Talo Na Naman Ang Ginebra

Umpisa pa lang, ang kabog sa dibdib ko

Ay dinaig pa ang talbog ng bolang wari'y 

Magdudulot ng kumbulsyon

Umpisa pa lang, medyo ramdam ko na

Ang padehadong tagpo na lagi'y daloy 

Ng iyong laro sa liga.

Wala namang masama na sumandig na 

Lamang sa pananalig

Tiim-bagang napapapikit at ngiwi, 

Sa mga galawang hindi ka makapagtimpi

Sa mga nasayang na bola, buslong hindi man

Lang maging puntos

Gaya ng pag-ibig ko sa 'yo, ni ayaw umusad

Ni ayaw tumagos.

Nasayang nga ba ang panahon ko sa 'yo?

Ako nga ba'y kumuha ng batong ipupukpok 

sa ulo ko?

Ang ligalig at pighati sa tuwing mamasdan kang 

Unti-unting nilalampaso, tinatambakan

Hindi ba't sakit lamang sa puso ang

Puede nitong kahinatnan?

Kinse. Bente...minsan pa nga, trenta!

Tambak ka na nga sa puntos, tambak ka pa

Sa Alaska. 

Pero, tangina! Daig mo pa sadista!

Talagang tutok ka pa't kumukuyakoy pa!

Pero bakit laging ganoon? Andoon pa rin ako?

Kahit noong panahon ni Jawo hanggang ngayong era ni Caguioa.

Aasa sa himala, aasa sa panaka-nakang ragasa.

Ang makita kang pumalag at gapangin man lang

Ang di maubus-ubos na lamang.

Marahil gaya ng damdaming iginugupo ng 

Mga hinaing na kailanma'y di ka magiging akin

Magkakasya sa mumunting saya, 

Makukuntento sa panumandaling ligaya.

Hindi mo na iisiping sa huli'y muli'y mabibigo

Ang makita kang lumaba'y mistulang 

Pakunsuwelo de bobo.

O di kaya'y ito talaga ang tagpong 

Ipagpapatayan mo?

Na malanghap ang espiritu ng hindi pagbitaw,

Na danasin ang pagbulusok at pag-angat

Sa nagdedeliryong damdaming walang 

Gatol sa paghiyaw.

Ayan na nga, muli'y talo sa huli

Alumpihit kang tatayo sa upuang

Sumalo lahat ng nerbiyos mo't puwersa

Ang mala tsubibong saksi ng iyong

Lungkot st saya.

Tuwing talo ang Ginebra, ika'y naaalala

Dahil anumang pilit kong habulin ka,

Anumang pilit kong sumubsob at magkumahog

Habang animo'y abot-kamay na kita

Para kang siya, siya na pag nakamtan mo'y

Kampeonato ngang talaga

Ngunit gaya nga ng never-say-die ng Ginebra

Sa paghabol ay masaya, sa pag-asa'y matutulala

Ngunit gaya ng laging ending ng pagragasa

Sa huli'y susukuan ka rin, gaya ng ganap nating dalawa.

The Closer Closes it Out

Purple—represents all your bruises, injuries accumulated over 20 years of basketball.  The quixotic approach to a game that made it as if it's life and death regardless of what’s on the line. The mark of a true warrior. 

Gold—symbolizes your triumph as one of the greatest. Career that's nothing short of greatness and competitiveness. The color of a true winner.

Photo credit to the owner

Today, the world of basketball will be painted Purple and Gold for the last time by the one and only Kobe Bryant. The legend that defined the true meaning of competitiveness and no quit. He is the basketball demigod that ruled the league for the better part of the 21st Century. On his announced coup de grace on the hard court, Bryant will take with him all of what he has meant to the game of basketball. For all the fans of the opposing teams he left heartbroken through the years with his conquests, now they will be enjoined by all Lakers fans around the world that he pampered and walked in absolute pride through his winning ways.

You finally gave in, huh!

Of course!

You finally embraced these all! With you leaving, you've finally let go of the ultra-competitiveness that a lot of the weaker minds and guts getting rubbed the wrong way. The refreshing tone devoid of the scowl and seriousness of a game-faced Kobe reflected his genuine acceptance that this is finally it.

