Lost Angels

I love basketball. There was a time I could play it well enough to compete with my peers. That time is long past. Now, I just watch the real athletes on TV.

Legend

The RC card edition is finally here.


And it is complete. All the single releases. Took years, but the long hunt is over.




Bonus pic. "The Rookie Card."


Sorry kids. I am not into Mcfarlanes

Dee For Victory

A good day for my team. The Big Three (Dee, Penny, and Cappie) led them to their 2nd WNBA Championship in 3 years. Awesome year for a Lady Huskies fan like me. Dee's Spartak Moscow won Euroleague. The Lady Huskies are the WNCAA Champs, and now, Mercury is tops in the WNBA again.



Number 1, baby, number 1.

Beautiful People

Just finished watching "Beautfiul People", a film written and directed by Bosnian Jasmin Dizdar. It was light and heavy at the same time. (Yes, that is possible.) The harsh reality of life is indeed comical sometimes. If your head is not screwed on correctly all you would do is laugh. The 1999 movie about a bunch of people in Britain that were being affected by the war in the Balkans and the influx of Bosnians, Croats and Serbs reminded me of "my team" from the late 80s and early 90s.

Most know that I am more of an international ball fan than an NBA fan. (I do not even follow the NBA anymore). I like players and teams that give more weight on thinking and execution rather than on athleticism. My team would have given The Dream Team better competition, and could have beaten them. "Could" because the only Dream Team had players with high basketball IQ as well - Bird, Magic, Stockton, Jordan, Robinson. But this entry is not about basketball, it is about life, and here is something related, an exceptional article written in 1996 - Prisoners Of War.

The Launch

I was into the NBA even before the Jordan era. Like most here in Asia, I followed players and not teams. We got the games via the UHF channel feed from the old Clark Air Base. I tried, and failed, to copy Bird and Magic, and ended up being a fat kid with a respectable 3-point shot, an awkward running baby hook, and funny-looking blind passes. I also wanted to copy Barkley but I cannot, for the life of me, get even just one inch off the ground. So, it was the trash talking that I picked up. Then came this skinny kid from Wilmington. He took flight and left the whole world gawking. No Internet then, so I turned to magazines. I had a bunch of them, all having Mike on the cover. So, every month, in Dau, while my much older brothers were secretly buying "Club" and "High Society" from PX stores, I would be browsing for Jordan magazines.

While waiting for a beer call I went digging through some of the boxes in one of our storage rooms. I knew I still had some of those Jordan magazines. Some, because majority, the better ones, have been given away to a friend who rode the Bulls-Jordan Bandwagon when they were already kicking everybody else's butts. (Yes Chris, that's you!!)

I found some.


A skinny kid in some Italian made shoes.


The same kid being helped up by a "fat" guy in shoes that kiddies today think was inpired by AJIVs. SMH.


The fat guy taking flight.


You can click the images for slightly bigger versions.

Husky Heaven

Here in the province now, waiting for people to come invite me to drink some beer and just toss stories around. Nothing is happening so far.

Been following the women's NCAA on the net. It is a great week for UConn (for the women's side at least). My Lady Huskies look set to go undefeated again. Plus, Dee and Sue led Spartak MR to a record 3rd straight Euroleague title this morning, with Taurasi being named best player of the tournament. If we were in Manila I would be decked out in UConn gear jumping around like a madman now.

Gender Bender

Celebrating the amazing feats in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Nike has created a series of limited edition shoes inspired by the achievement of their female athletes. The campaign is for a line of trainers called Sister One +. Pledge to train like one of the Nike Olympians and you could win their shoes.

Jessica Mendoza (Softball) 
Hope Solo (Soccer) 
Sanya Richardson (Track) 
Diana Taurasi (Basketball)

 
The one-of-a-kind shoes each feature a piece of fabric from the athlete's  Olympic uniform stitched onto the tongue. 

Girls (13 and above) can go to http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikewomen/en_US/sister_one and enter to win their own pair of these inspirational shoes by pledging to train as hard as the featured Olympians. 

Judges will review the pledges and the most inspirational will win the beautiful shoes and have them presented in person by the athlete. The contest ends March 31, 2009.

Times like this I wish I am a girl. LOL. No, not in that way. See, I might be the biggest (and heaviest) fan of Diana on this side of the planet, and having a memorabilia like those kicks would be such an achievement. Some thing like those will be the only thing that will go against my sneakers motto of "Sapatos yan, hindi trophy" (Those are shoes, not trophies). Those would go really nice with my Taurasi jerseys and autograph card, placed in a clear glass shelf. So, anybody out there want to make a pledge on my behalf? Win a pair for me and I will send a box of pure love your way!!

Give Me The Ball

Going back to work in a few hours. My body, and maybe my mind too, is protesting. After a "long" vacation, I feel like I need more. I know I should be exercising as I can now feel the "extra" weight. I am fat but I have never felt heavy, until now.

Times like this when I start to miss playing ball. It is almost four years now since I did. No, I am not athletic, far from it. Very, very far. I could not jump or run (still cannot) to save the life of me. But I was quite good at shooting the ball, especially from the outside. I have people who can testify! LOL! One day, in the future, I will put on a pair of my sneakers and use them for what they were meant for. I swear, in the future.

Do Not Think Outside The Bun

I hardly slept. Only had a couple hours of rest before I went to the airport to fetch my parents. It was raining when I got out of the house. The cab driver did not mind the slippery road and just went ahead zigzagging his way along Edsa. I got to the airport a quarter past six. The boards showed that their plane has already landed. I though we would be out of there in about thirty minutes. Instead it took almost two hours. (Only in the Philippines?)

My dad brought home the stuff that I bought off the Internet. Whenever I buy something online I have them shipped to my sister's place. This is how I can save on shipping cost. The drawback is that I only get my items whenever they go "balikbayan". That is once every year if I am lucky. Otherwise, it takes two, even three, years before I get my hands on my online purchases.

No sneakers this time. It has been ages since I actually bought a pair. I got a couple of DVDs, a couple of audio CDs (yes, I am the one crazy guy who still buys legit CDs), some toys, and a shirt. So, the DVDs i purchased last September are finally here. I cannot wait to watch them. I might be the only women's basketball fan this side of the planet. And I am no ordinary fan. I am a big fan. I like women's basketball- WNCAA, WNBA, and the international game - more than the NBA. Forget Lebron and Kobe. It is all about Diana Taurasi!