ABL Finals Game 3: The IMPORTant difference
By Jan Lin/Red Hoops in Jakarta
Patriots’ ball of energy, American import Gabriel Freeman, celebrates with a teammate. His 19 rebounds was essential to his team’s victory. He also scored 17 points in his 38.40 minutes performance. (Photo 1 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Though the winning team of the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) hailed from basketball powerhouse Philippines, both the coaches of Satria Muda BritAma and the Philippine Patriots asserted that it was the imports that separated the two sides and gave Patriots the victory.
“The imports [would] make the difference to how successful the team will be,” said both coach Louis Alas of the Patriots and coach Fictor Roring of Satria Muda unanimously after Game 3 of the ABL finals series where Patriots beat Satria Muda 75-67 to lift the league’s maiden title.
Despite a rousing start in the first period, where Satria Muda seized an early lead, Satria Muda’s American import Nakiea Miller suffered an eye injury caused by Patriot Jerwin Gaco half-way through the first period and this disrupted the hosts’ scoring momentum. Even though the 6-foot-10 American was reintroduced into the game in the second period, his role was relegated to just that of a scarecrow.
“I had to take Nakiea out for five to 10 minutes after he went down and even when he got back he was having problems with his vision,” coach Roring told Red Hoops. “But I told him to just stand there, the rest of the players will feel more confident just knowing he’s on the court.”
“But to beat Patriots, that was not enough. We need Nakiea,” coach Roring said matter-of-factly. As it was, Miller scored only three points in the first half courtesy of the sole 3-pointer before he was wounded, and he found the basket only twice in the second half.
While Miller finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, his usual partner-in-crime Alex Hartman, who completed the inaugural season as the league’s top scorer with 378 points (18 points per game), contributed only 14 points on Sunday and blamed himself for shooting poorly.
“But to be honest, I am feeling tired,” said the 25-year-old who holds both Canadian and American citizenship. He let out that he has never felt such strain in the previous ABL games. “My team really needed me to push the ball in this game because our point guards were struggling and I think that took a lot out of me.”
“Hartman can definitely do better than this just as he has done so in Singapore during the playoffs but it’s because Freeman limited him in the finals,” said coach Roring. “But despite that, I think my locals have been able to play well not just in this game but in the last few games too – and also not only Rony – Prihantono and Youbel all stepped up too.”
30-year-old Rony Gunawan completed a hat-trick of stellar performance in the ABL finals by finishing as the top scorer of his team in the third game with 20 points and seven rebounds. Rony was coach Roring’s MVP for this game, though the Indonesian coach picked Miller as his MVP for this season because of his all-round contribution throughout the season.
In the regular season, Miller topped the score boards in points per game, rebounds and blocks, and he was second in turnovers and third in steals.
“But I’m still pleased with my two imports on the whole,” coach Roring said. “It’s hard to play against Patriots who have three imports (counting Fil-Am Rob Wainwright). Dixon killed us, Freeman’s rebounds, Wainwright’s 3-pointers. It’s hard to beat a team with imports like that.”
In Jakarta, Patriots released a living demon in the frame of American Jason Dixon, who top-scored with his season high of 28 points and also set a new personal best this season with his 59.1 shooting percentage.
Patriots import, Gabriel Freeman, who has been the man to watch since joining the league late in the season, finished the final game with 17 points, though with a personal low in shooting percentage of 22%. The versatile forward however dominated the boards with 19 rebounds.
“When you have a big man like Dixon who’s so dominant, it takes the load off my shoulder,” said Freeman. “Because I won’t have to enforce myself as much, and when he’s down, I can enforce myself. It’s vice versa for both of us. We take the load off each other’s shoulder.”
“This game I played ok, I missed a lot of shots I would normally make,” said Freeman, who was limited to only six points in the first half. “I think I played my game in the second half, I went in a little bit more and was focused on the defense, I got going on the defense, that’s what I do.”
