#labapilipinas

I drop almost everything  each time Gilas Pilipinas plays . And no less than a World Cup stage can excite me more from following the team. Of course, I make concessions at home. I announce ahead of time before my commander-in-chief the schedule of the games. And we make adjustments with chores and parental duties. But lately my 9-year-old son noticed something different from our experience following Gilas. Wrapping up tonight’s game versus Tunisia, my anak was calm yet bold enough to ask me, “Why do we always lose games? Aren’t we that good anymore?” It hit me like a dagger. Took me a while to gather my emotions. I felt like I dwelt too much longer on the words “aren’t we that good anymore”. We are good. Won’t be here if we weren’t. These men are professional players. And we know what they can do. We see they have skills and talent. We’ve seen them make impossible shots. Drained threes with almost no time left. Powered their way inside the paint and still make a shot, a...

Remember Batang Gilas? Well, they're now called "Gilas Youth." And boy, they're up for some thirst-quenching journey come FIBA-U19 World Cup in Greece.

Mas mabuti yatang tumigil nalang sa pagsuporta sa koponan ng bayan. Mas mainam yata na manisi nalang. Mangutya nang lubus-lubusan. Mang-asar at sabihing mali sila. Tanga si Coach Tab at tinanggal si Abueva. Dapat pinaglaro si ganito. Dapat ginawa yung ganyang play. Dapat tinira na ni Chan, bakit pinasa pa. Dapat sa ilalim lang si Blatche. Dapat hindi si Blatche yung naturalized player natin. Sana hindi tayo yung first game kahapon. Sana nagpahiram yung ibang team noong Fiba Asia nung nakaraang taon. Sana pwede si Clarkson. Sana nanalo tayo sa France. Sana hindi nalang natin ni-boo yung Haka ng Tall Blacks (malas daw kasi na i-boo). Sana nilakasan pa natin yung sigaw. Sana hindi lang "De-fense...De-fense" yung alam nating i-chant. Sana hindi nalang tayo naging fans. Sana'y pag-ibig nalang ang isipin... (Teka, anong linya 'to?)

Ilang tulog o gising nalang (depende kung mas madalas kang gising o tulog), bakbakan na. Oops, hindi nina Baron Geisler at Kiko Matos (lalung-lalu hindi rin nina Snow at Dennis, okay?). Balik tayo sa Gilas. Ohyeah, umpisa na ng FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament! 

Thanks for the love mga ka-Gilas fans. I honestly have no idea who nominated me at the #bloggys2015  (and I just checked recently, my Mom's still not on the internet). But whoever you are, I got Liam Neeson for a cameo to say something really special. But before that here's a quick link so you could go straight and vote for this blog:  Vote for Labapilipinas Blog  

Ang hirap magsulat. Lalung mahirap din magbasa. Initially makakaramdam ka ng social media withdrawal. Yung parang ayaw mo na muna basahin yung mga titik at talata na hindi pabor o ayon sa gusto mong karanasan. Parang ang hirap buksan uli ng Twitter, ang Facebook. Kahit celphone na kanina pa may nag-aantay na message at nagtatanong na isang kamag-anak na nasa trabaho kung ano na score.

While our Gilas tacticians headed by Coach Tab Baldwin have pretty much prepared a list for tonight’s awaited Gold Medal match with China, we fans are likewise getting ready. How do you prepare for tonight’s final game?  Here’s our Gilas Pilipinas Fan Checklist:

I'm not sure a lot would remember Lionel Richie's classic song Easy and its opening line: Know it sounds funny But I just can't stand the pain... 

Not everyone loves Mondays. Students. Employees. Who else? It is usually a day after the weekend. And it means back to work, to school, stores or businesses, or what-have-yous.

Well actually he is. I'm no expert on muscles or stuffs like that, but I guess the lower extremities sometimes couldn't take much of his weight. And that makes his ankles injury-prone.

It’s the time of the year again. When all Pinoy basketball fans from the world over get excited and glued to their televisions, laptops and smartphones.

He's the hottest Gilas 3.0 player —on and off the court ! And everyone's on the look for a monicker for this kid. Move over Voldemort, we got here "he-who-MUST-be-named".

The Dirty dozen is out. Are we surprised? Maybe not. Yung iba, siyempre hoping na napasama yung mga manok nila. Well, of course Jordan Clarkson could've been the surprise of all surprises had he made it to the Final 12. So, kaya ba?

Pretty close. Sounds like “Galvanized Iron” naman diba. Yero. Matibay. Maingay kapag pinukpok. Nakakatakot kapag nilipad at pumiglas sa bubong lalu kapag may bagyo. Aba’y umiwas ka na. Kung hindi, yari ka.