Doing another thing
Before anything, allow me to congratulate my fellow sportswriters on this paper, Caecent Noot-Magsumbol and Lemuel Maglinte, for getting the first and second place, respectively, in the recently concluded 19th Milo Little Olympics-Visayas Sportswriting Contest. It is an honor to be acquainted with you and a privilege to be a part of the The Freeman sportswriting family.
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Aside from doing what he does best and eventually excelling in it, this guy, at some point in his career was an actor, singer, product endorser, capitalist, evangelist and presently moonlights as a lawmaker representing a congressional district in his home province.
He is also a big time basketball fan, plays the game and even supports several local provincial basketball teams. His basketball addiction doesn’t stop that he has become the head coach of KIA Motors basketball team, one of the new expansions teams in the Philippine Basketball Association. Going further, he will join the PBA Rookie Draft this coming Sunday.
All things point to this sportsman being drafted on Sunday, never mind if he’s occupied with something more pressing. He then becomes the PBA’s newest playing coach behind the famous and a more legitimate Robert Jaworski, who also became a legislator. I think Ramon Fernandez also did some play-and-coach thing.
I suppose you already know who I’m talking about and personally, it would do Cong. Emmanuel Dapidran Pacqiuao to just stay at the sidelines and let people with superior basketball savvy do the playing and coaching.
Yes, he plays basketball, has a working knowledge of the game and is quick with his lateral movements. He drives to the basket like the blowing habagat, chases after loose balls like a cat after a pesky mouse and shoots threes like from behind the front row seats. Of course he can do all these. Nobody, even remotely devoid of sanity, would dare harm PacMan on the basketball court during a scrimmage or in some bush leagues. Do that and you better kiss your sweet life on earth goodbye. Everyone from the balding president to the shirtless istambay will be after your hide for hurting Manny.
Imagine you’re guarding the Pacman at the Cebu Coliseum. He whizzes by you and in your desire not to be humiliated, you race after him. Unable to control your momentum, you bump into him while he’s airborne making a layup and falls awkwardly, injuring his left hand. You don’t even want to think of this happening.
Of course you let the Pambansang Kamao do his thing on the basketball court for fear of hurting what we long considered to be a living, national sporting treasure. Nobody would like to have the distinction of injuring an 8-division world boxing champion in a pickup game of basketball.
Enter the pro basketball league. Guys will be more bigger and heavier and more importantly, they are paid to play hard when they are called upon to play and they don’t care who they will be playing against. There are a million ways to stop an opposing player from scoring and the whole team from winning. Will the likes of Calvin Abueva, Beau Belga and Marc Pingris go easy on Manny? They will all be equals on the PBA battlefield and PacMan will face people twice as heavy and tall as him. And we’re not yet talking about the import-laced conferences where foreign reinforcements are as large and as tall as Ayala’s basement parking columns.
Contact sports have their weight divisions to level the playing field and that’s why PacMan moved gradually to a higher division because he ran out of opponents to batter. And he is very good at this. Team sports don’t have this, whether you’re tall or short or heavy it don’t matter as long as you’re with the team and that the team is competitive.
My point is this. The PacMan has made so many distractions to his boxing career already that this folly to pro basketball, goodness freaking gracious, is another ill-advised adventure. Manny is the best in boxing as far as I’m concerned and his other sojourns are better left buried and to be lost in memory for mediocrity’s sake.
PacMan’s PBA team reportedly will be called “Kia Kamao” in obvious reference to his being we all know what. KK. Manny as the playing coach for Kia? It’s still KK – Kulang sa Kasinatian.
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