“My focus wasn’t really all out on Alex in this game,” Freeman added, “but at the same time, I’m a defensive player, so when I come into a game I’m going to be play defense but I still got to put points up. I think as a team we were more organised, we were more prepared. We were intense in the defense and the offense, we weren’t making a lot of shots but we were just up and that’s what won the game for us.”
25-year-old Freeman believed that being able to play with both the locals and with the fellow import is the difference an import has to make for his team. This he has done since coming on board to replaced Brandon Powell to rescue Patriots from a slump just before the playoffs.
Expounding on the difference he made for Patriots, Freeman said: “In a big way I did [make a difference] because Patriots have a big man, you have to play along with your big man and I personally don’t think the import that was previously here could do it.”
“When you’ve got a big guy, you play through your big guy,” Freeman said of the importance of the imports working with each other. “I’m not going to take shots away from him. I’m going to get him shots, I’m going to work around him, do everything around him. I’m going to make sure he touches the ball, I’m going to make sure I play defense for him.”
“And you know what, it’s really about how the imports play with the locals, whether they know how to play with their locals,” Freeman said in response to what would make a team successful in this league and especially to narrow the gap between the teams.
Likewise, Satria Muda’s Hartman also echoed that Miller replacing Theo Little in November 2009 was a spark for the Indonesians. But unlike Patriots, who have immediately expressed their interest to keep their imports, Satria Muda remain ambivalent.
“Based on the finals, I feel that it will be hard to defeat the Patriots with my current team,” said Satria Muda’s head coach Roring. “I will need more ‘bullets’, players who are sharp. There is still time to prepare work on this before the next season starts, so I will have to evaluate the current team before deciding whether to make changes to the team.”
Satria Muda’s top-scoring import Alex Hartman has revealed that he has a trial with the Boston Celtics coming up. In the meantime, he has rushed back to the United States as his grandfather is not well.
“Right now I’m just going to go home, rest, and do some training for the little kids while doing some of my own,” Hartman said, “I just got to get ready for the trials. We’ll see what happens. But now I’ve just got to take a break. Take three weeks off and just relax, get back my legs, no lifting, no shooting. We all need a break sometimes.”
No such dramas for Patriots’ Gabe Freeman though, who will start up with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in a fortnight’s time, and the question at the back of everyone’s mind is whether this ball of energy will return to the ABL next season.
Making a comparison between ABL and PBA, Freeman said: “The ABL is totally different because they actually play! It’s contact. PBA is touchy-touch, feely-feel, but ABL literally gets down and dirty, which is what most players like to play and that’s what keeps the game going. But it does get out of control sometimes but that’s part of basketball.”
“I would love to play in both leagues,” he said. “The ABL is amongst the best league I’ve played in judging from the talent level, and we won it, it feels good to be on top. It goes different on money level [between both leagues] but for me it’s not about the money, it’s about the basketball.”
When asked if he will consider playing for a different team in the ABL, Freeman said in front of his coach Louie Alas and team owner Mikee Romero: “I wouldn’t have a reason not to come back here. I’ve got a great coach, great players, my other import Jason Dixon is great.”
“They brought me in and they have done what they are supposed to do, I’ve done what I’m supposed to do,” Freeman continued and made known that beyond the basketball, integrity is just as important. “So I’m going no where, I’m here to stay. I’m loyal to who’s loyal to me.”
