Lead by example

Remember when Arwind was THIS good?
(It wasn't THAT long ago folks)

After calling out his Petron Blaze Boosters teammates, his point guard Alex Cabagnot in particular, Arwind Santos lived up to the drama by submitting his most dominant and all around game in recent memory finishing up with 22 points and 17 rebounds to lead his team to a 98-95 win over Ginebra.

Cabagnot, seemingly the missing key to the Boosters' puzzle, finished with 7 points, 8 assists and 5 turnovers while playing third most minutes (38) after Santos (39) and Chris Lutz (45). To say that Cabagnot has been playing without any "heart" would be an understatement. The guy is simply not competing at all (there was one loose ball play wherein he lost his man L.A. Tenorio right in front of the basket for an easy deuce).
The 8 assists are nice, but Ginebra's Tenorio and Jayjay Helterbrand pretty much took turns in scoring against Cabagnot (15 and 7, respectively) that you'd have to wonder if the Fil-Hawaiian point guard is back to his shady Santa Lucia Realtors-era drama boy ways. You could also theorize that all those trade rumors are getting to him, since he hasn't been as clutch as he was a year or so back.

Back to Santos, and how he ditched all those dumb-ass threes to get better positioning inside for gimmes and putbacks. Leave the LeBron James-wannabe act to Jay Washington and just go back to where he's arguably the league's best-- as a hybrid forward who is as-a-matter-of-fact the best lockdown perimeter defender in all of Philippine basketball ever since he donned a Far Eastern University jersey and eventually the pros.

With all the drama that's been going on over at Petron, Santos needs to rise up as the team leader. Right now, the guy who's really serving as this team's anchor is sophomore Lutz. But from a pro basketball player's standpoint, who'd you follow-- some upstart Fil-Am, or a guy who's been there and done that at the levels he's played in and you just know can dominate the game on any given night?

Santos doesn't have to look too far to find out what's really wrong with his team. No need to point fingers. It starts with him. He's the star, he is the one who really needs to step up until his teammates have no choice but to follow his lead.