Figment of my imagination

Many Filipino basketball fanatics disagreed on Cyrus Baguio’s inclusion to the ‘Pilipinas Basketball Team 2009′, some of them pointed out his lack of height, makes sense since ‘height is might’ in the international basketball arena.

But Baguio, the pride of Iligan City proved his critics wrong when he awed the crowd in every game he played with his spectacular crossover move to the basket, and he even made an ankle breaker against South Korea that stunned not just his defender but even the other players of the opposing team.

Since then, Baguio was idolized by his former critics and they started to chant his name as one of the unsung heroes of our beloved ‘Team Pilipinas’ in Tianjin, China.

Check out Cyrus Bagiuo’s Ankle Breaker move against South Korea, Enjoy!

Quarterfinals in Fiba Asia is set. And It’s gonna be the biggest test tomorrow for ‘Team Pilipinas’ against Jordan, a powerhouse team handled by Coach Mario Palma, whom by the way beat us by 31 points during William Jones cup basketball championship that was held in Taiwan last July.

If we win the game, we’ll probably meet Lebanon in the semifinals.

The moment of truth as they say. And If they beat us once again, well, Adios Fiba World Championship! But I still believe our players would do everything just to win that important game even if it means dying for every ball possession.

I just hope their vaunted defense would work this time around against this tough Jordanian squad, and hopefully they would apply more pick and screens to open up their shooters particularly on Willie Miller and James yap at sana lang pumasok ang kanilang mga tira kasi kung hindi, we’re done!

God Bless my Team Pilipinas.

I really don’t have the slightest idea what went wrong to the PBA-backed, Team Pilipinas’s lackluster game last night. Jordan is a tough squad but losing to them by 31 points is not acceptable at all since we almost beat them in FIBA Asia two years ago…

‘Kots Kalbs’ might be pondering as well of what really hit his team by suffering a not so acceptable loss against a relatively powerhouse in Asian basketball…

Who’s to blame? Would it be James Yap, for being so inconsistent in his medium range jumper? Perhaps, Sonny Thoss for not flexing his muscle inside the paint and allowing the other team’s big men to dominate him inside the shaded lane?

Maybe it’s Willie Miller’s fault, since he has committed a lot of turnovers for being Team Pilipinas’s newly designated point guard. (Miller is a natural two guard…)

Who’s to blame? Would it be ‘Kots Kalbs’ and his fucki’n system?

Or should we blame the PBA Commissioner ‘Sonny Virus Barrios’ itself since he “discouraged” Team Pilipinas’s training abroad “due to lack of sponsorship” and at the same time “conflict in the recently concluded, PBA fiesta conference?”

Nakakasama ng loob. Nakaka disappoint. It seems that the other Asian Teams (particularly those Asian Powerhouses) are preparing so hard by toughening themselves by playing a series of exhibition games abroad all year long while our team is right here practicing twice a week in San Juan Gym! Ano ba tayo sa palagay ni ‘Sonny Virus’ TEAM USA! That we can prepare a month or less then isasabak na lang kagad sa laban… “May baril nga, wala namang bala!”

But anyway, i still believe in our Team’s heart… I know they will try to regain their composure and redeem themselves and try to avenge that 31 point loss against Jordan by showing what they really got against other National teams.

And I believe that come Fiba Asia this august in Tianjin, China, we’ll get the third spot no matter what it takes…

I still believe in ‘kots kalbs’ system and I will keep on believing that The ‘Three stars and a sun’ will rise up once again in the international basketball arena…

I BELIEVE! Because I am a Filipino. And every Filipino has a heart of a champion!

“Niether the player or the coach is the superstar, but it’s the system…”
-coach yeng guiao…

Mabuhay ang TEAM PILIPINAS!

Basketball is my life… Though i’m not your typical go to guy (sa barangay lang :D) i still got this passion in me of playing whenever i have time to do so…

I’m a great follower of our National Team ever since I was in grade four (1990 Beijing Asian Games) and since then, every time they compete abroad I keep on supporting them… I saw how Chito Loyzaga stoods his ground against this 7′8 North Korean center named Ri, Myung-Hoon and I was amazed how Benjie “the tower of power” Paras bangs body against this Chinese behemoth, Shan Tao in Beijing… I also saw how Samboy Lim showed off his dare devil drives that dazzled the crowd and the players of the opposing teams. I even recalled how China dumped us by more than 60 points in the quarterfinals and a little over 10 points in the finals of that tournament…

I was very saddened. That was the very first time I cried so hard not because a girl left me or something but because of the passion i got for our National basketball team…

I remember well when the RP-San Miguel Team mentored by coach Norman Black showed off their wares in Hiroshima Asian Games (1994)… This was the year when Allan “the Triggerman” Caidic was feared the most by his Asian Counterparts. “The vaunted Chinese national basketball team recognized his ability by always reminding their players to be on the lookout for “Philippine No. 8″, referring to Caidic’s regular jersey number while playing for the National Team.” But then a fourth place finished was the only thing they could salvaged. That made my heart cry once more… But I still remain on their side… I never left them. I was disappointed by their lackluster performance but a day or two after the Asiad debacle i still embraced and trusted them co’z i know one day we’ll be able to regain the glory we lost so many years ago…

