FEU: The unlikely UAAP leader

This appears in abs-cbnnews.com (the opinion section/landing page)

The unlikely UAAP leader

by rick olivares

You can say that the way the Far Eastern University Tamaraws play is far from the sleek and power basketball that we like. But after four playdates, the surprise leader is none other than these same Tamaraws who have two wins and zero losses in this UAAP Season 75.

Incredibly, the outcome of both wins, came down to the last shot.

Against opening day victim, UST, the Tamaraws rallied for the victory when Growling Tiger Jeric Fortuna fumbled on a crossover that led to the game winning layup by RR Garcia. Aljon Mariano was able to take a last shot from the baseline but it was short.

Last Sunday against a La Salle team that believes its time has come, the Tamaraws played ugly ball. And the Green Archers obliged by playing follow the leader.

Without their frontline that led them in years past (Aldrech Ramos, Pippo Noundou and company), the Tams have become a guard-oriented squad. Anthony Hargrove is a huge pick up for them but with Mark Bringas inconsistent and younger brother Arvie seemingly not in the peak of shape, and Russell Escoto not yet the player he was last year, FEU will have to be carried by their guards and forwards (throw in Roger Pogoy who provides quality minutes for Bert Flores).

I wondered how they would keep up with the high-powered game of La Salle that suddenly has a lot of weapons in their arsenal. But they stayed close and never allowed the Green Archers to break the game wide open.

There is a method to FEU’s madness as their halfcourt set crumbled in the face of La Salle’s strong inside play (Yutien Andrada and Norbert Torres) and Hargrove not fully comprehending playing smart on defense. Without Hargrove to intimidate, the Green Archers attacked with their dribble drive offense finding Andrada for some gimmes. And they ruled the boards 49-40.

Here’s where FEU got back in the game. They let their players operate one-on-one! Just like they did against UST. Both squads were pretty even in the stats save for turnovers where FEU – surprise surprise – committed fewer TOs, 9-15.

Without the injured LA Revilla, Almond Vosotros stepped into the breach and along with Mark Tallo played well. But FEU’s three-headed guard monster of RR Garcia, Terrence Romeo, and Mike Tolomia were just too difficult to handle. You can make a case for Romeo getting tunnel vision when he receives that ball but this is the way this team has played ball for years now. It works for them, I guess. And to keep pace, La Salle went small as well. I thought that is where they negated the advantage of Norbert Torres.

And speaking of bigs, the returning Arvie Bringas had a chance to put one over his old team but his missed free throws gave La Salle a window to pull this one out. And Mark Tallo nearly did. That bounce on the rim must have caused many hearts to flutter. But rim out it did and FEU escaped with a 48-46 win; the lowest scoring game we’ve had for years.

Lesson there: Arvie stop showboating, talking trash, and just play the game. You were nearly the goat with your missed free throws and late game injury.

But more importantly, it dealt La Salle a loss that put them alongside second-running Ateneo with identical 2-1 slates while FEU, the surprise leader is undefeated in two.

Say no more but this early, coupled with NU’s loss to Ateneo, this season promises one fiery and exciting wind-up.

Bleachers' Brew #320 A hall of fame question

This appears in the Monday July 23, 2012 edition of the Business Mirror.

A hall of fame question

by rick olivares

Have you been to Cooperstown? That sleepy upstate New York town where baseball’s Hall of Fame is located?

I have. Once you buck the five-hour drive from Manhattan, the sense of anticipation is akin to going to a ball game for the first time. Perhaps of all of America’s professional sports leagues, it baseball where there’s an air of sentiment, romance, and even tradition. The movies I loved while growing up – ‘A League of their Own’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ – come to mind. ‘A League of their Own’ was partially filmed in Cooperstown.

The Hall of Fame inspires both awe and wonder. And to some extent controversy.

Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin and the late Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo will be enshrined today in Cooperstown, as the Baseball Hall of Fame is called for short. It is a fitting honor considering that since 1869, more than 17,000 men have played professional baseball and of that number only 297 have gained entrance into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

The day will belong to Larkin and Santo. Unfortunately, much of the talk surrounding this year is how next year’s batch will include for the first time players who made a name for themselves during the so-called “Steroid Era”.

