlog defense on Willie Miller and later on James Yap during Santa Lucia’s title run).

By the time Barrios tendered his resignation, the league was able to win back a bunch of fans who were turned off by the excessive showmanship and lack of gung-ho, machismo that Filipino basketball has been bred to be by the Loyzagas, Fernandezes, Ongs, Jaworskis and so on. Case in point, the only “old school” enforcers left in the league, are, well, point guard Wyne Arboleda of Air21 (who was rightfully suspended for blowing a gasket during an exhibition game).

In my opinion, by letting the defense play with more physicality, fans were turned on or stimulated to watch. It’s like that old adage of good versus evil. If James Yap (the most overrated player since Danny Seigle) could somehow slice into the lane versus the demonic pine trees of whatever team was out there. If the bad guy, Mac Cardona, would prevail over the Ginebra good guys (in which Ronald Tubid is largely miscasted, LOL.). It gave fans something to cheer about, plus, it distanced the players from the amateur leagues.

This is the PBA. A game for men. Flashy guards or athletic wings who can get away with slicing into the paint and bailed out by referees and sent to the line are eye candy yes, but not something we Filipinos appreciate.

Sa Pilipino, mas mahirap, mas masarap!

It’s been a week since the league opened, and I must say that at the rate things are going, we’re bound to see a fight breakout at some point. Ali Peek, a former Sportsmanship Awardee, almost blew his top the last timeout. In tonight’s game, Jimmy Alapag got tangled with Arwind Santos and we were treated to a mild staredown before cooler heads prevailed. We’re still waiting when Yeng Guiao is going to challenge a player to a fistfight, and whoever among Arboleda, Tubid, Yeo, Cardona and other hot blooded stars start a melee this conference.

How insane are the non-calls brought about by this new, subjective, “No harm, no foul” rule?

Well, I saw about fifty non-calls in the first half alone of the Talk N Text-San Miguel game. ALL IN THE FIRST HALF.

Guards were driving and getting smacked by the bigs, and the bigs were throwing elbows around almost like I was seeing the disciples of Ramon Fernandez and Robert Jaworski.

Don’t get me wrong here, I appreciate some mild violence as stated above, but there has to be some control. Or at the very least, the rules should be carefully reviewed.