A Story.. Well, Just Saying…

Once upon a time, in a faraway place, there was a village named Longkang. Now, the people in Longkang loves to play basketball very much. Day in day out, they would play basketball. So, the village head of Longkang thinks: Since my villagers are so good in basketball, why don’t I find another 5 villages and start a league to show people how good my village is in basketball.

So, he found 5 other villages and they went on to form the “Kampong League”. Now, the head of Longkang thinks that his team is very good and may not be a challenge to his team, so he allows all teams in the “Kampong League” to sign 3 players from other villages, as well as 2 players from outside the villages taking part in “Kampong League”.

After 1 year, the chief of Kampong League realize that his team was doing quite well and decided to stick with the same villages that started the Kampong League. After the 2nd year, the Kampong Chief was starting to feel irritated as Longkang had not won a single championship. So what did he do?

He decides to get 1 more team each from the winning villages and add on another village into the league. He also ensure that his team have an edge over the other teams by allowing them to get away with fouls on the court, and also off the court. However, did the Longkang Village head achieve anything?

Racism Matters Engulfing ABL?

Just when the whole sporting world is engaged in the “Luis Suarez – Patrice Evra” situation in the Barclays Premier League and the “ESPN – Jeremy Lin” issue on racism, it seemed that the ABL is possibly facing a ‘racism’ issue of its own, when Julius Hodge of the Saigon Heat had apparently quit the Heat due to some issues.

An email, apparently sent by Mr Hodge, to Mr Kuhan Foo, reads:

“While I was with the Saigon Heat a player by the name of Mark Andaya came to try out for the team. His agent name I believe is Sheryl Sanchez Reyes. Mark was called a ‘filipino monkey’ by the head coach Rob.”

We attach a screen shot of the email in an earlier post.

However, the Asean Basketball League had released a press statement which reads as follows:

(Extracted from Official Website of Asean Basketball League): Monday, 20^th February 2012 – Former Saigon Heat sharpshooter Julius Hodge has been released from the AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League’s Vietnamese team after a scorching run in the league which saw him top the points leaderboard.

In an official statement on behalf of the Saigon Heat, General Manager Mr. Connor Nguyen has confirmed that Julius Hodge has been released from the squad for the remainder of the season due to difficulties fitting in because of the differences in the environment and the challenges that come with playing professional basketball in this region.

Hodge has played in a lot of different leagues around the world, including the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, where he was selected as the 20^th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft. Since then he has also gained experience in other parts of the world, including the Lega Basket Serie A in Italy and the Australian National Basketball League.

Saigon Heat will continue on in the league with new import Devon Sullivan, who made his debut in Saigon’s home game at Tan Binh Stadium yesterday against the Bangkok Cobras.

The questions now that is facing the ABL is this:

1) What is the actual reasons for Julius Hodge’s departure from the Saigon Heat? Was it due to the the rumored ‘racist’ sling (‘difficulties fitting in because of the differences in the environment and the challenges that come with playing professional basketball in this region’)?

Had there been a difficulties for Mr Hodge, his performance certainly did not show the troubles that he is, or had been, facing.

2) Will ABL and its management, including that of the Saigon Heat, investigate into this allegations, which comes with a copy of the email that was sent out apparently by Mr Hodge. The old adage that ‘without fire, there would not be smoke’ holds weight for this instance.

We believe that coming clean on such issues is better than deliberating and concealing facts. If anyone had erred in this saga, admit and move on with life. Considering that Mr Hodge had a newborn arriving, it would be unimaginable for him to abruptly leave a team in which he had so much authority in court, considering the number of points he had garnered in his short-lived career.

We certainly hope that all parties are able to resolve the matter amicably, and give fans of the ABL, and especially those of Saigon Heat, a reasonable answer and closure to this matter.

To end off this blog post, we are glad that ABL is ‘investigating’ into this matter:

*Note: This blog post is not meant to incite any disharmony within and outside of the ABL and/or Saigon Heat. All materials obtained for this blogpost, is purely for information and substantiated purposes. We truly believe that with a transparent league will the league be able to grow even stronger.

