Gilas Pilipinas: True Pinoy Grit

Photo courtesy of damarre.wordpress.com

For all the stories, myths and urban legends thrown around about one Johnny Abarrientos and his exploits in the late 90s, we argue that Jimmy Alapag has earned to be mentioned in the same breath, if not higher.

The body of work, the championships and arguably our biggest Abarrientos VS Alapag tie-breaker: longevity and consistency.

But let's get to the "who's better" debate some other time. We are here to talk about Alapag, no longer in his prime and even a lock to NOT start for Gilas Pilipinas come the FIBA Asia tournament next month. His inclusion was born more out of "experience" and "familiarity" with head coach Chot Reyes' system more than actually being one of the best at his position today (he's still up there, but younger guys have slowly closed the gap-- Gilas teammate L.A. Tenorio, JVee Casio, Alex Cabagnot, Mike Cortez and Paul Lee).