Gabe Freeman might have done a great job on Alex Hartman, limiting him to just 14 points, but Satria Muda’s Rony Gunawan was as lethal in limiting Freeman to just six points in the first half. (Photo 2 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Nakiea Miller drives to the basket for two late in the second quarter. Miller was poked in his eye midway through the first quarter by Jerwin Gaco while Satria Muda were leading. Although he came back to finish the match, the damage was done and he finished way below his season average, ending with only 13 points and seven boards. (Photo 3 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Jason Dixon dunks one home. His 28 points from 13-for-22 shooting greatly helped the Patriots to the first-ever ASEAN Basketball League title. (Photo 4 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Alex Hartman struggled throughout the match with Gabriel Freeman guarding him. Hartman scored 14 points but only had four rebounds and finished with four turnovers as well. (Photo 5 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Patriots captain Rob Wainwright lays up for two. He finished with nine points and two rebounds in a 24.50 minute performance. (Photo 6 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Rony Gunawan squeezes his way past the Patriots’ defense. He hit two treys close to the end of the match to give Satria Muda some hope of delaying the title celebrations, but it was not to be. (Photo 7 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Gabriel Freeman goes in for a steal on Amin Prihantono (Satria Muda, #7). He had a total of four steals to lead his side. Satria Muda’s IBL captain Prihantono scored nine points for his team. (Photo 8 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring gave special mention to Amin Prihantono and Youbel Sondakh (Satria Muda, #9), along with top scorer Rony Gunawan, for their outstanding contribution in this game. (Photo 9 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
For the Philippine Patriots, local boys Elmer Espiritu, Silverino Baclao and Jerwin Gaco were instrumental in putting up a strong defense for the winning team. (Photo 10 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
This is a great article. Honest and sincere insight into what it takes to be the “imported” player for a region/country based team. It seems that many parts of the writeup came from first hand comments and subject based interviews, so there should be no issue on the writer making things up or pontificating.
Knowing how to play with fellow imports and how to play with and maximise the efforts of the locals was the key to being a good and effective import. Well said.
Can anyone claim that their team had a local player who was more of an impact than their western imports? Anyone care to claim that their Asean imports were not the truly better players in their rotation?
It is still a club based competition, albeit with a national flavour to make things a little more personal and passionate.
The imports were a big part of each teams abilities. The local talent pool available was the next factor. Don’t forget to factor in how your locals (given their various advantages or limitations) performed.
Pinoys are basketball crazy and they have a huge talent pool. got it.
There are 400 Million Indonesions. If they really wanted to nuture a basketball team (or anything else for that matter), they have a large enough pool to find the people with the required attributes to nuture into talent. got it.
Malaysians (chinese) have more basketball tradition than the Indonesians (arguably), but less than the Pinoys. They have a bigger population base to recruit bball talent from compared to Singapore. Plus I hear that they have bomohs, or are these only soccer specific special resources.
Singaporeans are money minded and have no (so I hear) sports culture, and even our best can’t play for nuts. But we are rich (so I hear), and we can fast track naturalised ex-chinese nationals citizens (for example), and create instant winning teams in most Asean contexts competitions.
Get it?
If some rich sponsor brought in Kobe or Lebron to play for any of the so called weaker teams, would it have changed the league standings?
If these two superstars played for your team and you won the ABL, would you still be so upbeat that your country’s got the best team?
Many of us on these threads feel that we are knowledgeable basketball fans. If so, put things into basketball perspective. How good was your team (imports plus locals)? Who contributed more (imports or locals)? Given the resource level of your team, how did they perform?
If you are bragging…do it for the right reasons.
My team had a weak bench compared to many other teams, we have a lot of issues about why we are not good at sports, basketball included. We had a good coach and good imports. Given what we had to work with….I think we did ok…and I am happy about that.
Peace to all parties, and I hope that season 2 brings us all as much to be happy, or be angry about.
@Kelvin – Totally agree with you.
Great post, Jan.
while the Patriots’ Locals were defensive-oriented, the imports were scorers and attackers therefore, they simply complement each-other that is what the imports are for: to compensate for what is lacking from the locals. I must admit that the local players from the Patriots were neither the leading scorers of their mother teams nor the best the Philippines has to offer but they compensate their imports through defense, due to the fact that some of them were the excellent defenders of their leagues.
Indonesia has a wider geographical space than the Philippines therefore it has almost the same potential amount of players waiting to be tapped and harnessed. start with the local level, them to the high school and collegiate levels and finally the professional level.