For us fans, Kobe was our generational kid. After the glorious Michael Jordan era, kids my age during the 90's found the continuity of basketball idolatry in Bryant's soul. It persisted when everyone seemed lost at the game's purity amid the shift to the distractive commercialized nature of the NBA.

Photo credit to the owner

Unlike Jordan, Kobe will always be perceived as the brash kid that took his lanky 6'6 frame to the big league. Jordan will forever be the standard. The yardstick to any run for greatness that there is to transpire. But Kobe showed how it is done! Anything short of it does not deserve to be mentioned on the same breath as those two. Kobe, in that respect, validated how difficult the status to be named king of the basketball world. Because self-proclamation and aggrandizement would never win the respect of the world even if one's equipped with such amiability and magnanimity. Those two? They destroyed every living fighting spirit of their oppositions and kicked it at that. That's how their legends had grown.

Kobe's career wasn't predicated to build a legacy outside winning. In turn, it made him unsociable and disconnected in variety of ways.

Media only made matters worse for Kobe—they vilified, demonized and made him look as self-absorbed and self-obsessed. When all what he wanted to be is to be the best of them all. How can one fault him for being obsessed about winning? Wasn't this the purpose of the sport, and any other competition for that matter, to begin with? 

Kobe elevated the league's competitiveness when all other stars are far more concern about their ghetto life at the underground hip-hop scene. While he himself did get a share of this excessiveness, Kobe knew his purpose is more on the basketball side of things and not on the illusory spot light as the result of NBA popularity. He had those—the marketing, the endorsements, the shenanigans of being popular, the controversies—but it sure as hell he made basketball as the number one priority.

The league and the world have honored your greatness all year long with your farewell tour and looking back, it was easy to presume how much the league was itching to get rid of you. But you were right all along. Your drive, your maniacal approach to even games you're not supposed to be hardcore with had all paid off. This is how much the sentiments tilted in your favor—by winning, by giving the best out of yourself—the absolution of the world only reminded all of us that only through winning can we only become legendary. 

Photo credit to the owner

So finally, Kobe's leaving! And at the center of it all is his and ours refusal to let go. This is his basketball that made to become our brand of basketball which is competitive, relentless, and pure. The type that questions lack of integrity, and calls out mediocrity from people that existed to give basketball a bad name. He played through the pain to remind us what basketball meant to a lot of people that there's no room for disgracing it by not giving it all.

Kobe is forever. His basketball is eternal.

Lights out. Mamba out.

The unleashing (of sort) of Calvin Abueva

Photo taken during the 2012 PBA draft where Abueva was selected 2nd overall and eventually winning ROY honors

When Calvin Abueva began eviscerating opponents in the pro league with all of his antics, we knew that there's a limit to such misaction that only the league, in some extent his own team, could ever allow. The Beast is living up to a moniker that leaned towards its more undesirable definition. He taunted the league in such time he’s supposed to pass through rookie initiation when he arrived in 2012 giving a screw you facial to the veteran hardliners. He could get the goat out of everyone else in such fashion you begin to question the amount of respect (or lack thereof) he has to the game. He has that villainous juice spewing from all direction that is poisonous enough to change everyone's perception of basketball. 

And it wasn't like the media, basketball fans, and the league itself took it easy on The Beast. He was loathed in every way he crossed paths with the league's darlings and he thrived on that negativity to fuel himself. He's taken the lead antagonist role to commensurate with the natural God-given physical gifts because it's never going to be enough that he devours you in the game. As you think about what just happened on it, it continues to haunt you all the way to your bed. He's all over you, reminding you of the mental lapse you committed because you let him into your head. For all the  maniacal carnage Abueva freed from restraint, his Alaska Aces team, whom by history is known for strutting a prim and proper and disciplined team, went through leaps and bounds in giving up that identity by loving all the crazy shits by the way of Calvin's onslaught. 

Now it struck everybody else now to realize that an ultimate heel in Abueva is being rewarded a stint in Gilas 3.0 that will unravel this September. Beau Belga almost filled in that role two years ago. But Abueva is in entirely different league.

