WEEKLY HODGE PODGE: TRUTH WILL SET US FREE

MY schedule was toxic the past week and I assume the same will happen any day from now even though it’s a long Holiday.

I guess the safest way for me is to change the Monday Hodge Podge into a weekly Hodge Podge. So here it goes.

THE most credible person shed light during a congressional hearing called by Games and Amusement chair Rep. Amado Bagatsing, former director of the Philippine Long Distance Company whose KABAKA project is also being supported by Smart Communications.

No, it’s not Wynne Arboleda, who assaulted Alain Katigbac during the heated battle of Burger King and Smart Gilas more than a week ago.

Definitely it’s not Katigbac either, who after hurling invectives repeatedly against Arboleda and many other Burger King players who passed by him, couldn’t back up his thrash and now hiding on his lawyer’s big pocket.

It’s not Noli Eala nor Yeng Guiao, who had histories of trading barbs. And certainly not newly-appointed PBA chairman Lito Alvarez, the master trader in the PBA.

The substance the congressmen were looking for came from the pretty courtside reporter from the PBA – Patricia Bermudez-Hizon, who was a first-hand witness inside the Burger King locker room.

At the time when the fiery Burger King mentor was being pinpointed as the one who gave instructions to his players in hurting their younger counterparts from Smart Gilas, the wife of the former league superstar broke down to details what her business was inside the men’s locker room.

A congressman asked whether Bermudez-Hizon has malice (not her presence inside the men’s locker room) but the phrase “put Gilas in their place” that came out in her Twitter.

“I'm allowed by coaches to enter the locker room. I explained the offensive and defensive schemes of Burger King as well as coach Yeng’s motivation to his players that Gilas players will not enter the league and take their spots yet and that they are the ones in the spot, so they should put Gilas in their place,” said Bermudez-Hizon.

Bermudez-Hizon also added that there were no directives from Guiao to hurt Smart Gilas players, thus squelching accusations against the Burger King mentor and clearing his name, from this mess.

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So Smart Gilas’ games are now just plainly exhibition matches. Good for the teams in the PBA as they can concentrate on helping the national developmental pool members.

Ginebra coach Jong Uichico agreed on the decision of PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios to make Gilas’ games reduced from bearing games to other teams to purely exhibition game.

“If we want to help them, we must deviate ourselves from the we-must-win attitude. In as much as we want to help them, we badly needed the win,” said Uichico after Ginebra’s victory over Smart-Gilas.

A week later, Uichico was humming a different tune. We can’t blame him, his team’s number of victories were sliced down a bit after that new ruling of having Smart-Gilas’ games not to be counted on the team standings.

“I am in favor of making the games of Smart-Gilas to become exhibition matches, but certainly not in the middle of the elimination round,” said Uichico. “Of course, it definitely hurt my team. Instead of having a 3-1 record, we’re down to 2-1.”

Alaska coach Tim Cone was very much vocal right from the start regarding the national team aspirants’ participation.

"I’m not a fan of national team competing on a PBA scheduled-games,” said Cone. “It affects our concentration. Now we can focus on helping them as all their games are down to exhibition matches.”

Like Uichico, Cone had the chance of handling the all-pro national team. He was coach of the Centennial team and also had sad experiences competing as a guest squad in the PBA.

“We played in an import-flavored conference. It was a bad experience and was not a big help for our campaign,” added Cone.

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Cone was on spotlight with selected sportswriters during a fellowship made possible by Alaska bossman Wilfred Steven Uytengsu at the Kamayan Restaurant in Edsa.

The two was very open in sharing the secrets of the team’s success that made their franchise the most dominant team in the country’s premier professional cage league.

“I remember Fred relaying a story about Tim making a lot of suggestions,” said Trillo, who came to Alaska months later than Cone after a colorful career in sportscasting. “Then Fred told Tim, you know, you talk too much Tim, why don’t you coach the squad.”

From there, the legacy started. The trio built a foundation anchored on Sean Chambers, who then became the resident import of the Aces then known as the Milkmen (when the league wants every moniker literally associated with the product, say like Rhum Masters for Tanduay, Hotdogs for Purefoods, Beermen for San Miguel, Turbo Chargers for Shell among others).

Slowly but surely, the influx of talent came in – Bong Alvarez was picked up in 1989 to add youth and excitement then Eugene Quilban was added. Jojo Lastimosa was acquired in a trade with Boy Cabahug in 1991 then two years later, a rookie named Johnny Abarrientos made the squad even more formidable. Then, Alvarez was traded for Bong Hawkins.

By bits and grabs, the Aces formed the nucleus of their squad and get them all together to play within the Triangle Offense of Cone. Amazingly, the Aces won 10 championships in the 90s to become a PBA dynasty.

This season’s batch of Aces have every ingredient of a championship caliber squad. No wonder Alaska is the only undefeated team in KFC-PBA Philippine Cup.

“Through the years, I had my shares of selfish players that I have to deal with it, yet we became successful. I really like the composition of our team this season. Players have become more matured. Like I’ve said during the pre season, I would rather want to establish team chemistry more than making several acquisitions of big-time players,” said Cone, who also put an end to the trade talks involving Willie Miller.

“Miller is definitely our best player. The only bad thing on Willie is that he thinks he could do everything he might be thinking he is a LeBron James or a Kobe Bryant,” said Cone in jest. “But he is truly a likeable person. I’m glad to have him on my team.”

Uytengsu, a former head of the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association, also felt sad Arboleda will be gone for the rest of the season.

“Off the court, he seems to be a likeable person. On the court, he is a hard-nosed defender. Now, he will be remembered for the mistake he has done for several minutes – that kick, punch and punch. It’s too bad it has happened. But some people lived a lifetime in a minute and Arboleda changed his life through that forgettable minutes,” said Uytengsu.