Satria Muda’s imports were scorers and the locals were scorers, neither were complementing each other throughout the regular season until the playoffs. they lacked defenders who can go for the tooth and nail or perimeter stoppers willing to foul opposing players.
the conditions for the victory in the final were:
1. Balanced burden-sharing between Imports and Locals
2. Defenders who can secure the rebound and create havoc for the opposing team
3. Execution of a fluid defensive assignment.
What I will remember the most in this inaugural season are the players.
Some players I have never heard before, but had made significant contributions with their respective teams, and can be a role model for their respective nations. Players like Rony Gunawan, Youbel Sondakh, Pathman Matialakan, Attaporn Lertmalaiporn, the Apiromvilaichai twins, Loh Shee Fai, and Mario Wuysang showed their fans back in their country that they can compete or at least showed some heart to go up against the best in the region.
Filipino players that weren’t drafted by the PBA made an impact with their respective teams, and I hope these players would call this league their home. Players like Al Vergara, Rudy Lingganay, et. al. has given Filipino fans that they too can play in the pros.
How about former PBA players who were thought by many to be washed out and done with their playing careers? Former PBA players like Rob Wainwright, Francisco “Kiko” Adirano, and Leonides Avenido to name a few. These guys were given a second chance in life and had proven naysayers wrong.
Cheers to Datu Seri Tony Fernandes, Eric Thohir, Mikee Romero, and the rest of the ABL ownership for a successful first season. I will certainly look forward on a fruitful second season.
@jan. Ditto on Les’ compliment.
@redhoops. More power to all of you, and thanks for providing us with good stories as well as the chance for accepting volunteers to write and express their views about ABL. Of course, thanks also for being super patient with some of our comments.
@Irangels: Glad you enjoy Red Hoops.
Jan Lin and Erwin Wong have provided most of the stories on Red Hoops while Lai Jun Wei, Koh Yizhe, Yvonne Yap, Vanessa Lim have also put in photography, live commentary and statistics work to make the stories here come alive as much as possible.
We are all grateful for their work.
Also special mention to readers Jonathan Chuongco (writer), Nards (writer), Kelvin Poh (writer), Louis Angeles (writer), Jahred Salazar (writer), Anthony Gabriel (pics and graphics), Eka Nickmatulhuda (photography) for sharing stories and photos with the rest of us.
As for being patient about comments, haha, it works both ways. Thanks for enduring my moderating. It ain’t perfect but the aim is to provide everyone with a place to talk bball without the site going down in flames and getting overtaken by trolls (reference: ABL Facebook page).
Also, sorry if I accidentally offended anyone with my comments. That’s the last thing I want to do.
Nice write-up Jan.
@Les: thanks for the site because this gives us the liberty to share our perspectives and various analysis and report on various topics related to the ABL over the course of the season and I am looking forward to the next season.
Tigers will return next season with the stronger line-ups.
how funny and timely this article is… while we wait for any article or feature on the leagues first abl champions and the journey on how they got there.. what we got is this.. this not only takes away credit from the locals this season but it doesnt motivate locals from all teams to be step-up in the future season because even if they try at the end of the day… its the import that makes a difference. period
if no imports, we belong to top 3 in asean.
@kelvin. practice what you preach
“If you are bragging…do it for the right reasons.”
“But we are rich (so I hear), and we can fast track naturalised ex-chinese nationals citizens (for example), and create instant winning teams in most Asean contexts competitions”
@3stars – Kelvin was just poking fun at his own country for naturalising ex-Chinese nationals for basketball and the table tennis teams. It was meant to be ironic.
Relax.
The Doha 21st FIBA ASIA Champions Cup will commence from 22 to 30th May, 2010.
Is Qatar national team composed of locals or they hire imports from Africa?
Kelvin, how you hear that you are rich and can hire chinese to naturalized?
best post i’ve read so far in redhoops. great job!
but to be fair to the former Patriots’ import Brandon Powell, all ABL imports carry the burden of producing numbers. it’s just that no one minded his inconsistency because the Patriots managed to win games with their locals anyway (they even led the standings before he was replaced). there was even a time early in the season where i’d see comments calling for Dixon to be replaced because he’s old (36) and he can’t score inside… he ends up with 28 points to close out the series and win the championship for the Patriots.