That ballot will contain the name of sluggers Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa as well as pitcher Roger Clemens.

Deciding on whether or not they belong in Cooperstown isn’t that simple. While the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) doesn’t guarantee that a juiced up batter will hit one out of the park because it still requires hand-eye coordination and bat speed. However, it does allow a player to hit the ball faster and harder or in the case of a pitcher, throw the ball harder.

But I can’t believe the hypocrisy at work here.

Despite the whispers about the widespread use of PEDs, Major League Baseball did nothing during the years when players were chasing Roger Maris’ home run record. Furthermore, baseball writers glorified the players and the games and fans lapped it up.

In 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa waged a season-long duel in breaking Maris’ single-season home run record of 61 (perhaps the most hallowed of all of the sport’s) that captured the imagination of sports fans everywhere (and this was the year where the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal broke). McGwire hit for 70 while Sosa finished with 66. Then three years later, Barry Bonds broke the record once more. And six years later, he retired after also smashing Hank Aaron’s career record of 755 round trippers with 762. And then the vilification came.

Sports journalist Bryant Gumbel however makes a case for their inclusion: “If the voters are really so obsessed with honoring guys with the numbers, they’d be wise to start rethinking the exclusion of those megastars linked to steroids, and do it quickly. Because the next Cooperstown ballot will, for the first time, include among others, both the seven-time MVP Barry Bonds and the seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens. And while both men have a suspect past, it’s going to be hard to argue they don’t deserve a bust in Cooperstown. After all, a hall of fame that somehow excludes the game’s homerun king (Bonds) and its most honored pitcher (Clemens) and its all-time hits leader (Pete Rose who is banned forever for betting on baseball), would really be making a mockery of itself.”

Yet baseball’s Hall of Fame is hardly puritan.

The hall is located at allegedly the site where American Civil War hero Abner Doubleday “invented” baseball. Doubleday, to his credit, never made any such claims. It was Abraham Mills, the fourth president of the National League, who declared such after a supposed study. That study has since been debunked. Yet for years, Doubleday’s picture was in the Hall of Fame but with hardly any reason.

Author Zev Chafets who wrote the 2007 book, ‘Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame” said that the hall included “a convicted drug dealer, a reformed cokehead who narrowly beat a lifetime suspension from baseball, a celebrated sex addict, an Elders of Zion conspiracy nut, a pitcher who wrote a book about how he cheated his way into the hall, a well-known and highly arrested drunk driver and a couple of nasty beanball artists.”

And before the ‘character clause’ was added, the hall also had several members of the Ku Klux Klan in immortals like Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Tris Speaker.

Some baseball writers argue that just because previous generations of baseball writers (who vote for who goes to Cooperstown) voted for some sleazy characters that doesn’t mean it will slide under today’s watch. True enough but that doesn’t also explain why Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs had an asterisk to it (those who placed the asterisk justify that Maris played more games than the previous record holder who is the ‘sainted’ Babe Ruth). The game during Maris’ time was different from when Ty Cobb first came in. And it is all the more different today with the influx of many Latin players.

Can we make the assumption that in hindsight and with a more worldly view, Maris’ achievements and career are incredible athletic feats? Bonds, Sosa, and Clemens may not even make it on the first ballot but maybe in the years to come they will.

It is only fair that Cooperstown commission a study on whether those tainted by PEDs be included or not for the voters’ future guidance because it is difficult to compare the various eras that make up the sport’s history. Because anyone who gets in after this, tainted or not, should have an asterisk next to their names as well because as Gumbel put it, it becomes a joke when some of the best aren’t in there.

Over at ateneo.edu: A fumbling loss

A fumbling loss.

Up 17 and a two-point loss. Adversity should make the Ateneo Blue Eagles better.

by rick olivares

There are games when you wish that time would run out quickly and there are those when you wish you had a little more time. With one eye cast towards the action and another at the scoreboard high atop the Araneta Coliseum, the blue and white faithful gave the Ateneo Blue Eagles one more shot of adrenaline to fashion out a buzzer-beating win.

Only there would be no miracle rally or game winning shot such as when Kiefer Ravena sank the UST Growling Tigers’ hearts during the last FilOil tournament. READ MORE

Five things to take away from this loss to UST

Am not doing game recaps if you're looking for that. Go read the newspaper guys for that. 