I imagine Abueva doing his Abueva thing in the international stage with the sole purpose of making his antics as a primary asset to a beleaguered Philippine team. Only two years removed from that triumphant FIBA-Asia held here in our soil but now in dire strait of losing all the momentum because of the foolish politicking in commercial basketball. For a country reeling from a loss with an opportunity to host FIBA-World, the buildup in composing the best possible team also went down the drain with that defeat. Abueva, on one hand, posits an intriguing component with his prospective inclusion on the final line up of Gilas. He is the consummate villain which will spell advantage to a Gilas team searching for identity with the absence of its mainstays.

The corporate rivalry or bickering or simply immature display of power is already costly for this Gilas team before it actually strut its stuff. Holding off vital cogs in joining the Philippine team as if these corporate idiots bought these players’ patriotism in a contract reminded us again of the sad state of commercialized sports. It reminded us that after all the gains Philippine basketball achieved in recent memory, it will amount to nothing now because its financial backing is at the mercy of corporate’s whims. Basketball can’t be held hostage forever and what this Gilas can make do is to extract whatever it is worth juicing from the available talents in the pool. Abueva, and the rest of the new faces might be the wild cards to retool the national team and move on from this debauchery.

We always cringe on the very existence of a Calvin Abueva wreaking all sorts of havoc in a league ironically enamored for its own brand of physicality from decades back. While Abueva as a different kind of beast does skate through the borders of controlled physicality and insanity, that doesn't make his potential impact to a Gilas team will be any less great. "Antagal ng uso ng terminong bida-kontrabida" and Calvin is a shot I personally am willing to take when no one, out of expediency, is out there interested in putting the flag first before their name and the idiot franchise that pays their salary. 

The heel could be our new-age hero after all.

The dawning of the new Ginebra

Back in the glorious days of the Jaworski era, the common "tao" are seen incensed with fanaticism only explainable with a compelling history of resiliency, of utter disregard to physical limit engulfed by the fighting spirit well-associated to legendary action heroes. The histrionics it presented in a way defined the social perspective of the time—the upper class that held proprieties to the letter are disgusted with them, but the toiling masses had seen in them the reflection of their own struggle. And by glorious, I didn't mean the influx of championship hardwares the way of the people's team, rather, the grit amid the glitz of the glorious run-and-gun Ginebra squad led no less by the Philippine basketball iconoclast Robert Jaworski was what made the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) the number one pastime in the country on the pre- social media era. 

The Ginebra of old wasn't the winningest out there (and nothing had changed) except perhaps during the reign of Menk-Caguioa-Helterbrand where they put the Gin Kings on the pinnacle of Philippine Basketball for a brief period of time (4 titles in 4 years). The Ginebra in retrospect is a team composed of has beens and unheralded. Some played trying to squeeze every remaining juice they have after their illustrious playing years had pan out. Some played on a borrowed time for the opportunity to rub elbows with the firebrand Jaworski in hope to share the same limelight. They were an outcast from the glamorous and powers-that-be of pro basketball.

 But they were loved. They were expected to lose on a nightly basis but they were expected to fight nonetheless. They weren't short of the passion and flair and the nightly supply of Jaworski antics that none of the current crop of coaches could ever exude—they are the crowd darlings without the actual winning tradition. They are the benchmark of popular idolatry while fielding bench quality of players. Bal David, the gangling playmaker they call The Flash was one of their superstars. A year before he entered the PBA, he was drafted on the third round and was even left unsigned. But David, and like the rest of the unheralded pro ballers, all they ever needed was to don the Ginebra colors and let the infectious Jaworski fighting spirit catapult them to greatness.