Freeman was exactly what the Patriots needed. the fact that he loves how ABL refs allow contact says a lot on how his game benefited. true enough, the Patriots never lost with him in the lineup. what he brings to any team is the reason why imports get paid… he boxes out and grabs rebounds instinctively , he can hit open shots, he sacrifices his body to make plays, he defends very well, and he gets his teammates involved in the offense rather than just getting the ball on the wing or at the top of the key already looking at the rim.
the series was exciting though it ended that way (3-0). the series was a test of character of who had the bigger hearts and will to win. having an awesome duo of imports in jason dixon and gabe freeman made the patriots local players to adjust and compensate what would be lacking if their two imports would be scorers, and they did what is the most important formula to win basketball games, it is Defense. it was totally an team effort. The Patriots line up wasnt that solid or had a lot of scorers, most of them were defensive specialists, but tested and having been in the battle field of different kinds of basketball leagues in the philippines, the team still managed to win the championship. true to the saying, “defense win games” and the coaching staff indeed believes in that saying.
credit to the indonesian players and its two imports for playing hard but it was simply not enough, what i noticed was they lacked the intensity and didnt show their big hearts and the will to win. looking at the Game 3 of the finals series, the patriots were much aggresive and showed more intensity and the never say die attitudes, showing courage under pressure. but lessons learned. its not easy to be in the final series, so next time around, never let it slipped away without giving your all.
i just want to correct those who wrote the articles that i have read before, The Philippine Patriots had only 2 Imports, jason Dixon and Gabe Freeman. Rob Wainright is a legitimate Fil-Am. Having played in the Philippine Basketball Association for almost 8yrs before signing up for the Patriots.
Nice piece.
@les..when did you become kelvins lawyer? so you speak on his behalf now??tell this to your boss then.. if poking fun on your own country is how you prove a point then im sorry..my bad..and dont worry im cool we just won the championship remember??
Avinchai, we need sharp imports.
Why doesn’t Coach Roring complain to the ABL about the third import (Wainwright)? He’s making those excuses.
too many people insisting Wainwright as not Filipino…why don’t they lodge a protest.
sore losers…
As a Pinoy resident of Singapore, I know that Kelvin is obviously poking at the naturalization policy of athletes.
Hahaha… I laugh at the lack of knowledge some of these people have…
Wainwright is Filipino by genetic and constitutional means defined by LAW!!!
his mom is Filipina and he has been residing here since the emergence of the MBA [a presursor of La Liga]
Young Singaporeans might now prefer to be a Slinger (or a professional athlete)in the future.
Right now, Singaporeans are getting displaced by foreign workers for some of the lucrative professions. A Filipino will head the newly established Bank of Singapore.
Like some Pinoys, local will see basketball as the path to wealth.
So eventually Singapore might develop that sports culutre….
Remember South Korea had great boxers? They’re not that competitive in boxing as their economy grew and few would try boxing as career.
They’ll probably think Willie Miller, Jason Webb as imports also.
i think the best way explain wainwrigths status is that he can play for our national team thus making him a local..thou i dont blame them for categorizing him as an import since each team is allowed to have 1 player with asean lineage and wainwrigth fits on that description..
Robert Wainwright holds an American citizenship, so it doesn’t matter what blood he has. He is mixed blood by the way. Anyway, mart, you are probably Singaporean already because you are residing in Singapore.
The blood thing is crap because if you wanna go by blood, there would be no America as all of them are migrants from Europe or elsewhere.
@slingerrocks..you obviously havent heard of dual citizenship.. thats ok.. call him an import if you want but we still call him our own and hes proud to be one of us ..and if you are going to play smart with americans are from europe thing then ill say we all came from monkeyland..
i’m beginning to like slingerrocks now..nice to hear from u again buddy!
