Amazing Arwind

The Pinoy Spiderman
(Photo credit: Inquirer.net)

When it is all said and done, the San Miguel Beermen’s do-it-all forward and former PBA MVP Arwind Santos will undoubtedly go down as one of the best ever.

Is he a small forward? But he rebounds the basketball and often makes his best defensive stops around the paint. Is he a power forward? But he shoots threes, runs the floor and isn’t exactly built like a stocky one as per Filipino traditions.

Evolution

The Golden Boy
(photo credit: pba-online.net)

GlobalPort Batang Pier’s Terrence Romeo is redefining the way he is known to the local basketball world in two PBA Philippine Cup games played so far. Though the “Golden Boy” is averaging his customary 27 points, he is now actively keeping his teammates involved by issuing 7 assists as well.

Change looks like it’s coming, eh?

Before we proceed, we’d like to ask: who is the better basketball player? A guy scores 40 points or a guy who puts up 15 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists while also deferring to a teammate when it comes to taking the game-winner?

The 2016 PBA Special and Regular Mock Draft

Get Belo-fied
(Photo credit: interaksyon.com)

Ugh.

The Gilas boys need to come out with red dots on their foreheads. Green for the regulars. Siopao-style.

Special thanks to ABS CBN Sports for the Draft order, as per this report >>> click here.

1 Blackwater - Mac Belo, SF
Arguably the most sound Gilas player to date be it on offense or defense. Though he is not a go-to-guy per se, Belo almost, always ends up being his team's leading scorer (and rebounder) by sheer hard work and simply working efficiently without the basketball. If you were to compare him to any current PBA player, then the guy his game closely resembles is that of TNT's incoming sophomore Troy Rosario-- only with a better dribble game. Belo works the glass relentlessly, has a pocket set-shot from 15 feet and out, and best of all can put the ball on the floor on the pick and roll which makes him an even bigger threat than Rosario. We honestly like what Blackwater is looking at here, since they will be able to parade a blue chip foursome of Roi Sumang, Carlo Lastimosa, Art dela Cruz and Belo right away, with the center position hopefully addressed in the later conferences (via an import).

Rebirth of the Alpha

Natural Born Killer
(Photo credit to PBA.Inquirer.Net)

Thank you Terrence Romeo not only for that sizzling 41-point performance to open the PBA Philippine Cup Semifinals between your lower-seeded Global Port Batang Pier versus the mighty Alaska Aces, but for also bringing back to the hearts of many the role of the Alpha.

Sure, we have seen some 30 and 40-point games from the likes of 2x PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo and the supernatural (that is what we are calling him nowadays) Jayson Castro, but nothing quite like how Romeo did or does it. The willingness to take responsibility and accountability, win or lose. The selfish, bastardly mindset to brush off teammates and just shoot at will. To ignore the offensive sets because he recognizes that he IS the offense.

The Alpha. The Scorer. The Killer.

Heart and Sol

Follow the leader
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

There are hundreds, nay, thousands of approaches to the sport of Chess. Some prefer to attack early, others, to lie in wait while a few choose to read the person seated before them. One strategy is to allow your offensive pieces to do the brunt of the dirty work, to have your Pawns, Bishops, Knights and Rooks wreak havoc before unleashing the Queen as your ultimate closer.

Think of the GlobalPort Batang Pier, now carrying an unexpected 4-3 winning card in the PBA Philippine Cup, as something of the sort. While neophyte scoring prodigy Terrence Romeo and “buddy” Ryan Roose Garcia earn praises and headlines with their high-level offense and PBA-ready game, when the games are tight and the chips are down—that’s when we see who the team’s real “anchors” are on both ends of the floor: the Fil-Am veteran pair of Jay Washington and Sol Mercado.

A PBA MVP in question

Spiderman, Spiderman,
wherefore art thou Spiderman?
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

17 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Those are the numbers that the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player Arwind Santos of the Petron Blaze Boosters turned in to vanquish Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in the Quarterfinals of the PBA Governor's Cup. Before that, he was good for 13 points and 8 rebounds. In the Semifinals versus Rain or Shine where he faced a myriad of do-it-all, gung ho forwards he was still good for 9 and 9.

In the recently concluded PBA Governor's Cup Finals versus the San Mig Coffee Mixers, Santos could only muster 8 and 3.

We can live with the 8 points given the team's emphasis in dumping the ball to promising big man Junemar Fajardo and the presence of high scoring import Elijah Millsap. We can live with the lessened participance on offense, but on defense?

Where's the effort? Where's the hustle?

Certified: Arwind Santos, PBA MVP

Game recognize game
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

I done kept it real from the jump
Living at my mama's house we'd argue every mornin'
Nigga, I was trying to get it on my own
Working all night, traffic on the way home
And my uncle calling me like "Where ya at?
I gave you the keys told ya bring it right back"
Nigga, I just think it's funny how it goes
Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show

- Started from the bottom, Drake

The odd jobs, countless afternoons and evenings spent in minor basketball leagues playing on pavement where hustling for the basketball means a sure chipped tooth, scraped knees and a boat load of cheap elbow shots to the mid section—all that has come to this moment.

When the Petron Blaze Boosters’ Arwind Santos was hailed as PBA Most Valuable Player, fans were divided. Some cheered while others jeered. Other names were thrown around with their own merits and arguments. Some enjoyed a better season than Santos, some put up eye-popping stat-lines that would solidify their claim. Hell, some would even argue that Santos’ best seasons came in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

But none of them can lay claim to having done the same things, at a very high level, as Santos who has proven himself worthy of being an MVP frontrunner since his 2006 rookie season.

Room for Arwind

Disrupting Gilas Pilipinas’ hard-earned and –fought chemistry would be the last thing we’d like to do. Hell, even dividing the online (hardcore) Pinoy basketball community is not something we wake up wanting to do either. But if there’s anything that the recently concluded PBA All Star Game showed, it’s that Gilas might be missing a superstar (or two) in its fold.

We don’t have to discuss the history and all the drama in detail, we know the back story more or less: “The Silent War,” “One player per team,” and “Injured or risk of injury.” Oh, and there’s also the “we’ve done our part before, so let’s see the rest do theirs” shtick.

Of the PBA All Stars that competed last Sunday night, Petron Blaze’s Arwind Santos stood out with his double-double effort of 27 points, 13 rebounds and 2 steals in 40 minutes of action.