NO matter how they bludgeon each other during games, I still can’t get over how—when San Miguel meets Ginebra, or Ginebra meets Magnolia, or San Miguel clashes with Magnolia—they are still sister teams.
Sisters don’t fight; they hug.
For instance, when San Miguel plays Ginebra, such as right now when they’re competing for a seat in the finals, they put on a terrific game and one can see how badly each one wants to win. But at the end of the day, all these players, coaches, and ball boys from both teams are friends. Some may encounter each other at the SMB cafeteria and give each other high fives or bump into each other as they get their paychecks or bonuses at the cashier’s booth and throw each other big smiles.
The same is true of the three MVP teams in the PBA: TNT, Meralco, NLEX. The teams will, of course, profess that they’re pros and that they leave friendship at the entrance door when playing each other. But, really?
I don’t like it. I want teams to hate each other. Hate brings out the best and the nastiest in players, which is real good for real rivalry. Having very partisan teams is good for the game; having very partisan fans is great for the league.
The so-called Classico between Ginebra and Magnolia? That, to me, is absurd. How can a game between sister teams become a classic? Will they really go for the kill? Will one really go all out to humiliate the other? Real Madrid versus Barcelona FC—that is what’s classic and what’s rightfully called “El Classico.”
But, sadly, having sister teams in the PBA is a fact of our country’s sporting life, and one that I don’t see dissolving in my lifetime.
So, pardon me if I do not take their games seriously. You know what their games remind me of? Like young men taking their sisters to the prom. The occasion is great, there is dancing and congeniality, but expect no sparks to fly. And can anyone truly get excited when the chatter probably revolves about what Mom prepared for breakfast?
Maybe this is one reason why attendance in the PBA has plummeted over the years. There are just no sparks in the air. No electricity. No do-or-die energy. The arena is as soft as they come.
The NGAP out of bounds again
After getting blown to smithereens for poorly handling the Philippine team’s uniform fiasco at the Paris Olympics—which golfer Dottie Ardina bravely made known to everyone—the National Golf Association of the Philippines tried to make amends. It demoted its executive director Bones Floro to appease those asking for his head.
Floro was removed from his post and banished elsewhere, although many think he’s right in the closet behind NGAP president Martin Lorenzo’s office. Still there, but not terribly visible. Still there still attempting to mumble instructions into Lorenzo’s ear.
Floro, in charge of the golf team, was blamed for a fiasco where the public saw Dottie painstakingly sewing a Philippine flag on her golf outfit for the Olympics golf tournament because their official uniforms and flags did not arrive on time. This, despite the golf team being formed, complete, and ready to compete weeks before the Olympics.
This week, the NGAP was in the news again after the news leaked that the country was back in the Asian Tour rotation. After hosting the last Philippine Open in 2019 at The Country Club, the RP Open will once more be held, this time from January 23-26, 2024, at Manila Southwoods.
What’s infuriating about the announcement is that it was made to fly under the radar, with only the Inquirer privy to the news. It is not known if the NGAP was too embarrassed to face other media outlets because of the Olympics disaster, but the occasion does lead reporters to wonder why the country’s inclusion was being announced too quietly, even clandestinely.
The Philippine Open is expected to be the biggest professional golf event in the country in so many years! Yet no formal announcement? Was the NGAP afraid media will ask why it took so long for the Open to return? Or why the NGAP was able to gather prize money now but not all those years before? Or what the total prize is, please? Maybe the golf body does not enjoy being asked why the country does so poorly in important international competitions? And why the NGAP, just days before the 2024 election, changed the rules that paved the way for the reelection of its incumbent officers? Or even why these officers overstayed by more than a year before calling for the next election?
By the way, Manila Southwoods as venue is a poor choice as far as location goes. I have nothing against the course, it provides enough of a challenge, but it is not expected to attract fans in droves even for such a huge tournament. It’s too far and people have to contend with the terrible traffic particularly on their way home. Wack Wack, which used to host the event regularly and is located in Mandaluyong, would have been a perfect venue.
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