The 1998 Bangkok Asian Games was the most promising year for our Philippine Team… Since it falls on the centennial year of our Independence day, the PBA formed the celebrated Philippine Centennial team mentored by Coach Tim Cone. They captured the 21st William Jones cup held in Taiwan but they just managed to place third in the Asian Games thanks to the late heroic of Jojo Lastimosa against the ‘mechanical’ Kazakhstan. A much better placing compared to the pasts editions of the meet, at least I got reason to celebrate.

2002 Busan Asian Games… Our National team suffered the most heartbreaking loss in this edition thanks to South Korea’s Lee, Sang Min who buried a last second three point shot that pulled them off by a point (69-68) in the semifinals. Again I wept. I haven’t sleep a wink that night, I just cried and cried, i could always recall that buzzer beater and how this South Korean team celebrated in the middle of the court after that hard earned win against us. If Olsen Racela just sank in those two important charities, we might pulled off and entered the finals against Yao, Ming led, Chinese National Team. But what shall we do, we don’t have control over our destiny…

So devastated by the outcome the Nationals came out flat and restless against Kazakhstan and loss the battle for the bronze, 66-68.

“The Philippines was suspended by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on July 2005 after a long standing feud between the Philippine Olympic Committee and the BAP (Basketball Association of the Philippines).” This was triggered by a lost exhibition game of the now defunct BAP-sponsored Cebuana Lhuillier Philippine National team (Amateur players) against a lowly Paranaque Jets team led by then Councilor Anjo Yllana.

To make the story short, we never got the chance of showing our wares in the 2006 edition of Asian games held in Doha, Qatar due to the suspension.

FIBA WORLD lifted the suspension in 2007 thanks to the merging of BAP and SBP (Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas) and this paves way to the creation of the PBA-SBP backed, ‘TEAM PILIPINAS’ that fought hard in the FIBA ASIA in Tokushima, Japan the same year, (serves as a qualifier for the 2008 Olympics.) But due to the luck of draw we landed in the so called, ‘group of death’ and because of this we were eliminated in the first round by losing a controversial game against Iran and Jordan. Though we lost and we never qualified to the Olympics, I felt very proud of them by showing great guts and determination against the best in Asia…

They never backed down by fighting till the end. This team handled by Coach Vincent ‘Chot’ Reyes showed their oppositions that we got the most important tool in life, HEART…

Again, we are now on the verge of trying to regain what ONCE is OURS… It’s the POWERADE TEAM PILIPINAS’ turn to prove the whole of ASIA that WE FILIPINOS can reclaim what is really OURS come FIBA Asia that will be held in China this August. We hope to land at least third place in China to gain a ticket come FIBA World Championship in 2010.

The throne and the respect we once had will be back to us and I know this is achievable specially if WE FILIPINOS go out and support our flag and country the way it should be. “Yes, we can…” Let’s keep on believing! Let us not allow anybody out there to just ruin all our dreams just like that…

Let us support SBP’s long term program for the National team and if it’s possible let us put an end to BAP’s craziness by deporting Mr. Graham Lim to his native land. Bureau of Immigration should act on this matter immediately. Mr. Lim is conspiring with his friends in the FIBA WORLD (and sad to say with some Filipino government officials) to suspend our team in the international arena, AGAIN! They keep on insisting on the legalities of some of our players’ nationality. Such illegal alien (Mr. Lim) doesn’t deserve to stay here any longer.

Now is the time for US to UNITE and show ASIA and the rest of the WORLD that we FILIPINOS won’t allow anybody to just ruin our common interest. We’ll fight and support our TEAM PILIPINAS no matter what happens… Let us set aside our differences and come together as ONE for the sake of “the three stars and a sun…”

Everything is possible… Because we FILIPINOS have the most important tool in life… HEART!

I also posted this article at http://interbasketphilippines.ning.com

Beautiful scenery like the ones below relaxes my mind and it lightens up my soul, it’s kinda like escaping from hell whenever I’m at the countryside and while camera’s at hand I never let moments pass by without clicking the shutter button of anyone’s camera…

Ahh, I’m so delighted everytime I got a simple glimpse of such a wonderful scenery!

This has been my first photo shoot ever, many thanks to Mr. Farish Banalnal for entrusting me his Canon 400D DSLR without him this wouldn’t materialized for sure. This was taken when we went to Nueva Ecija for some sort of company outing. And I had so much fun.

I look forward to learning more deeply about photography (Artificial light against natural light, proper exposure, depth of field, proper usage of ISO speed and more) and hopefully more photo shoots will be done in the near future specially if I already own a DSLR so help me God.