Is this a sign of the times or just merely a sign that pertains to something else? Had to get this photo. Felt it would be apt.

Five things to take away from this loss to UST

by rick olivares

I want to thank the UST Growling Tigers for sticking this one to us. That was quite a game and a comeback. They could have rolled over and said, “Let’s go get them in the next game.” But no. They instead doused cold water on us. And now the cold hard reality of falling into a below .500 hole is staring at us since the impressive National University Bulldogs are just around the corner. They made short work of the UE Red Warriors and they are the one team that has beaten us more often in all tournaments in the last few years.

Whatever happened last year -- in these past five years against UST or anyone else for the matter -- none of that matters anymore. That was then and this is now. Everyone has reloaded big time.

Now this one was a longtime coming. After Kiefer Ravena hit a game winning shot to beat the Tigers in the last FilOil tournament, Tigers head coach Pido Jarencio said while holding his forefinger and thumb close, “Konti na lang. Malapit na namin silang talunin.”

And they did.

And here’s how I feel the morning after.

Teams with multiple outside shooters give us trouble.

After five matches in Season 75, teams are shooting at an average of 24.6%.

NU jacked up 33 treys against UE while the Red Warriors threw up 19 of their own. FEU and UST hoisted up 15 and 16 respectively during their opening day match up.

La Salle surprisingly has not really gone downtown to buy a basket. They only attempted 11 to the 19 of UP.

Against us, UST threw up 11 while connecting on five. None was bigger than the one Jeric Teng hit at the four-minute mark that gave the Tigers a seven-point cushion, 65-58. They may shoot atrociously but because they are volume bombardiers they do hit the big one when they seem to need it most.

With Greg Slaughter in trouble, UST positioned Teng, Aljon Mariano, Clark Bautista, and Jeric Fortuna around the arc. That gave them the space to operate inside or drive inside.

Should we beware because the Bulldogs have at least seven players who like to bomb from parking lot?

When we needed a three-ball in the game’s final seconds, Kiefer Ravena was way off the mark. But Juami Tiongson who has easily been the most consistent player on the Blue Eagles knocked down one from downtown that put us a point behind. And he is not even a shooter in the sense of the word. We got away with not really having a three-point threat in the past few years but that never stopped me from wishing we had a deadeye shooter.

We need to pass that ball around.

We can make excuses that we were tired during last year’s Champions League. We can say we didn’t have our legs after training abroad. We can say that it’s early in the season. Sure it is. But the fact of the matter is we have not played well in a long time. Furthermore, we’ve been infested with bad habits. We’ve played in spurts and flashes, but not an entire game where everything is clicking. Heck, a short-handed San Sebastian team beat us in the Champions League. Those Stags couldn’t even beat an all-Filipino San Beda team and we crushed those same Red Lions last year.

Early in the match, we buried the UST Growling Tigers with a lesson in team defense and unselfishness with longtime UST killer Kirk Long watching from the patron section. Then suddenly the switch was flicked off.

The offense stagnated. The ball rotation was once more non-existent. Players began to look for their own shot. Errors piled up. And what was once a 17-point lead evaporated like an ice cube on a regular day in Kuwait. And “One Big Fight” died as a lump in my throat.

Sure the referees sent Greg Slaughter to the bench with eyebrow raising calls. But we should expect that by now that they will never call it fair or right. We just have to play through this and be smart about it rather than reacting to the calls.

The Tigers entered the game tense. Losing does that to a team. When they got into foul trouble we settled for jumpshots and isolation plays instead of taking it strong. Even worse, some of our players were never in the game. They were physically on the court but that was it. I certainly found it strange that some players were missing their spots on the floor. And they were angrily waving off teammates. Hey, guys. Haven’t we been running these sets for a while now?

It’s not dumping on you when you’re down. No. It’s not that. You cannot just hear the good and tune out the bad. It doesn’t work that way. You have to hear it.

We have this saying that it’s better to lose early than later. We are not taking anything away from the Tigers but we should have taken this.

The stats don’t say everything.

Ateneo outshot UST from the field (40% to 36.5%) and from the free throw line (79.2% to 75%). The Blue Eagles outrebounded UST overall (but the Tigers had more offensive rebounds 12-16), 43-41 and had more assists 16-10 and more blocks 9-2. We took them in the track meets with 23 fastbreak points to their 11.