Ginebra as a brand is linked to the underdog tag and has totally predefined its magnetic appeal from the masses. In a done to death way, the masses would always love their very own—always on the side of the underdog that is expected to lose—but it's expected to fight nonetheless before they are to eventually succumb. And it worked that way! Fans loved the scriptwriting for the resident heartbreak kid no matter the failed results. Sure, it could tease on occasional instances on championships. But it sure as hell that every crown they'll win goes down on the most memorable championship series PBA will ever collect. The Rudy Distrito off balance  that put the 1-3 disadvantaged Ginebra to the best ever comeback in the history of basketball championship. The Chris King–less Gordon's Gin that won it all led by a red hot Pido Jarencio and grizzly Terry Saldaña were all basketball memories that solidified the faith of the mammoth fanbase of Ginebra that carried over to the next generation of the never-say-die stalwarts. See these former Ginebra players wouldn't even need to crack the PBA's greatest, but what they can always boast that not most members of PBA's greatest could ever be is them belonging to that great Ginebra lore.

The never-say-die mantra was created on the mere act of defiance, of standing up to the insurmountable challenge, and for mustering the limited strength and talent to mount a fighting comeback on a regular basis. It wasn't rocket science—there wasn't any science at all! Some may call it desperation, but isn't character is best defined when faced with great adversity? That memorable Jaworski comeback after getting elbowed in the lip led a furious comeback against Northern Consolidated Cement back in the early 80's couldn't best exemplified it more to say what never-say-die was really all about. 

Through the years, Ginebra has grown accustomed as the premier attraction of the league bar none. Even after Jaworski's departure, Ginebra has grown enough on its own that the name recall will always amount to something 'palaban'. There seemed to be that undying mystique that a player may want to give it all on a regular basis despite the odds they're up against. It is as if that the player that you are amounts to nothing if by playing as a Ginebra, the only thing that mattered to you is never-say-die.

Just as Mark Zuckerberg turned Facebook as the social media platform that changed the mass media, and so did fans's approach and understanding of the game. Fans would now have a venue to vent their frustrations in every losing night. They will have people sharing the same frustrations and they will breed bashers that would compound the said frustration. It has grown into a tiring endeavor to defend the never-say-die when it's already dead when dying is just about to take place. It became hard to be rambunctious, it became hard to show swag when all we've seen was the figurative relegation to the 'kangkungan'. Suddenly, you started to question things—a lot of those that are not even worth questioning just because as the loses keep piling up, the ridicule and bashing seemed only gotten harsher and bolder for each and every season. 

For each fruitless season Ginebra has gone through since winning its last championship way back 2008, the scapegoat for the failures is always the coach—or the coaching staff at large. In theory, the reasoning of the failed campaigns are attributed to the system implemented by the coach at the helm, thus, it is being replaced as soon as it fails. At the very beginning, they had Jong Uichico ang Siot Tangquincen—both are proven champions but found themselves at the mercy of experimentation of the management. There was a time when they were designated as co-coaches of Ginebra, which accounted to the confusing dynamics of team leadership because while they are protégés of the same brilliant tactician in Ron Jacobs, they are seen with differing styles and approaches to the game. It was just a matter of time before things had fallen apart and the inevitable departure of Uichico and Tangquincen set the tone for the 'rigodon' of succeeding coaches that more seemed viewed to be coach OJT-ers. Ginebra became the haven (or graveyard) of aspiring coaches for a hit or miss gig. They were expected to lay the team's philosophy and then get undercut for another one to be installed.

Entering the PBA's 41st season, the San Miguel Corporation teams are given expectations based on a general consensus of their past season's performance. San Miguel Beer, the conglomerate's flagship franchise is being challenged to have their second grand slam in their fabled history after winning two titles in the just-concluded season. Purefoods Star Hotshots is a team that is expected to rebound after coming up short after winning a grand slam of their own two seasons ago. And Ginebra? Well they just did the unexpected.

Citing the fans's clamor for a turnaround, Ramon Ang ordered the transfer of Tim Cone to Ginebra in hope to bring Cone's unscathed winning ways to the Gin Kings. The man responsible to many of the Ginebra heart breaks. The dominant winner that made the crowd darlings always the underdog challenger. The forever foil to every success road map of Ginebra is set to become the head in its helm.  

