Do you know how popular basketball is in the Philippines? We’ve had blogposts about three Dream League tournament MVPs ending up on the same roster in the PBA, but aside from references like that, do you really know how popular basketball is in “the PI”? Someone very qualified is here to give you the proper context.

His name is Rafe Bartholomew and he’s coming out with a book next month that talks about this very thing: “Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin’ in Flip-Flops and the Philippines’ Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball”.

Through my homies at GSoM, I’m happy to say that I’m getting an advanced copy of the book to review. I’ll be in talks with the publicist on how to get the book pushed through the Dream League community (10,000 Asian-American rec ballers strong!).

Inspiration for this blogpost goes to HoopsHype, which tweeted they were shocked to find Manila ranking 5th in total number of hits in the world on their site, after mega-metros NY, LA, Chicago, and Toronto of North America.

Here’s a blogpost on Free Darko by Bartholomew, where you can find the awesome photo of a Filipino kid dunking on a wooden backboard in a rural area in the Philippines: http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2010/02/fd-guest-lecture-where-magaling-happens.html

Here’s a recent interview with Bartholomew: In the Bullpen

Here’s the full text of the press release, as forwarded to me by GSoM…
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This year’s point guard crop of draftees is not that deep and Jeremy Lin, Bay Area native and Asian baller, won’t have as much competition as last year’s 16 point guards selected, but available roster spots at pg on NBA teams are just that: available roster spots (read: not a whole lof of them left).

I found one more to add to the complications: Vassilis Spanoulis. And he’s been tagged as the best — as in, #1 — free agent prospect for this summer out of the Euroleague.

So here’s the dilemma with pg roster spots, assuming an NBA team has them: sign a more experienced, expensive free agent like Spanoulis (who apparently has the nickname “Kill Bill”), or draft an unproven rookie straight out of the NCAA, but save beaucoup bucks?

EXCERPT: “Kill Bill is as smart, tough, and competitive as any player in the world. He is a pure winner and a natural leader. He can lead a team as the primary option from either back court position on offense and he is an excellent defender.

He should not be judged on his lone NBA year with the Houston Rockets, as he obviously did not get a fair chance from Jeff Van Gundy. He is clearly a superior player to the likes of Rafer Alston, Luther Head, and John Lucas III, whom were ahead of him on Van Gundy’s depth chart, and pretty much every NBA scout you talk to will state as much. Potential NBA starting point guard or 6th man.

NBA Scout Assessment: An NBA scout said this of Spanoulis, ‘Spanoulis has no fear on the basketball court. He is as confident as any player there is. In my opinion he can start in any team in the NBA.’”

Read the full article at: talkbasket.net/blogs/top-10-euroleague-free-agent-nba-prospects-2954.html

Charles Gaines clocking Du Feng leads off this installment of 3pt Play, where things tend to happen in threes. Exhibit A: Gaines, who once played for the San Antonio Spurs, knocks out Du in the Chinese Basketball Association. Then we have Exhibits B and C (non-basketball-related): 59-year-old Tian-Sheng Yu and his 27-year-old son Cheng Yu getting beat up in broad daylight in downtown Oakland… 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/20/BA301D16JO.DTL  

And if you think Exhibit B and C should be lumped into just Exhibit B, then consider the attacks on San Francisco’s Muni buses not too long ago… 

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=7364771  

Yes, I’m sure there are Chinese or Asian people getting beat up all the time all over the world as we speak, but I’m just sayin’. All in a matter of days, all reaching headlines. Enough is enough. 

For the hoopsters, here’s Exhibit A in more detail: 

Thanks for the heads-up on Gaines/Du from SlamOnline writer Daniel Edward Rosen. 

Read the whole article at: Heart of Beijing: Charles Gaines KOs Chinese basketball player

Jeremy Lin, pre-game intros, family.

NOTE: This is Part 4 of a four-part series of blogposts. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 were published in the three days prior. I re-titled this post because I felt it was the most interesting of the four.

From deity to defeated

After Friday night’s win over Columbia, there were hundreds of fans lined up to meet Jeremy Lin, to get autographs and take pictures. He was very accommodating. He was a hero. I could only shake my head and smile in astonishment.

Even the Santa Clara post-game hadn’t been that frenzied, at least from my vantage point, although I did overhear his teammate mentioning autograph-seekers outside the team bus. I think the fans were not found in droves on the Leavey Center floor after the Santa Clara game primarily because of the long post-game press conference. The scene at Leavey ended up being picture-taking sessions mostly with family and extended family, and reconnecting with long-lost former teammates and even former opponents, such as Anthony Goods of Stanford fame, who played against Jeremy in the first home-coming three years prior.

Even as his friend, after the Columbia game it was nearly impossible to navigate the waters just to say hello. At one point, after autographing a sign and some t-shirts, Jeremy was rescued by Coach Tommy Amaker, who called him over from about ten yards away to take pictures with Jeremy’s relatives. Even his flat-mate Cheng Ho (running back for Harvard football team) told Jeremy rather abruptly, “Eh, you’re too popular. I’ll just see you later.”
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Jeremy Lin is not afraid to attack the rim (via Pablo Torre via SI, click for Pablo's blog).

NOTE: This is Part 3 of 4. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted in the past two days. Part 4 will post tomorrow.

Back to that vaunted Cornell team

Unfortunately as it relates to competing against a team like Cornell, Harvard doesn’t and didn’t have anyone else with the smallish-stocky or longish-quick blueprint — see the last few paragraphs of the previous post — against Cornell. Nor did they have anyone posing a threat down low (usually this would be Keith Wright or Kyle Casey), or nailing shots outside (Oliver McNally, Christian Webster, Dee Giger, or Andrew Van Nest).

The Cornell defense was just too intense and smothering. They can be that way and scramble-and-gamble on the defensive perimeter because Jeff Foote can protect the rim. It’s like in high school when your varsity squad scrimmaged the JV kids. The varsity guys would risk — and most likely win — every overplay on the perimeter, knowing that they had a physically superior team.
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