UST had more turnovers 23 to our 20 but here is where they made their living – 21 turnover points while Ateneo mustered only nine.

They had four 24-second violations. But in the final minutes of play, Karim Abdul got to the line with a second left in their shot clock after he found space on the baseline to drive. Aljon Mariano also picked up an offensive rebound that chewed up more time on the shot clock.

Abdul who has always looked tentative around Greg Slaughter finally found the confidence in the last quarter (although you can say that Greg was in foul trouble). UST’s key players were fresh in the last quarter as their second unit did the job while we looked flustered. What the stats don't say is how UST really played with a lot more heart and energy in eking out this win. A well deserved one at that.

Juami Tiongson has slipped into the starter’s spot nicely.

In two matches, Tiongson has 16 assists for an average of eight dime drops per game. And get this – zero turnovers. He’s also averaged 6.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.0 steals in slightly over 25 minutes per game. Those are some very solid numbers. And what has gone unnoticed is how he has played excellent defense on whoever he has been guarding.

Last season, you could see Juami flustered by the lack of playing time and he showed it when he got on the court. It was as if he had a chip on his shoulder. During the University Games in Roxas City, Juami came into his own because he was clearly the leader on the floor. In every game Ateneo played, he set the tempo for the game. I knew that we had found the successor to Emman Monfort.

He looked somewhat shaky in the pre-season but he got his bearings once more and his confidence is higher. With him starting he has concentrated on playmaking and has shot only when he needed to take one.

Every team gets up to play us.

This is not the early 1980s or 1990s when teams didn’t really give us a second look because even before the match it had “W” written all over for them even before the jumpball.

Look at how UE has played La Salle pretty well since last season. Teams get up to beat the big programs. Look at the way UST celebrated after their win. They finally got the eagle off their back. These Tigers have bite. It was their first win in five years? The celebration was warranted and more so it was a great comeback that as painful as it was I stood up to applaud their team.

Adamson ended their record of futility last season and were it not for a few minutes in the third quarter of the our season opener where we decided to share the ball instead of looking for our own shots then the game might have been close.

Opponents sense a vulnerability to this year’s Blue Eagles. Sitting in the stands during our Opening Day match against Adamson, I was next to some regulars from La Salle and they noted that the Blue Eagles don’t have the hunter’s mentality anymore. That we’ve gone from wanting to throttle everyone we face from the first second of the game to thinking we can turn the jets on anytime we wish. “That’s dangerous,” one friend of mine from La Salle opined. “There’s a lack of a killer instinct.”

Whether we agree with the assessment or not, we have to raise the level of play. UST came out with a lot of energy while we wilted at the worst possible time. Inside the dugout, some felt bad because they have not been in this situation before.

And that’s frightening because success can breed a sense of complacency. It’s not an excuse but we should thank UST for sticking it to us this early because there’s time to address the flaws.

That was a galling loss. Is the Drive for Five teetering? That is definitely too early to say but it was a loss that sends many a chilling reminder.

And tomorrow is another day.

Two played and 12 to go.

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My other piece on Ateneo's loss to UST in ateneo.edu

Five reasons to be happy about the start of Ateneo's Drive for Five

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Good friend Bob Guerrero was asking why I was wearing an Everton shirt yesterday when I am a Liverpool supporter. I said for one, it's blue and I am from Ateneo so there. And I cannot wear red to the game because it will look like I am supporting UE. And two, I don't dislike Everton. Big fan of Marouane Fellaini and John Heitinga and was wearing the shirt of the latter who plays center back (also for the Dutch national team). There's only one football team I dislike and I am not going to mention them here. Waste of space.

Bibiano Fernandes: Fear is not in his language

A condensed version of this appears on abs-cbnnew.com (in the opinion/insights section)

Bibiano Fernandes: Fear is not in his language

by rick olivares

One Fighting Champion’s Chief Executive Officer Victor Cui has a story about Bibiano Fernandes (11-3). During the Brazilian’s more youthful years (he’s now 32 years old), he would watch practitioners of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in a studio near where he lived. Fernandes would be there everyday watching and watching and saying nothing. Until one day, the gym rats called him over. “Want to try it? C’mon.” Without any prior experience, Fernandes had everyone tapping out.