Racism Issues?

We received a screen-shot of the following email, which was apparently sent out by Mr Julius Hodge, the ex-Saigon Heat player, regarding of an alleged ‘racist’ incident. We do not own this image and are purely using it for discussion purposes among fans of ABL.

We truly believe that the ABL should be a league where friends and fans come first, rivalry second.

We would also like to wish Mr Julius Hodge all the best in his basketball career.

Slingers lost 3rd straight as they meltdown against the Dragons 71-86

After going up 4-1, the Slingers are now 4-4 after an epic meltdown against the Dragons at the MABA stadium. Both imports Donald Little and Louis Graham fouled out of the game, despite good scoring contributions of 19 and 25 points respectively. They could not contain the Dragons imports Tiras Wade who had a season-high 34 points and Brian Williams who had a monster game of 30 points and 15 rebounds.

The Slingers made their first starting line-up switch after 7 games. Wong Wei Long took over Desmond Oh at the shooting guard spot. But despite swapping the defensive Desmond Oh for an offensive threat of Wei Long, the Slingers struggled to score in the first period. They went down on a 12-0 run and later ended the quarter with a huge hole of 7-21.

Slingers struggling and regrouping during a time-out

The Slingers tried to get back in the 2nd quarter on Donald Little’s inside offense, but it proved to be insufficient as the Dragons’ Wade and Williams continued to scorch the team. Little and Graham proved to be the only bright spark on scoring end, while the rest of the Slingers struggled to put up points for the team. The second quarter was evenly matched 27-26 Slingers as the half ended with the Dragons going up 47-34.

In the 3rd period, the Slingers desperately tried to crawl back into the game. Things were looking good in the first half of the 3rd quarter. With stingy defense, the Slingers managed to slice the lead down to just 8 points on Lim Sheng Yu’s layup with 5 minutes left to go. But after a timeout, the Dragons came out shooting the lights out. T-wade led his team on a 12-2 run that deflated any chance of a Slingers come-back. The 3rd quarter ended with a score of 48-68, with the Slingers trailing by 20 points.

In the 4th, things started to heat up for both teams as Nic Belasco and Donald Little were each called for technical fouls. Donald Little fouled out of the game after picking up another personal foul soon after.  The Slingers had to play the rest of the 4th quarter without their big man whom they were relied on scoring. Apparently, things weren’t looking good for the Slingers. But Lou Graham seized the opportunity to be fired up and he single-handedly carried the Slingers on his shoulders. With his scoring antics, the lead was reduced back to 13 with 6 minutes left to go.

Little sits after his 5th foul

But once again, Dragons called time. And after the crucial timeout, they would answer back with consecutive baskets to reclaim their huge. The Slingers’ end was later sealed when Lou Graham fouled out of the game with 3 minutes left, leaving the Slingers with an undersized line-up. Steven “Yakuza” Khoo tried to keep the team close with his strong play, but there was no stopping the Dragons big man Brian Williams from dominating the paint. Steven Khoo though finished with 6 points and 6 rebounds in this game.

The game ended with the Dragons defeating the Slingers 86-71.

Things are starting to look bleak for the Slingers as usual efforts of Wong Wei Long and Desmond Oh were not present in this game. Slingers 6th man, Wei Long finished with 0 points in this game in his 1st start of the season. Desmond has also been lacklustre since the previous game. Vaughn Canta who was big for the Slingers in the previous game also struggled in this one. He managed only 6 points on 2/10 shooting. Assists also proved to be a problem for the Slingers as they clocked only 1 assist in the entire 1st half and only 6 for the game.

If the Slingers must get back on winning ways, they have to regain their pesky defense and strong contributions from the local stars Wei Long and Desmond.

The Slingers next face the Indonesia Warriors on the 25th February. Regroup, they must, or fall to below .500 in the league table.

-photos by ABL-

www.journal.com.ph: An example of poor journalism

I would like to take issue with a recent article I read about the Patriots vs Slingers game: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/sports/23921-patriots-survive-slingers-in-rugged-game-for-5th-win

I was appalled by the gross misrepresentation of facts in the article, which clearly indicated the journalist’s non-presence at the game.

