Gilas loses to Dominican Republic, 81-87 – August 25, 2023

‘Game Thoughts’

A close and exciting but also quite frustrating Game to watch for Filipino Fans, one that we probably should’ve won had a better Coach been around for the Team. 

It’s typical of Coach Chot Reyes’ Team where on Offense they would run one or two Plays, and then stop, stand around until someone just tries to create a Shot on his own. Reyes’ National Teams has been like that since 2007, and now 16 Years later it is still like that. 

Anyway, a big Part of what made this Game exciting for me is the presence of Karl Anthony Towns (KAT) for the Dominican Republic Team. He’s not just an ordinary Player, he is a National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Player who is at the height of his Career right now. 

‘Player Thoughts’

Junemar Fajardo had a big Game, scoring 16 points on 5 out of 5 Field Goals (FG) from the two-point Area, grabbed 7 rebounds and only had one Turnover (TO). I would consider this Game as the Highlight of his Career so far because he did it against no less than KAT. This is probably the closest Fajardo will come to playing against an All-Star NBA Player in a real, competitive Game. 

Gilas beats Indonesia, 76-51 – July 18, 2021

‘Game Highlights’

It was supposed to be an easy Game for Gilas, after all the other South East Asian (SEA) Countries prefer to patronize Football rather than Basketball. But it certainly didn’t look like it in the first 2 Quarters when Gilas couldn’t pull away from the Indonesians. It was only in the 2nd Half when they finally started the rout against Indonesia. 

Most of the Gilas Players shot poorly from the Floor, not sure if this was just due to Complacency and Fatigue, or could be also due to the good Defense that Indonesian Coach Rajko Toroman instilled with his Team. 

Gilas beats South Korea, 81-78 - July 16, 2021

Frankly I’m a bit shocked, I didn’t expect a Gilas Team composed of mainly Collegiate Players and with no Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Players beating a veteran South Korean (SK) Team with 2 Korea Basketball League (KBL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awardees. 

It seems that Coach Tab Baldwin's Strategy was to use a deep and efficient Rotation of his young Players who has a bit more Stamina and a lot of Enthusiasm to tire out the Koreans. With them tired, then their outside shooting started to lose its efficiency, stunting their offense. 

Why Lebron James will never be as Great as Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan photo courtesy of nostri-imago on Flickr, Lebron James photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Due to the airing of “The Last Dance” documentary on ESPN and Netflix, there has been an upsurge again of the debate on which Basketball Player is the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT), Michael Jordan or Lebron James?

For me, the answer is definitely Michael Jordan, mainly because of this simple reason: Jordan reached the Championship Finals of the National Basketball Association (NBA) six times, and won ALL of them. Lebron had more Finals appearances, nine so far … But only won thrice.

The Last Dance (2020) Episodes 3 and 4

Image courtesy of ESPN

I just finished watching Episodes 3 and 4 of "The Last Dance", and OH MY GAD THE MEMORIES. I was a Basketball Junkie back in the 80s and 90s, and I knew all of the Teams and Players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) then.

But even with that, "The Last Dance" gives us a lot of unique information and perspective on what really happened at that time, and it is just amazing.