but man, has basketball been interesting without us.
- The PBA playoffs have begun. Alaska and San Miguel clinched outright spots in the semifinals. Ginebra, Purefoods and TNT are all in the quarters waiting for the winner of the wildcards. The Coca-cola Tigers, who recently acquired slasher Gary David from Burger King, and the erstwhile disappointing Rain or Shine Elastopainters took care of their wildcard assignments last night to stay in the hunt. Interestingly enough, last night's losers Sta Lucia and Burger King were said to be in trade talks before the wildcards took place. The Realtors were interested in picking up a couple of bigs to back up the aging Marlou Aquino. That won't help either team now that they join Barako Bull in the eliminated pile.
- Smart Gilas, who saw expectations drop after a lukewarm stint in the PBA, came up with an impressive performance in the Dubai International Basketball Championship. Despite playing with a short-handed, all-Filipino crew (naturalization candidate Jamal Sampson was often injured) the young bucks of Gilas finished 3rd in the tournament, dropping their semifinal game to a CJ Giles-led Lebanon squad that boasted of several American reinforcements by just three points. Good signs for the team trying to take us back to the Olympics.
- In ABL news, the Philippine Patriots clinched the #1 spot in the ABL playoffs. After dropping two games in a row away from home, the Pats replaced import Brandon Powell with PBA Best Import Gabe Freeman. The RP squad closed out its last two games behind Freeman's 20.5 pts and 16.5 reb average to finish the season on top of the leaderboard. This gives the team homecourt advantage in the playoffs, which could mean a lot since the Pats are 8-0 on home soil.
- And earlier this year, New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson was outed as part-Filipino. Considering that Krypto-Nate doesn't have a shot with Team USA, here's to hoping he can be convinced of playing for us in international competition.
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