I took to the liberty to reprint the articles here, while I highlight the points I take issue with in bold:

Patriots survive Slingers in rugged game for 5th win

SINGAPORE — Import Nakiea Miller was thrown out of his comfort zone early but Al Vergara, Bogs Raymundo and Aldrech Ramos hit the clutch baskets as the AirAsia Philippine Patriots outlasted the Singapore Slingers, 80-75, in a rugged game in the AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League Sunday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Miller, who won the Best Import award while playing for the Kuala Lumpur Dragons last year, was held to just 10 points and three rebounds — far cry from his close to 20 points and 16 rebounds in the team’s first five games.

Aside from Miller’s ‘poor’ outing, the Patriots also survived several dubious calls and non-calls to notch their fourth straight and fifth win overall in six games and keep their hold of the solo lead in the 8-team tournament now on its third season.

Poor officiating nearly turned the game into a boxing match as team enforcers Erick Rodriguez and Ardy Larong got into trouble against the Donald Little, the 6-foot-11 import of the Slingers.

Larong was later disqualified on fouls but not after hitting Little in the abdomen.

Vergara was at his usual best, finishing with 14 points — his second triple enabled the Patriots to regain the lead, 52-48, late in the third quarter. He also had three assists.

“That was a big shot, that kept us going because of some circumstances that almost ruined our game,” said coach Glenn Capacio. The Patriots bloated their lead to 9 points early in the fourth, 66-57, which they valiantly protected to hand the host squad their third setback in seven games,

Capacio and Anthony Johnson, the team’s other import, later rued the officiating.“I programed myself not to get angry because it will not do good to my health but they (referees) made me mad. Grabe, patas akong lumaban, pero kapag ganito nakakataas ng BP (blood pressure),” he added.

Despite the non-calls on him, Johnson finished with 26 points. “They (Slingers) were all over me but the referees won’t call,” lamented Johnson. Raymundo scattered 11 points while Ramos made his presence felt after missing the team’s last three games with 9 points and four boards.

The scores: PH Patriots 80 — Johnson 26, Vergara 14, Raymundo 11, Miller 10, Ramos 9, Ybanes 4, Rodriguez 3, Larong 3, Wainwright 0, Juntilla 0, Fernandez 0, Laure 0. Singapore Slinngers 75 — Graham 19, Canta 19, Little 16, Wong 14, Khoo 4, Wong 2, Khoo 1, Oh 0, Lim 0, Matialakan 0, Goh 0, Ng. Quarters: 18-11, 31-36, 59-54, 80-75.

Well, here you have it: A journal (mind you – not a blog) article written way out of hand.

1) The author cited that “Larong was later disqualified on fouls but not after hitting Little in the abdomen”. This was a clear indication of the author’s absence in the game – and in fact also his laziness to even check the official statistics. 

Larong had only 2 fouls! How could he have been disqualified on fouls? What a joke!

And Larong punched Little in the groin – not the abdomen! As the author was obviously not present in the game, he couldn’t have the slightest chance of visualising where the punch landed.

Well, is this denial or what?

2) The Patriots’ coach and players rue-ing the officiating? Somehow they were claiming that the officials were siding the Slingers. Poor officiating against the Patriots? Who told this journalist would wasn’t even present at the game that? Was it Glenn Cappacio, who instructed his players to attack Donald Little like nobody’s business, that didn’t like the officiating? Why should I then trust a coach whose strategy is to intentionally foul Donald Little on poor officiating? They got a narrow win through despicable disgusting measures and now he’s whining about the officiating. Should I applaud him? Hell, no!

3) Who in the world is Khoo who scored 2 points and Wong would scored 1? Another clear indication that the writer didn’t bother to even check the score. Do you know how insulting this is to the Slingers team if the author is just creating some “make-believe” players on our team by throwing in some “Singaporean” player name?

And please, Donald Little scored 10 points! 10! Not 16!

And all these are coming from www.journal.com.ph. Tell me now, should I trust this “so-called” journal site that is coming up with all the news?