Middle East Tour - Dubai part 1

Hello again!

I'll try my best to recall the events that took place in our Dubai stint. It's been more than 3 weeks since we arrived at Dubai so forgive me if i skip out on some details.

For those who do not closely follow the Smart Gilas team, we went to Dubai to participate in the 21st Dubai International Tournament, where the best Middle Eastern professional clubs take part in. The professional teams that joined are comprised mostly of National team players reinforced by 3 imports. However, only 2 imports are allowed to play simultaneously inside the court at a time. Most of the teams had 2 or 3 imports. We had only one import because this import would be the candidate for naturalization in preparation for the Asian Games in November and the FIBA Asia Championships in 2011, where teams are allowed to field in one naturalized player. Sad to say, our lone import Jamal Sampson played not more than 45 minutes COMBINED in all 7 games that we played there, missing 3 games including the 2 most important ones. The reason for this is, according to him, a sore knee.

So after competing in two grueling duels in Qatar, we took a one hour flight across the Persian gulf into Dubai. We had 3 days to prepare before the start of the tournament. Our first exhibition match was against the Pinoy All-stars based in Dubai, composed of ex-PBA and semi-pro players like Jojo Manalo, Don Yabut of FEU, etc. The match was held in the Al-Nasr gym, which was flocked by Filipinos. It was a fun game highlighted by dunks by Japeth Aguilar. Smart Gilas broke the game open in the 4th quarter as the Pinoy All-stars ran out of gas towards the end. Our 2nd exhibition match was against the UAE National team, where we lost (Can't remember the final score) due to, i would say, overconfidence. It was a serious lesson for us! UAE finished 12th place in the FIBA Asia Championships in 2009 in Tianjin while the Philippines finished 8th, out of 16 teams.

Before the tournament started, we are able to squeeze in some time to tour the city which has recently been undergoing an economic crisis. UAE is composed of 7 states, or emirates as they call it, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The capital and the second largest of the emirates is Abu Dhabi, who also provided a $10 billion bailout for the collapsing Dubai.

Dubai boasts of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, formerly known as Burj Dubai, which stands at 828m high! Surpassing Taipei 101. There's also the very unique reclaimed land area that is called "The Palms" and they say it can be seen all the way from the moon, like the shape of a palm leaf, of course. It also houses the Jumeirah resorts that built the world's only 7-star hotel, the Burj Al-Arab (The sail-like building with photo above). Room rates start from $2,500 a night, depending on the season and can go up to $30,000 for the suites. Incredible! I'm glad enough to have stepped inside the jaw-dropping, marvelous, magical lobby, thanks to our very gracious and warm family friend, Imelda Kunkler, who took me around the various Jumeriah resorts including the Madinat (resort with its own lake) where we had wonderful Chinese food with her husband Robert despite his extremely busy schedule.

Thank you also to GMA7 for taking us around, especially for allowing us to experience snow in the middle of a desert! Most of the players were able to experience playing with ice/snow for the first time inside the Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates. The entire team had so much fun wearing complete snow gears and enjoying the rides. It was an amazing 3000 sq. meter snow park where one could go skiing, snow boarding, sledding, etc. The temperature was -2 degrees celsius. We couldn't last too long so we proceeded to the largest mall in the world (according to them), the Dubai Mall, which had a spectacular view of the Burj Khalifa.

I want to thank also all the Pinoys we met along the way who made our trip truly memorable! I felt that I was simply traveling in another one of the many Philippine provinces because of the sheer number of Filipinos all over the place, in the hotels, malls, gyms, etc. To all the Pinoys in Dubai, you certainly made us feel at home! Salamat!



Here's another picture of the world's tallest building at night with it's own version of the dancing fountain like that of Bellagio in Las Vegas.

That's it for now. I'm getting too sleepy. I will blog more about the tournament proper when i find the time. In the meantime, feel free to comment :)

Middle East trip: Part 1

Hello again! It's nice to be writing here again. The past few months have just been so hectic. And thanks to twitter, I can post brief updates from time to time. Two and a half weeks of my first month in 2010 was spent in the Middle East. 4 days in Qatar and 14 days in Dubai.

Qatar
It was my first time to step on Middle Eastern soil. After traveling for 9 hours, we landed at their international airport at around 5pm (10pm Manila time) and we were welcomed by the Philippine Basketball Association of Qatar. Immediately, we checked in the Retaj Al Rayyan hotel to make it in time for practice at 8pm. I could literally feel my knees and muscles wobbling after the long trip but more so because of the time difference. It was as if we were playing at 1am Manila time.

The hotel was pretty new and quite spacious. Although no free wifi in the rooms, wifi was available for free at the lobby. We would have all our meals in one of the restaurants inside the hotel. Every meal was buffet style, eat-all-you-can. I loved the food there, Persian-Western fusion. We were booked by twos and my roommate was our newest Fil-Am player Marcio Lassiter, who would be my roommate until the end of the entire trip. Marcio played and graduated from Fullerton University in California, which is a NCAA Division 1 school. He plays either position 2 or 3, very athletic player who can handle the ball and shoot from outside. More importantly, he is a hard-nose defender. He blended in quite easily despite being with us for only a month.

The Smart Gilas team was scheduled for back-to-back exhibition games vs the Qatar National team at the Al Gharrafa stadium. Tickets were being sold and to our surprise, the gym was packed with enthusiastic Filipino basketball fans numbering approximately 3000, as compared to about 100 Qatar fans.