Earl Timothy Cone, an American that grew up in the Philippine soil was a basketball fanatic of its truest of sense. He is a self-proclaimed Jaworski fanatic growing up. And when he was old enough, he became a self–taught bench tactician of the highest order. He was one diligent student of the game. But unlike his idol Jaworski, Cone relied on the burgeoning scientific approach to game during his formative years as a coach that's being drumbeat all throughout the sporting world. His twitter account description reads: Tex Winter protégé, True Triangle guy. The success of the Chicago Bulls in the 90's and the LA Lakers in the new millennium only emboldened Cone to make the triangle offense as the anti–thesis for all the fun and excitement the run-and-gun and most of the offenses that relied on on-court smarts. For him, passion and resiliency isn't enough. For him, being a great motivator can help you start things but never to finish it off. For him, high basketball IQ won't translate to wins. For him, there's always a systematic way in assembling a winning offensive and dismantling an opponent's defense. 

Yet Cone understood that his genius is under appreciated. No matter how he piles up on the championship trophies being the winningest coach in the PBA, he understood that winning more won't be the zenith to reach for his illustrious career. It's understandable that the transfer to Ginebra has brought him a different level of achievement. A satisfaction to be for once, he gets the cheer of the crowd instead of the jeer. The victories and critical acclaim all but enshrined him to the levels only enjoyed by few because the backing of the masses eluded him. He will win, and this time around, it won't be against popular acclaim. And this is his one great chance to rewrite the legacy of his career that despite of the accolades, it felt to be in need of more things. In the NBA, you will see great players transfer to competitive teams even if it meant lesser contract value or playing time just to get a shot at an elusive championship. In Cone's case, what's elusive on him was the backing of the majority, the support of a barangay that gratified to no end a lot of accomplished coaches–even if none of them has the amount of titles Cone has ever won all throughout. Cone understood all of these, that's why even if he's done a great deal of success with the second most popular team in Purefoods, the greatest coaching stint will always be the chance to lead Ginebra. 

But how he will turn things around to this moribund, insufferable Ginebra?

He will. 

He will and change will be conspicuous it will reshape the entire Ginebra brand. He will put winning as a staple requirement not just as a lip service. He will make the aggression a 'controlled aggression' ones. He will make you listen to just one voice, not like the customary multiple voices a player hears in a usual Ginebra timeout as if suffering from hallucination. He will reformat the overly loaded and crowded coaching dynamics that did more harm than good.

He will, but not overnight.

Because the entire Ginebra organization is a huge mess that it'll probably need a dozen of Tim Cones to get it stabilized. Ginebra were winners in the Jaworski era even if it looked like a bunch of players on the minimum wages. The Ginebra of today is a collection of stars that doesn't align on a constellation. With an ensemble of coaching staff that butt heads more often, they change systems more frequent than Kim Kardashian change sex partners. 

Will Ginebra utter never-say-die yet again?

Well the question really is, is Ginebra going to be a never-say-die team again? With Cone at the helm, it's hard to imagine a team under his watch become a restless, disorganized crew that would allow a situation for them to run wild and scamper. The Ginebra era will unfold on our very eyes–rebirth with an entirely different identity. A complete transformation will allow us to ponder if the Ginebra fans are ready to move on and shed off the underdog tag. Ginebra isn't exactly your league's whipping boy, but opponents like Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao couldn't put it more succinctly by saying, "They (Ginebra) will become scary again." And that's how he and together  with the rest of the league have perceived the crowd darlings. 

What affronts Ginebra now is the change for the better. They will shed off the old ways which could leave a lot of fans with bitter after taste. But they will win. And when you win, you'll soon forget how the change was hard to process at the beginning.  They will win and soon enough the throng of fans that seemed disillusioned for the past seasons will assume that Ginebra pride once again—then as a fighter, now as a winner. Like a hermit in hiatus, they will come out once again to fill the rafters of the coliseum that they temporarily abandoned in sending this message to the Ginebra management. Soon enough, it will put a new dimension to the derision of being a 'Kangkong' as something remolded into a fine dish that is ought to be. This past PBA season proved that where Ginebra becomes irrelevant, the league suffers. A dip in attendance and TV ratings only goes to show that Ginebra owes it to all of Filipino basketball fans to become significant again. Cone understood all of these, and to understand all of these takes such cerebral skills to take this challenge and knowingly recognize that to complete his evolution as a coach. As for Ginebra, this transformation is long overdue and if it's wary of the fans reacting to the change, it must figure a way first to accept it within because their resolve, adaptability and reception will usher the new Ginebra to unlimited possibilities with a winner like Cone leading and shaping it. 