I think Wainwright is considered as an import if we look at the rules of the ABL. It states that a team can also hire “one” player with ASEAN origin, which means half ASEAN and half non-ASEAN. I think a good case here is Marcus Ng too.
That’s why there’s no room for protest on the side of SMB.
It can also be seen that the Patriots have “4″ imports. That’s because Gabe Freeman plays like two imports. If we observed games one and two of the finals, Miller and Hartman couldn’t outscore Freeman.
“The blood thing is crap because if you wanna go by blood, there would be no America as all of them are migrants from Europe or elsewhere.”
- Nope, you forgot about the Native Americans (Indians).
Can we just stay with basketball instead of blood, race, blah, blah, blah…?
Why are we debating on race?.. It’s all water under the bridge now. It’s done. What is more pressing is a patriot article.
I think 3star is right, Red Hoops should have made an article that focused on how the Patriots did it. That is the most logical next story.
While the “IMPORT” article was well written, its timing is a bit off. That should have been a back story. It does not only take away the excitement of the Patriots and SMB fans, it also takes away everything that the ABL struggled the whole season for, a league that would look legit to Asean bball fans.
…but then again, the site is named RED HOOPS,it’s about Singapore Hoops plus Malaysia/Indonesia . However which way we look at it biases will arise. To most fans in South East Asia, the Patriots is the big bad wolf.
Let us just be glad that Red Hoops is here for all of us. If some of you can’t take the supposed bias of the editorial team, then maybe you should start putting up a site with less anti-Patriots insinuations. That is how the cookie crumbles.
Somehow, I’m irritated hearing this “misplaced nationalism” jab. To Kelvin and Les, just what do you exactly mean when you say “misplaced nationalism of pinoy basketball fans? Why, where should we place our nationalism?
thanks
With or without the Pinoy readers, this site will survive. Pinoys, you just have to deal with that. This ain’t our banquet, we’re just gate crashers that were reluctantly invited.
of course Slingersrocks hasn’t heard of a dual-citizenship. i don’t think there’s such thing in Singapore. i bet he doesn’t even know the legal concept of jus soli & jus sanguinis. in Singapore, you’re a citizen if you reside there. the most that non-citizens can have is a permanent residency. in the Philippines, citizenship can be acquired by virtue of heritage. hell, Gabe Norwood has as much Filipino blood as Nate Robinson.
i’ve lived in Singapore for a time (Tampines & Marine Parade). Singaporeans don’t have the same concept of citizenship as Filipinos for the simple fact that Filipinos have scattered throughout the world much earlier and more frequently. therefore our laws are different. to insist how citizenship should be by just basing it on a different legal principle is just plan stupidity and an absence of cultural understanding.
Rob Wainright is a Filipino (by blood and residency) the same way the Singapore Lions players have Daniel Bennett and John Wilkinson (by either marrying a Singaporean or residency). our football team sucks but at least we have Filipino players (by blood) who made it to Chelsea and Fulham.
@3stars @jerby – Wow you guys read too much into this! : ) It’s quite simple really: Where are the Team Pilipinas players? You guys should know better that Patriots are the only team this season that do not have a current national player in the team!
You see, if the best of Philippines shun from this league, if the best of the region is not supporting the league, then the league will never fully achieve the intended mission of raising the standard of ASEAN basketball no matter how many times Patriots win this.
Bringing in Freeman was a smart move by the Patriots. Why?
I didn’t think I had to actually spell it out but, if PBA’s best import is saying that ABL is a good league (and if not better than PBA) then I just hope that Team Pilipinas/Smart Gilas guys are listening and not shun away from ABL as they understandably did this season.
ABL/Patriots is not going to survive if watching the Patriots play in basketball-mad Philippines continues to be free the next season – one effective way to fill the stadium is when the best of Philippines play in this league, whether for Patriots OR for another team.
I don’t know how else I could have written this story to encourage and shout out to the best of Philippines to play in ABL next season, of which I totally believe will make the league more enjoyable for Filipino fans like yourselves. How is this anti-Pinoys?
