#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...

Today is game day. The moment we've been waiting for is here. What seemed to be a stalled #RoadToRio last year is again opening a long shot opportunity for our Gilas Pilipinas. However this time we know this is the harder route. If not the most difficult path.

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! 

When we thought Gilas 3.0 has formally closed a chapter in Philippine basketball, here comes another: The 4.0 version! Ambilis ano? Parang software lang, o app na kama-kailan lang naglabas ng bug fixes, aba'y naglabas na naman agad ng update. Of course, if that's the case, there's really no reason to complain.

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.

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... 

This photo speaks a thousand words. No. Millions maybe. The moment we saw this picture of Asi Taulava by FIBA we immediately had our own stories to tell. It's very imposing. And it has elicited a lot of stories from every Filipino.

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.

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.

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.