Les Tan/Red Sports
For the first time in a long while, I saw red. No, not Red Sports red, but angry red.
When your team loses to a better team, it’s ok. But when the winning team takes cheap shots, that’s another matter.
Last night, Mark Caguioa punched* Kyle Jeffers of the Singapore Slingers. As Kyle tried to get past Eric Menk, Caguioa came down with a clenched fist.
But hey, don’t take my word for it. You can see it in the sequence of pictures below.
The Ginebra Kings are a good team and they play good, entertaining ball. But ballers like Mark Caguioa should learn to do it with some class.
After all, this is basketball, not boxing.
What a thug.
Mark Caguioa jumps high, anticipating a jump by Kyle Jeffers of the Slingers (red). (Photo 1 © Francis Espeleta)
As he falls back to the court, Caguioa clenches his fist… (Photo 2 © Francis Espeleta)
… and follows through with a punch on Jeffers head. Jeffers winces from the challenge but the umpire missed that foul. What a thug. (Photo 3 © Francis Espeleta)
* I mistakenly wrote that he got away with the punch. Reader Gohan correctly pointed out that he was called for a hacking foul. My mistake.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZavNb8d1aM
How many games does each team in the PBA play? ABL allows one more team for each country, i guess. Hope Gilas can play in the ABL next season. That’s one of the ways to get fans to flog the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
I prefer GILAS to play in the ABL rather than the PBA.
While the Slingers are off to a good start (2-0) in the ABL, Smart Gilas is on the opposite direction (0-2) in the current PBA All Filipino Conference.
It was massacred this afternoon by Talk N Text 103-70. Smart Gilas have dominated Talk N Text in preseason games. But when the games really count, CJ Giles cannot give Gilas an advantage against PBA teams without imports. As I’ve said preseason and exhibition games does not give real indications of teams’ strengths. But important thing is the team learns something in these losses. Hoping SMART Gilas can win 5 of its remaining 8 games.
Who’s PRASAD?
Next Indian Lebron James? Who’s the first Indian Lebron James?
Skyrus Baguio, PBA’s best player?
Well, Smart GILAS lost to Alaska 74-67 (Just an exhibition game), Burger King 115-105. I think GILAS has an official game today versus defending All-Filipino champion Talk N Text.
Exhibition games such as the Powerade-Gilas game, challenge series, PBA Teams versus La Liga teams… they are not not a measure of real strength..
Even in the last Jones cup, some teams (including Philippine team) are hiding their aces for the FIBA Asia. The Jones Cup champion for the last 2 years haven’t won the FIBA Asia.
A liga Filipinas team was able to beat some PBA teams in the offseason. Don’t expect that to happen in an official game.
Even the Slingers have been experimenting during the Challenge series. Preseason games and exhibition games do not count.
By the way, Smart Gilas just won the PBA all stars with their best player such as SKYRUS BAGUIO.And slingers only lost gilas by 3 points. I think we should ashamed of ourselves. Imagine if slingers play with their star player, PRASAD,. I think slingers should be able complete against international teams such as CHIna or even spain. By the way, Prasad is going to be the 2010 number 1 pick in the NBA draft.He is the next Indian Lebron james.
Finally, some action from the Commish himself, just this afternoon. The offending party (Wynne Arboleda) will be suspended for the remainder of the 2009-10 PBA season (till July 2010) without pay (meaning his USD58,400 income will go down the drain) plus an additional USD428 fine due to his two flagrant fouls) due to that fracas. The basketball community ought to be somewhat satisfied with the verdict…
So goes his basketball career. But like one poster said earlier, he’s a son-in-law of its team owner (Bert Lina). If not for that concession, Arboleda must have been banned from the league (and I’m sure ABL won’t need his likes).
I’m also wondering there was no verdict by the Commish against Arboleda’s fellow Whoppers Mark Yee (who acted like the Stephen Jackson of the fracas), Ronnie Matias (the rookie who our good friend Gordon is referring to as the one who elbowed Gilas’ Chris Tiu, thus a flagrant foul and one of the five flagrants committed by BK in only a half), and their coach Yeng “Kalbo” Guiao who’s the mastermind of all these…
Smart Gilas is a good team. Japeth Aguilar, in my opinion, is already better than Asi Tauvala. Hope they can come down to Singapore and have a rematch against the Slingers. It would be good to see how both teams match up again.