The first game was a purely defensive game. Both teams struggled offensively and Smart Gilas came out victorious 46-38. This was the first complete game that Jamal Sampson played for us. He scored only 2 points but grabbed 20 rebounds and changed a lot of shots close to the basket. He was able to neutralize somehow the inside presence of the bulky and athletic big men of Qatar. We were playing without JVee Casio who was nursing some internal injuries that resulted from a dangerous throw-down by Sotto of Alaska in one of our practice games during the holiday season. He would miss the next game as well. RJ Jazul was forced to play the point as backup of Mark Barocca.

In the 2nd game, we lost to Qatar by 8 points in overtime. They came out more physical and aggressive. Their star player #1 scored 24 points and hit 5/5 3 pointers.

It was a wonderful trip to Doha, Qatar to prepare us for the Dubai International tournament. The country has a population of about 1.5M people and approximately 250,000 Filipinos! Amazing! They are extremely wealthy because of their oil and natural gas. Lots of infrastructure and buildings being developed.

Too bad we weren't able to visit any commercial centers or tourist spots because of our very tight schedule. Thanks to all the Qatar-based Pinoys who came to support the team and lost their voices from cheering!! We will see you again in May for the FIBA Asia Champions Cup :)

Soon to follow... our Dubai trip!

Chris

MILO 3 on 3 Warrior Championship

Hello there, Milo 3 in 1 will be hosting a 3-on-3 Basketball Warrior Championship for the UAAP Schools. 7 of the UAAP member schools have agreed to participate, excluding DLSU (Don't ask me why). This tournament has a unique voting system that will allow you to choose the 3 participants whom you wish to represent your school. Voting period is only until November 18. The games will be aired through Studio 23. Vote now!!!

Check out this link to vote:

http://www.nestle.com.ph/milo/3in1/3on3_home.asp

Question for Mrs. Clinton

If you were given the chance to ask US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton one question, what would it be? Leave me a comment :)

Smart Gilas vs Talk and Text

One word to describe our game today against TNT... disastrous!! We couldn't get any rhythm going all throughout the game. I have to give credit to the coaching staff of TNT who crafted a freak defense catching us off guard. They started off in a man-to-man and as we made the first pass or screen in our set play, they would fall into a 2-3 zone. They did it from the start and we couldn't adjust 'til the end.

We trained with the TNT team for about a month (since we're supposedly 'sister teams') some time around July/August with Coach Toroman calling the shots and teaching the set plays. If you've noticed, both TNT and Gilas run very similar plays with almost the same defensive philosophy, except in today's game where they ran most of their old plays and applied a freak defense. Also with the absence of CJ Giles, they pounded the ball inside and got a lot of easy points underneath and through fast breaks. I was helpless watching in the sidelines due to a slight injury and i got so restless seeing the lead getting bigger and bigger.

I really hate the feeling of losing, i mean who doesn't? Most especially now that we are the RP team and we will be carrying the flag of the Philippines. Every game won is not just a win for the brand or the company, but rather the entire nation. Huge responsibility and pressure! Today's game was truly frustrating for us, and i know for many Filipinos alike. In basketball, just like in life, you win some you lose some. I just want to assure each Filipino (whether a believer of the RP team or not) that we are trying our very best in every game and in every practice everyday. We are giving everything we've got l in every practice, knowing that we are playing for a greater cause. I know 'trying our best' is not enough... we have to be the best!

I texted an old wise friend expressing my frustration and disappointment. The reply was "In these trying times, you have to stick together and toughen up! Be patient and you will definitely get better." Again, I want to thank all those who continue to support the Gilas team! Hope that you never get tired of cheering and believing!

Chris

Smart Gilas vs BK

Today, we got clobbered, literally and figuratively, by the 'BK Whoopers'! It was more of a boxing match than a basketball match. We expected it, but we didn't see it coming this bad.

Our offense wasn't so bad as we were still able to score 105 points and shot 47% from the field. BUT it was our defense that killed us, as we allowed 115 points for BK. We lost the rebounding battle as well by 12. BK played a great game today as well and made the necessary adjustments. They shot 59% from the field! That's excellent.

For me it's not so much about the X and O's. It was their viciousness that got us out of our normal rhythm. 4 flagrant fouls in the first half and Winnie Arboleda's "attacking a fan" moment saw our 13 point lead disappear. Our players became hesitant to drive to the basket and dive for the loose balls. Most coaches will probably instruct their players to play physical when playing against a younger, skinnier and faster team in order to intimidate them. But playing dirty, is something else. It was a fitting initiation for us in our debut game in the PBA.

It was a sorry loss for the Gilas team. We don't expect the referees to cut us some slack as seen today. It's as if there were two different standards for both teams. But that's precisely why we're in the PBA as a guest team. We're here to learn, to toughen up when playing more experienced and physical players.

It's just really embarrassing to see a veteran/franchise player behave so unprofessionally. After getting away with a slap to the face of JV Casio, an elbow again to the face of JV and a football tackle to Mac Baracael, he still hasn't had enough and goes up to the stands to beat up a Gilas fan. All that in just 3 minutes inside the court. I am really curious to see what actions or inactions the PBA will take for such actions.

Nevertheless, it was an entertaining game. See you Wednesday vs Talk and Text.

Chris

MILO 3-in-1 TVC

Hello, here's my latest MILO 3 in 1 TVC with JVee Casio, my current teammate in SMART Gilas. Hope you like it!

Cheers,

Chris