Never-say-die will now be never-shall-die

FFUgay

(image copied from google)

Of Union Leadership, the Struggle of being the First, the Relevance of the Just Cause and the Peti-Bourgeois Mass Movement

WCSI Employees Candle Lighting Activity

When I began working in this industry almost a decade ago, I knew there was something amiss. My skepticism to an industry perceivably devoid of substance— no thanks to its frivolous nature and aggrandizement kept me from wholly embracing it when I started. Straight from college where the street parliament and the defiance of a grim and determined were the ways and means particularly on a State U settings, 

I got accustomed to the barefooted life of non-stop struggle and sacrifice. I was entering an uncharted territory then. I knew the culture that prevails and it will take a cultural turnaround to even dare think that somehow, the lifestyle by which this industry flourished can be injected with a jolt of activism. Yet, there wasn't turning back. And 10 years after, you can never stop dreaming!

UEWCSI General Assembly and Election last March 28. 2015

Just over the weekend, my co-employees made history in declaring ourselves the first unionized employees from a large-scale BPO company. We, the Unified Employees of West Contact Services, Inc. (UEWCSI) declared ourselves as the first to collectively position and function as a legit union—the significance of such resonates like a tidal wave right at the epicenter of the  country's financial district. We have officially broken the barrier of the Sunshine Industry that is often maligned with cultural indifference and passiveness in front of grave employment abuse. 

UEWCSI on the History and Challenges

Right at the forefront of the battle are the BPO employees whose composition of varying professional background and expertise are fast emerging to be the economy's Créme de la créme. The oft-scrutinized peti-bourgeois whose knack for utter disregard to social upheaval now gawking on its own sad state of grave employment abuse. And what exactly is surprising about peti-b as a rah rah rah type of revolutionists? Awkward, eh? But all it has come to is the realization, that they, too, is susceptible to such unjust practice. Peti-B in general is self-styled, often the mark of coziness and entitlement. The pride and stigma that comes with it makes it more appealing like the wild card it always has been. Them coming out into the open to challenge the current order is an awe-inspiring scene that's truly unprecedented, something that makes this just cause as relevant as every other upheavals we've witnessed.

What was so groundbreaking about this feat? 

The establishment of the union opens a lot of doors when it comes to employees' active participation in decision-making that allows the BPO Industry an economic environment where the massive bulk of its workforce get to lobby for its benefits as prevailing rules and regulations are created in such a one-dimensional way. For an industry that relies heavily on its workforces' voice, it was that ironic that these assets are often unused for its own protection and welfare—not to mention the alleviation of employment standards that is often dictated on a one-sided affair. What UEWCSI brought to the industry so far is a blueprint for neighboring BPO Centers to also collectively organize amongst themselves and become its representation to every policy-making endeavors— the unfortunate state of an industry that's influential yet devoid of such dynamism. 

UEWCSI Executive Committee participating on a convention
 sponsored by UNI Global Union

While these pioneering undertakings can be historically marked for its influencing effect, the struggle of engaging the industry's bigwigs equipped with cunning and devious corporate lawyers ready to dismantle any attempt for any burgeoning union power are the challenges posed for an inexperienced BPO union. Being the first has its own merit and its own onus. Be that as it may, as we are expected to struggle to grope the battles attached to unionizing, we are also expected to learn the ropes and eventually will bank on the calls for genuine demands for the ever-growing BPO Industry. The influx of support from BPO stakeholders, lawmakers and trade unions nationwide will lend its influence and organizational savvy and we can look forward on a day that a federation will emerge encompassing the entire BPO-IT Industry and the efforts we have put in UEWCSI will be the defining first blood of this so-called peti-b revolution.