“If ever there’s a natural athlete, that’s Bibi,” said Cui like a proud father. “The weight of all the belts he’s won is heavier than his actual weight (134 pounds).

Fernandes is making his One FC debut when he takes on Brazilian-born Australian Gustavo Falciroli in a dream card for Asia’s top MMA event on August 31 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

An hour and 30 minutes before the press conference, before the media horde piled into the Magellan Room of the Discovery Suites, Fernandes – true to form – sat in the back, observing everyone that came in. “It’s a habit. Studying. Studying everything. You learn a lot by observing,” he said to me and I felt like a certain grasshopper.

I ask him about his youth in Brazil. “It was tough, man. But either you let the world consume you or you find a way to bend it to your goal. But I am determined. I wanted to make something of myself.”

The unorthodox 5’7” Fernandes did make something of himself by becoming the first ever Dream Featherweight and Bantamweight champion. And prior to signing up with One FC, he was touted to be on the card of this week’s UFC 149 in Calgary, Canada.

When I touch on the topic of Brazilians being top mixed martial artists, Fernandes can’t help but beam with pride. I ask if it’s the water. He seemed puzzled for a moment then got it and laughed. “No. Not at all. Brazil is beautiful but it is a tough place. We have to work hard for what we have. What there is in Brazil is something everyone worked hard for. It’s a hard place that builds hard and talented people. It’s like the Philippines. You have a lot of world class boxers from the Philippines…”

Point made.

I follow that up whether he feels a tinge of fear when he enters the cage for a fight. “No. No fear. If you do then you don’t belong there. I lost my first two fights and I never stopped believing that I could be a champion. I lost again and I get up. That’s life. When you have nothing then you have nothing to lose. When there is fear there is doubt. You know you’re in a fight and you know you’re going to get hit. So no fear. Not in my language. I am happy where I am but I know there is plenty to accomplish.”

An hour later, someone from the media asked if he had any pre-fight words for Falciroli. “No. I say nothing,” he replied. “I don’t talk.” I ask him about that and he expounded, “Talk is cheap. I will just go out and do what I want to say.”

Watch out for more One FC and URCC stuff over the next few days.

The good, the bad & the One FC: Pride of the Nation

Men in Black: Andrei Arlovski, Shinya Aoki, Bibiano Fernandes, One FC CEO Victor Cui, URCC President Alvin Aguilar, Gutavo Falciroli, and Eduard Folayang.

The good, the bad & the One FC

One FC’s initial Manila offering Pride of the Nation promises to be one the MMA events of the year.

by rick olivares with pic by brosi gonzales

They are some of the baddest men on the planet. The men in black look like their headed for some ball. They sound polite in a Clark Kent manner. One of them even bows after answering a question.

Then the tall – he’s 6’4” -- and heavy set dude, Andrei Arlovski, who looks to be uncomfortable in formal attire, bellows. It’s like an ice breaker that brings grins to everyone. “Whoop ass.” he says in his unmistakable thick Russian accent. Only no one will ever really laugh at him lest you’re a sucker for pain.

Welcome to the press conference for the One Fighting Championship: Pride of the Nation. This is the most packed press conference since the Los Angeles Galaxy blew into town last year. The Magellan Room of the Discovery Suites in Pasig is full to bursting with the assembled media hanging on to every word by some of the world’s biggest names in Mixed Martial Arts.

It is said that boxing “is the sweet science” but the way members of the media asked detailed questions, it was like a scene from Battle of the (Mixed Martial Arts) Geeks prompting Arlovski to exclaim, “I love it! I hope to get more fans from the Philippines so they can cheer for me when I fight on August 31.”

And that is what One FC Chief Executive Officer Victor Cui hopes what Filipino fans will feel when Asia’s biggest Mixed Martial Arts event kicks down the doors of the Smart Araneta Coliseum on August 31 with an incredible fight card.

Philippine sensation, Eduard Folayang (11-2), dubbed by local Mixed Martial Arts impresario Alvin Aguilar as “the Manny Pacquiao of MMA”, will be seeing action although his opponent has yet to be named. Folayang last fought in the One FC 3 at Kallang, Singapore held in March of this year where he lost in a controversial split decision with Dane Ole Laursen. “I don’t mind fighting him (Laursen) again,” said Folayang who is the current Universal Reality Combat Championship Welterweight Champion.

