Basketball is Still Alive and Well in the Philippines

ALTHOUGH the NBA Finals is already over, basketball still goes on back in my former country Philippines.

Recently, the country successfully staged the FIBA 3x3 World Cup which is a prelude to the Basketball World Cup which the Philippines is hosting in 2023 with two other countries in Japan and Indonesia.

Of course, the PBA is still ongoing with the Commissioner's Cup as of the moment.


On the amateur side, the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League just launched its newest conference with 26 teams. League founder Manny Pacquiao was able to attract more teams in the Visayas and Mindanao and even actor Gerald Anderson has found a home in the league.

The PBA D League just began its newest conference but as I posted previously, there seems to be a lack of interest.

In the collegiate scene, the Filoil Flying V Pre-Season tournament is enjoying more television exposure thanks to ESPN5 and the UAAP and NCAA teams are getting the much-needed exposure before their respective leagues begin later this year.

Over here in the US, sports fans have other choices outside of the NBA. The FIFA World Cup begins this week while there is still MLB baseball. Of course, NBA free agent signings and the draft will still dominate the headlines.

With all these things happening to Philippine basketball, it makes me yearn for the old days when I was covering all those leagues at the same time. But as I have said before, my mother knows what is best for me by staying in the US for good.

Hopefully, Manny V. Pangilinan can give me a passport and plane ticket so I can come back and cover the 2023 FIBA World Cup in the Philippines.
Location: El Sobrante, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The NFL on Philippine TV

Image
THE National Football League will finally have a Philippine TV carrier this season. A day ago, TV5 announced in its social media sites that it will air one NFL game every Monday, Tuesday and Friday live at 8 am with replays over its sister cable channel Hyper for Cignal subscribers. NFL games have been irregularly televised in the Philippines because obviously, many Pinoys don't understand the rules of American football. Previously, ABS-CBN tried airing the NFL on its defunct Studio 23 but the games didn't catch on with many viewers. And now, TV5 is gambling on the NFL as it tries to keep pace with ABS-CBN's Sports+Action 23 which airs the NBA, UAAP and NCAA games. Under TV5's schedule, the following NFL games will be televised: Monday mornings (Sunday Night Football on NBC) Tuesday mornings (Monday Night Football on ESPN) Friday mornings (Thursday Night Football on NFL Network) The Sunday morning, US time, games will not be televised on TV5 since the
Read more

More Troubles at RX

Image
Photo of Gino Quillamor's tweet to Chico Garcia that led to Gino leaving RX. ANOTHER major blow has struck Monster RX 93.1 with the departure of Gino Quillamor from the morning show The Morning Rush. Quillamor left the show last week after being with Chico Garcia and Delamar Arias for close to a decade. Since then, he has not intimated of any plans to join another FM radio station. Earlier, Arias retired from RX in January this year to focus on marriage and motherhood. She resurfaced on Magic 89.9 to host the weekly show The Mother Show on Friday Madness mornings with Andi Manzano and Riki Flores. Quillamor and Arias's departures from RX have further weakened the station's lineup of DJs. In a previous post, other RX jocks have also left due to various reasons, such as recently married couple Andre Co and Cerah Hernandez, Jay Abastillas, Jinri Park, Sel Guevara, Carla Lizardo, Chris Schneider and Karen Bordador, who still remains in jail due to drug charges. As
Read more

NBASunDOS: Much Better than NBASabaDOS

Image
IF there is one thing that ABS-CBN Sports should do in order to improve its coverage of the NBA games, it's that it has to add more weekend games on its flagship station Channel 2. At present, the NBA on ABS-CBN is only on Saturday mornings. The first half is delayed but the second game comes in live with the usual Taglish commentary coming from PBA legends Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc. On Fridays, Sundays and Mondays, ABS-CBN airs its NBA telecast on its sister channel S+A which used to be the old Studio 23 that aired a number of canned shows in the 90s. As I have posted many times on this blog, ABS-CBN should add one Sunday game on Channel 2 aside from its regular Saturday games.  Here are the reasons why ABS-CBN should add a Sunday game on Channel 2. 1. It's better than a Tagalized Disney movie. The Sunday morning time slot on ABS-CBN is usually reserved for kids who stay at home with their families. But a big problem in that time slot is the K
Read more