FFUgay

The Poet bleeds real blood too

The pen's might can be infallible to gust of the wind and the piercing blister of the cold night

The pain can be felt just the same, the barrier the concoction of words create can not sustain where the heart ceases to motivate.

The Poet delivers the literature by which this world exist
Yet on his own quandary and vulnerability, the champion of the wordsmith
Could not create his shield to pain
He would create the stories that make the world appreciate love more than anything else yet he cannot create the antidote when attacked by it.

Stunning crimson red, thick as the rising mercury
The heart that gives it away aches for the loss and bleeds for the defeat.
The greatly The Poet bestows the artistry can be humanized too just as people struggles to everyday setbacks.

The Poet bleeds real blood too!
His is of flesh of tender where the slightest of papercut can slice through his sorrows and follies.
Not his mightiest of wordplay, not the strength of his poetry can soothe the excruciation that drains the body inside out.

This is the downfall of the brain where the emotion ceases to control
This is the submission to mourn because no matter a great mind above fighting heart kept trudging to live one more day
The Poet bleeds real blood too!
It's red, it hurts and the best of them all feel it too.

FFUgay

#Puso

When every hashtag of #Puso comes at you to obligate yourself to pound your chest for whatever reason, in theory, we think of this action as if to help pump the blood—or simply to swag the heck out of the moment that got us jumping and pumping from the magic that unravels before our very eyes. From all walks of social networking, the agitation by which the hashtag has overwhelmed us with quite a mixture of emotions, from gutter hopelessness to somewhat borderline angst and the ever-prevailing quasi-critical mode of each one of us trying to put our every two-cents worth get counted on the hashtag fora. It was #Puso that comes after Laban and Pilipinas...three words that immortalized the brave Gilas team in capturing the imagination of a 100 million-strong nation in putting up a gallant showing at the world’s stage of basketball. Needless to be reminded that it is the month of September to be actually talking about #Puso in a week's stretch, ergo, #Puso has gotten us with so much to love on a sports so endeared to us yet so elusive to place us on its pedestal.

When Gilas Pilipinas began their magical, breathtaking five-game run, no one was prepared that Jeff Chan, a second rounder pick from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) would scorch the hoops against the towering presence of Croatian squad. Neither was a diminutive LA Tenorio, who’s smallest of small size, has executed the biggest blow (a nut blow at that) against monstrous Greek freaks. Who could dare forget him going toe-to-toe with JJ Barea? And then there was this Gabe Norwood, a legit division I player from George Mason University yet went off the radar from NBA scouts. Luis Scola has been in the NBA and the FIBA World competitions for almost half his life now but quite ironic that what most people would probably remember was that dunk over him in transition by Norwood. Sometimes, it makes you wonder why Norwood was so impressive on international tilts yet always underperformed in the PBA—you always kind of wanting more and more from him because we know what he’s so much capable of. That dunk on Scola, and for all the defensive marvels he had shown in FIBA World had only added to that enigma. The bigs combo of Andray Blatche and JuneMar Fajardo are making good use of their stint in Gilas Pilipinas. Both are outperforming quality bigs on the world stage, mostly has NBA creds stamped on their foreheads. Most observers cringe over Fajardo’s lack of playing time despite the efficiency of his contributions whenever called to play. This is mostly a credit to what The Krakken can do as a student of the game. Yet somehow, we can’t get rid of that image of him so alone while caught in the quagmire from his mother team of San Miguel for all the dramas it had endured almost costing him the MVP plum just a season ago. Fajardo is the future of Philippine basketball together with another giant in Greg Slaughter says multi-titled coach Tim Cone and he is proving every bit of it at this stage. Here’s hoping that he be spared from both the politics of sports and the lure of showbizness because this young giant has what it takes to lead Gilas in the future and perhaps knock on the doors of the NBA given the right exposure. Blatche for his part is having the time of his life. Leading the charge of the Gilas is no laughing matter especially being the key cog of the Gilas squad. Not even a slight scare of injury on his part is affordable, this is how important his presence is in Gilas. Yet after all the international competitions are done, his own reality will set in that at this very moment, no NBA team has taken him yet. With news of him being actually injured right now, one has to wonder what of this full force play level he is doing to scare away potential team that will take him in before NBA season starts? Of course you know I will reserve this at the end for Jimmy. Like he always do, Capt. Alapag would always reserve the heroics at the end game. Time and time again, he lifted the hopes of our countrymen from its hopeless state. These are the times that whenever you watch newscast, you kind of want to get the headlines be done right away so we can have the sports news to hear anything about our modern day heroes. It stops us dead on our tracks, waiting to see the highlights of the Gilas games—win or lose. This is because regardless of the results, the Gilas team that Alapag leads will sure to have their moments. That evidently, win or lose, Gilas is finding multiple ways to shock the world. The irony is that Alapag is doing an Alapag for more than a decade now in his home turf. Now that he has this opportunity to exhibit his brand of basketball leadership, this might be the last we could see him play on world stage. For all the greatness of his, the world was left with no clue of his caliber, the politics that killed the Philippine team before obscured this wealth of talent our motherland has on its disposal.