I respect the Smart Gilas, they’re a good team, they don’t play dirty like some PBA Teams (man, Burger King were really too much, knocking players like Chris Tiu to the ground). They beat the Slingers base of ability and we can only applaud them.
Arboleda happens to be the son-in-law of 1 of the Owners.
Let’s see if the incident between him and the fan ends up in a handshake.
PBA is not revenue based company anymore. Its now a marketing tool for major corporate companies who owns a franchise(s) in the PBA. It doesnt get its profit (if there are any) on gate receipts and ratings like it used to.
The PBA is slowly losing its popularity because fans are now tuning more on collegiate basketball which has constant followings (alumnis, students) and is covered by a major TV network. Not to mention that the action in the court are more intense. In fact, Collegiate team Ateneo and La Salle are now the two most popular team in the Philippines, even more popular than the PBA.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ateneo+lasalle&search_type=&aq=1&oq=ateneo+lasa
Another team that starting to get a following is the Smart Gilas. Made-up mostly of collegiate standouts, Smart Gilas excels against top professionals. They don’t just survive against PBA teams. They actually have the capacity to beat them, which is a reason why they are started to gain popularity..
@pogi: It was a lot of fun watching Smart Gilas when they came to play the Slingers. They play entertaining ball.
@Les It’s possibly a ploy for marketability (esp. for BK their most saleable product is the Whopper burger, but for a time last year they were called the BK Titans but internal business issues put an end to that), though I agree with you that names of teams such as those doesn’t give a macho image on them (anyway what could we expect with the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants they have a coach who’s “allegedly in the closet”)
@pakshet101: I love Burger King Whoppers. Just find it weird to have product names for teams. Like Coca-Cola Tigers. But Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants is the funniest to me. And given the coach, I’m sure there are a lot of jokes about sausages.
nothing ironical about that pakshet101. If a Slinger did that action, then the irony applies.
Arboleda was not satisfied with the 2 flagrant fouls he can commit.
What the Arboleda guy did to the player was something like what de Ocampo did to Eric Sandrin last season – flip that guy around to get him to land hard on his back. Dirty foul.
Sorry to say, I lost respect for the PBA a long time ago. I don’t applaud all these hooliganism in basketball. That ruins the game itself. A BIG BOO to all the thugs!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er8Z_Dx2LOo&feature=channel
More of the physical, rugged from the same game.
@pakshet101 THAT , would be a fight I wanna see
In fact the Philippine basketball community here is up in arms demanding the Commissioner to impose stiff sanctions against this Arboleda character so that incidences of hooliganism especially fans won’t be tolerated in the sports community. To wit, as one Gilas player said, this erodes the respect of the PBA (as a league itself)…
I was even wondering why should it take till Monday to deliberate on this thing? This incident effectively endangered the spectators going to the PBA venues…
Just for laughs: this poster
http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showpost.php?p=38414220&postcount=81
Perhaps not life long , Eric Cantona (football) got 9 months when he kicked a fan, maybe they can suspend him for a season from world basketball without pay, that should teach him a lesson.
This should be a huge monetary fine plus an extended suspension. In artest’s case, the fan threw material at artest, and hence it was a season long suspension. In this case, there is no provocation (verbal taunting is normal), hence it should be a lifetime suspension. An example has to be made out of this thug. Let him lose his livelihood as a player and find other means to make a living. In fact, in this case the fan has the right to file for criminal proceedings with the police on charges of assault. The fan is paying through his nose to sit courtside and this is what he gets. Lets see if the PBA has the guts to take strict action.
@Gordon
The PBA Commissioner’s Office will be deliberating on this come Monday. This is no different from the Ron Artest fan incident of yore (Pacers-Pistons brawl; Artest went into the stands just because a fan threw beer at him at the end of the game) — while this Arboleda incident happened during the game.
Hope neither the Slingers, Patriots nor everyone in the ABL go to this route — that professional players charge into the stands just because of heckling.
They seem rather proud of what they do. Doesn’t he get any suspension? That’s not a basketball player, that’s a thug