Fil-Am Eric “The Natural” Kelly, a sensational striker and submission specialist, stakes his unblemished slate against American Jens Johnnie “Lil’ Evil” Pulver. Pulver is one of two men to beat MMA sensation BJ Penn at the lightweight division (although Penn later avenged the loss). In this matchup, it will be a battle between youthful aggression against age and experience. Pulver, at 37 years of age and has accumulated a 26-1-14 record and will take on Kelly, a man 10 years his junior and who has never had a fight go the distance. “This sooner you take care of business, the better it is for you,” promised Kelly. “This is going to be explosive.”

Aside from the local favorites, there will be familiar names making their One FC debuts.

Brazilian Bibiano Fernandes (11-3), who is supposed to compete in UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada this July 21, will instead make his post-Dream debut with One FC when he takes on Australian Gustavo Falciroli (12-3) in the main event of the evening.

Said Fernandes of the decision to move to One FC: “I fight where the best fight. It’s that simple.” Fernandes, nicknamed ‘The Pitbull’ will be also be joined by Japanese MMA superstar and former Dream champion Shinya Aoki who will opponent will be named in the next few days. Aoki, who holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, is nicknamed ‘ Tobikan Judan’ or ‘The Grandmaster of Flying Submissions”, said through an interpreter that he is excited to make his One FC debut in Manila. “If I can help the sport grow in this country then that’s a bigger impact than I will make from beating another opponent. I hope to put on a great show for all.”

Arlovski who is a former UFC heavyweight champion (17-9) with notable wins against Fabricio Werdum, Roy Nelson, and Tim Sylvia to name a few, will be in the cage with Australian Soa Palilei. Arlovski won his last two matches in ProElite against Ray Lopez and Travis Fulton while Palilei (17-3) is on a seven match win streak.

“Bringing the One Fighting Championship to Manila is a dream come true for me,” gushed Cui who was born is Cebu but grew up in Canada. “While I am a product of the east and the west, whenever I am in the Philippines, I know I am walking on familiar home ground. I know for a fact that Filipino MMA fans are some of the best in the world and this is in many ways giving back to our people.”

“Thanks to the URCC that has been ahead of its time, the Filipino mixed martial artist has become known across the Asia as a quality and exciting fighter. Now with the help of the URCC, One FC will bring the best fighters in Asia to Manila. That is why we are calling it, ‘Pride of the Nation’. Our fighters and the show we will put on will be our common pride.”

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Tickets for One Fighting Championship: Pride of a Nation will be available beginning Thursday, July 19 2012 at all TicketNet outlets located at SM Department Stores and the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Tickets are at Php 4,500 VIP and Php 2,000, Php 1,000, Php 650, Php 500, and Php 200 respectively.

New York's point guard (L)insanity

If history serves me right, the Knicks never know they have a good thing or a good point guard when they have it. Or they acquire someone who gives them a whole more than they actually bargained for.

My column over at ph.nba.com

Marvel super hero-themed college shirts? Does that work for the UAAP?

We could be heroes (not just for one day)

by rick olivares

When I read that Marvel Comics partnered with Russell Athletic to produce super hero themed college apparel, I raised my eyebrows in wonderment. Really now? I mean, Captain America on a UNLV shirt? Iron Man on UCLA? Thor on OSU?

It is for real and it does seems weird. Good for a chuckle isn’t it? Maybe not because over 200 colleges including very prominent ones have signed up for the program. So they know maybe they see something good or dollar signs here. For an American setting it seems fine but is it okay for us?

When I think that maybe Philippine colleges doing the same does that mean we use characters like Captain Barbel, Lastikman, Darna etc? Hilarious. Who else do we have? We have a vibrant local comic book scene and there’s a lot.

For the sake of going along what comic book characters match with schools (using local and foreign properties), who fits what school?

Let’s give it the old college try. No villains!!!

Adamson – The Falcon (Sam Wilson, one time co-crime fighter alongside Captain America). Thunderbird?