So it was basically a band of somewhat underachieving players (at least on the world level), a group of guys with chip on their shoulders forged together to form the team that is Gilas Pilipinas. They are success stories on their own right individually, but the imagination their performance created lingers in a way that the Gilas Pilipinas conquest was at least eight years too late. That maybe, it could’ve opened up doors to former National Team stalwarts like Danny Seigle, or a solid-rock but young then Asi Taulava, or even a then-primed Mark Caguioa. Philippine basketball has always been world class. Imports coming here to and from could attest to that. But word of mouth doesn’t bring you to FIBA World. It only gives you legendary footnotes. It only gives you the distinctive and be a subject of foreign fascination, a documentary material for all the craziness of us towards basketball.

And as always, we have people that are hard to impress, eager to downplay what Philippine basketball has achieved on this ongoing FIBA tournament. Fondly based on the country’s statistical world ranking, number of wins, and the argument that basketball will never be Filipinos’ sports based on our natural physique; the cynics tried so hard to cast the dark clouds on this feat and spoil the euphoria.

I’m taking a broader historical perspective in assessing their run in Seville, Spain; this despite the moral and critical merits of their participation. The appreciation of this feat goes beyond world recognition. The impact of Gilas’ performance is more of a validation to giving justice of this innate passion towards basketball. We need to have the measuring stick to gauge the progress or our international program. Asan na ba tayo? That for the greater part of the last four decades, we got stuck to a level that was only appreciated locally because of its commercialized characteristics. This and politics had kept us stagnant while other Asian neighbors grew leaps and bounds. The region where we use to impose our dominance was clearly a thing of the past. To see them on optimal performance in Spain, to see them scare the bejesus of teams that met them in Seville and left the others from different groupings in awe is victory in itself just because we have no business being that competitive at least at the world’s level. You can say that Gilas rode the coattails of element of surprise to come in as close as it can get to teams like Croatia, Greece and Argentina but you can’t say they were never scouted. They pulled off consecutive competitive games that would’ve gone the Gilas way. These are basketball programs Team USA, the perennial number one basketball country in every aspect (except puso, hehe) has gotten them sleepless nights. To say that Pinoys has this penchant for mediocrity, celebrating a ludicrous one game win and never making it to the next round is a mentality that can be mused by people who has shallow understanding of the sports—its history in local hoops in particular. Beyond the solitary win, Gilas went on to thrust Philippine basketball back to respectability once again in an unprecedented way.

#Puso, or the heart, is always to blame when things go wrong because of the absence of logic it always goes through in acting on things that matter. And this may be the reason of the chant "Puso" fittingly describes the character of our brave Gilas soldiers. They leave it all out there. Besides, what logic to be used for a world cup returnee, whose absence of 36 years they no longer knew their peers at the world stage in going up against Argentina and Greece? Who would dare use logical thinking to say that Gilas has a fighting chance to keep these powerhouses within striking distance much less an opportunity to actually slaughter these giants? The term #Puso may have been an excuse but it sure fits the bill. They fight with all heart regardless of the insurmountable odds that are cast upon them.

FFUgay