ABL: San Miguel and AirAsia get chippy

AJ: high scoring import for Air Asia

In a battle of ASEAN Basketball League title favorites, the San Miguel Beermen emerged victorious over Filipino rivals AirAsia Patriots, 68-66 but not without suffering an embarrassment with the ejection of guard Aris Dimaunahan who committed a hard foul on AA import Anthony Johnson. This fracas ultimately led to a bench clearing, punches throwing incident that puts our brand of basketball in bad light.

We're all for competition and taking things seriously, but there's no room for unprofessionalism in the game of basketball. Specially with a growing league such as the ABL and with this country's role in it as the overall pioneers or gurus. It's not a secret that we Filipinos, the Patriots the last three and Beermen this year, are the ABL's ambassadors. Trying our very best to share our knowledge of the game with our neighbors.


What we shouldn't be showing them is how our players are hot headed, wannabe thugs. Dimaunahan was at fault for an uncalled for foul, but it was part of his job. Johnson should've known, and the Patriots shouldn't have lost it as well as the Beermen. They're all Filipinos, playing in front of their fans for God's sake.

Sad for Dimaunahan, who is bound to lose his job as SMB lead PG to Roger Yap, who has requested (?) his transfer from the PBA's B-Meg Llamados. Yap, is not only a better floor general, but also a much improved, big time scorer and leader.

Hopefully, both teams have gotten this out of the way and just play high level basketball from here on out. These guys are supposed to be professional players at par with the PBA-- if not better given the wider scope of talent/ competition and cable media exposure.

As for the Beermen, someone should tell their players to stop acting like they own the league and just play to win. They've lost games and won close ones with this approach which is understandable but unacceptable. Given the names on the roster, they should start winning more and winning big.

On a side note, don't feel bad for big man Junmar Fajardo who is riding the Beermen's bench. Yes, Bobby Park is unproven and based on what we've seen from his son, isn't the best basic skills coach as rival Norman Black, but let's give this partnership some time.

Let Fajardo keep playing behind the Beermen's import and sparingly against opposing centers. The international training and exposure will do him good. Yes, he won't dominate much like how Greg Slaughter does in the UAAP-- but at least he's  not playing against 6"4 centers.

Fans who expect double doubles from centers out of the woodwork have been spoiled by watching too many Shaq or Dwight Howard clips. Give the big man some time to work on his game.