Ateneo – Hawkman. Jack Hawksmoor. Archangel. There was an obscure comic book hero called – believe it or not – the Blue Eagle. But no way is this team obscure. So the X-Men’s Apocalypse influenced mutant Archangel is more like it.

La Salle – Green Arrow (Is this obvious?). Hawkeye is way cooler.

NU – Timberwolf of the Legion of the Superheroes. Bigby Wolf of Fables (one of the best ongoing comic book series ever). But where’s the dog here? Hahaha. What’s wrong with Timberwolf or Bigby? Not sucking up to them (although the Bulldogs do have a soft spot in my heart since I have been writing about them all these years even during their dog days). Thought about the Inhumans’ Lockjaw but really that doesn’t work. Henry Sy would be pissed at me if I had Lockjaw – this huge dog that teleports – next to their school logo. So maybe  Hahaha. Is that right? I cannot say that I am jetlagged am I (borrowing a line from The Walking Dead’s Charlie Adlard during the panel at the recent San Diego Comicon).

UE – Cable. The Punisher. Deathstroke the Terminator. Turok. Hahaha. The list is endless and perhaps the most fun. Their women’s team would be Darna. Hahaha.

UST – Zabu? Animal Man. Nah. Wolverine.

UP – Dr. Manhattan. Enuff said.

FEU – You know how dumbass sportswriters would come up with headlines like “Tams gore Tigers” and crap like that? Talk about being unimaginative. So let’s not go with Spider-Man nemesis Rhino who has repeatedly tried to gore our friendly neighborhood Wall Crawler. Maybe some character offbeat but representing the muscularity and industriousness of the Tamaraw – Ben Grimm – The Thing (of the Fantastic Four). It’s Clobberin’ time!!!

I don’t think these comic book super hero-themed UAAP school shirts will happen but it’s just cool thinking, ‘what if…’

Two Sports Illustrated covers featuring LeBron James & Penny Hardaway

Here are two covers of Sports Illustrated magazine present and past. I got the mag (the image above) the other week as I followed with great interest the NBA Finals matchup between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma Thunder. When I saw the issue on the stands, I remembered an issue I bought ages ago (and I still have it). One with then-Orlando Magic super guard Penny Hardaway who used to sky with the greatest of ease before injuries hobbled him. The similarities are uncanny not to mention both players -- LeBron and Penny -- are in Florida-based teams. But what photos! Stupendous shots that I wish I took myself.

Ray Allen says thanks to Celtics fans

Ray Allen took out a full page ad in the Boston Globe (see the image on the right) to thank Boston Celtics fans. The morons of course do not understand. And here's my column the other week in ph.nba.com about Ray Allen's leaving the Celtics.

The nebulous assumptions of loyalty in sports

(or the case of Ray Allen leaving Boston for Miami)

by rick olivares

Ray Allen is the new Benedict Arnold?

Why, because he is not going to wind up his career in Celtics green? There is not only selective memory at work here but also some twisting of the facts.

Did Ray Allen not serve his time and to the fullest while in Boston? Did he not honor his contract? Didn’t he come back for another fling with the team when he was a free agent earlier? How would you feel when you are dangled as trade bait and you lose your starting job? So much for being the Big Three or Four when you’ve become The Big Sub.

And now he left, fans trivialize that he wasn’t fully effective in that title win in 2008, and worse, that he is a modern-version of Benedict Arnold.

Let’s take a look at Celtics history to see what kind of loyalty there is in Boston.

During the early days of the NBA, Auerbach traded away perennial Celtics All-Star Ed Macauley for the draft right that eventually turned out to be Bill Russell.

Sure it worked out for the best for Boston because with Russ at the slot they won 11 titles.

During the first Big Three of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, after the 1987 season, the front office sought to break up the trio fearing their time was done. But team patriarch Red Auerbach put the kibosh on any deal. Many sportswriters and analysts believe that by not trading any of them before their value declined, the team got old. And coupled with the untimely deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis, the team faded until the new millennium.

Larry and Kevin retired a Celtic while Robert Parish joined the Chicago Bulls for one last go around and got a ring for his efforts. How come no one pilloried the Chief for leaving and joining a division rival?

Of the team’s awesome starting five during the mid-1980s, shooting guard Danny Ainge to be traded to the Sacramento Kings! For Joe Kleine and Ed Pinckney (who once wore his shorts backwards during a game). Kleine was seen as a replacement for Parish but that move never panned out.

Rick Fox played for the last great Celtics team before Paul-Kevin-Ray in 1991 when that old team of Larry-Kevin-Robert led Boston on one last run before they were run to the dust by a Chicago team that was coming into its own. When Fox was traded to rival Los Angeles, he wore ‘17’ on his jersey as a tribute to the Celtics team he played for that didn’t win title #17. And Fox played on three champion teams with the Lakers.

Oh, because he was a bit player on the Celtics? The man wore ‘17’ for crissakes!

On that same Celtics team was Brian Shaw who was drafted out of UC-Santa Barbara yet sat out a year to play for Il Messaggero Roma before he was threatened with a suit by Boston’s brass and forced to return. But he didn’t want to play for Boston and reveled when he eventually went to his hometown Lakers where he too like Fox won. Maybe if the vitriol was reserved for him I would understand.

Remember Antoine Walker? Wasn’t he given the keys to the city of Boston? But wasn’t he traded away as well?

In those late 90s teams that Walker played on, there was a young rookie named Chauncey Billups only he was traded away. Billups became a star in Detroit and will best be identified with that franchise.

During the 2006-07 season, Boston had a young team on the floor that looked to be a good one given a few more trades and seasoning. They had Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, and Delonte West. After that team dealt with lots of injuries and deaths in the family (Auerbach and Johnson), they were that close to firing Doc Rivers. But the best assist the team received was not from within but from elsewhere as Minnesota General Manager Kevin McHale traded KG to Boston for their young players. At an early age, those youngsters were dealt the cold and harsh reality that in pro sports it’s first of all about the business of winning.

Let’s reverse the situation here. Should the hometowns, cities and fans of other teams brand their stars as turncoats (the best example perhaps is LeBron James when he made his Decision to go to Miami on a televised show)?

Should have Seattle fans booed the late Dennis Johnson when he suited up for the Celtics? After all, DJ was a star with the Seattle Supersonics before his late career move to Boston.

And should Kevin Garnett be booed as well in Minnesota?

Sorry, Minnesota, you’re all good folks over there but Boston is about history, man.

Speaking of history let look back at the Celtics past and see if there is loyalty in the sense of the word.

So tell me is loyalty selective or something that cuts across all demographics and generations?

Of course, not. This is life. This is sports and it’s a business that owes to the culture of winning. Concepts such as ‘loyalty’ and ‘dedication’ are thrown about as part of the corporate creed yet they owe no loyalty except to the almighty dollar.

So why should ballplayers be any different. Try selling loyalty to Kendrick Perkins, why doncha?

I guess the way Ray Allen’s pro career got started is an indication of his journeyman gunslinger status. He was drafted by Minnesota but immediately traded away to Milwaukee for the rights to Stephon Marbury. He could have stayed with the Bucks but instead, he chose to go to Seattle. It would have been nice to stay with the Sonics but the franchise was teetering. So he went to Boston. It would have been nice for him to end his career there. After all, he helped the team win a title and make another finals appearance. He was dangled as trade bait once to often and he lost his starting job. But he also served out his contract faithfully.

Take note that Allen played seven years for Milwaukee and five years each for Seattle and Boston. It’s not like he former Celtics teammate James Posey who has played with seven teams in his 13-year NBA career. Or even Robert Horry who quickly learned about team loyalty after helping the Houston Rockets to two titles when he was traded away first to Phoenix then to the Lakers before eventually signing with San Antonio.

Allen served his time in Boston. If you’re a Boston fan and are using the ‘class act’ argument against Ray, it doesn’t mean just because you feel slighted by his leaving for Miami, then it’s right to label him as the latest sports turncoat. He was shown loyalty in the first place. The question is, was he shown it as well?

Is Miami a bitter rival? Last I checked the rivalry is still with LA and geographically and historically it’s also Philadelphia. Okay, the Heat have shown Boston the door in the last two playoffs. For fans who like to label themselves as the smartest and knowledgeable, the name calling is not a class act at all.

The best way for those who root for the Celtics is to beat the Heat and reclaim the title without Allen. Besides, you still have your own Big Three in Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Kevin Garnett.