And this is all I can do for the league as a journalist. You know, I’ve heard you guys discuss so much about the Filipino national team and the star-studded PBA in this “forum” – wouldn’t you want to see them play in ABL? Heck yeah I do! That’s what ABL is about.
(It doesn’t have to be like JJ Helterbrand, even seeing Chris Tiu in ABL is good enough!)
AND, this story is not meant to wrap up the season, Red Hoops know full well but thank you! I’m waiting on interviews from some players to finish up a couple more stories. Check back! For those who enjoyed this story: Thank you! It’s very sweet of you!
PS. As to race/blood/whatever else, relax, why so serious?
Qatar is now a strong team, even during Mahmoud started to play in 2001 he were already invited for tryouts in couple of nba teams.
Philipines,china,korea,japan still the tradional power,last year we already sent a good message by winning fiba,jones cup and some invitational tournaments.
There are several arab-western players in america,canada that can join the national team in due course.
PBA player,good salary package.
National team,low salary package.
Where would you choose to play?
What makes you decide to left singapore?
@Les
a journalist in the Philippines wrote that the Patriots have been invited to the FIBA Asia Champions Cup in Doha. Smart Gilas were already invited so that makes it 2 teams from the Philippines. last year, Smart Gilas went 5-2 finishing 5th out of 8 teams (lost in the quarterfinal). most teams had at least 2 imports… Smart Gilas only had 1, their ex-naturalization candidate CJ Giles, who’s now playing in Lebanon.
they did demolish the NT and beat the Patriots (minus Freeman, Baclao, Acuna, and Espiritu) in a scrimmage the next day. they’re having trouble finding another naturalization candidate and it seems they won’t have one for the Champions Cup. they’re still a very dangerous team since we’ve seen them beat Arab and African clubs (with 3 imports plus their naturalized foreigners) while their lone “import” hardly played.
i think the obvious reason why the best players aren’t with the Patriots is that there’s more money as a PBA benchwarmer or a Smart Gilas player than an ABL player. it’s like employment, most people would go for the offer with the best pay and benefits. maybe it’s more feasible to see Chris Tiu in the ABL (after his contract with Smart Gilas is up) because he doesn’t need to play pro basketball. he came from a wealthy Chinese family, he graduated Cum Laude, and he gets paid part-time as a TV presenter.
@jan..pba players playing for the abl will not happen, and you should know it by now.. being the 2nd oldest league in the world players today dreamt of playing on this league all their young life,in fact even baclao and most of the patriots is joining the draft next june..and they have live contract in pba, not to mention they earn more than patriots player..
if pba players learned that the current line-up of patriots won the abl league do you think they will be interested? guys like gaco who played basketball all his life, never played in any pba team..sending national team is overkill so be carefull what you wish for..
and please dont sound like the success of abl depends on who we field and if we pay to watch abl games.. tell the other teams to give patriots good competition then well see..
and relax?? we are our usual self and we are relax believe me! how can you tell were not when we use the same smiley as you are
@jerby.. im glad somebody notice the timing of this story.. at least theres 2 of us that can read between the lines and tell the subliminal message of this article.. i agree with you that even if they try not to show theyre not biased it spill out of their writing.. and dont worry i knew it all along..aside from the countless message from me that was deleted they even speak on behalf of other singaporean on this thread.. well its not about to change and i can deal with it.. other pinoy fans here can stay to their usual kind comments to avoid debates but thats not how i roll..
PLEASE DONT DELETE MY COMMENT..T.Y
funniest question of the article:
“will you consider playing for a different team in the ABL??
-now people you read between the lines..;)
@3stars – You might like to know that we’ve been deleting attacks on you from other readers in reply to your comments. That is why my crew and I also had to delete some of your comments. If we just leave things as they are, the whole site goes down in flames.
So please, there is no deliberate, active anti-Pinoy, anti-Patriots bias. This is a perfectly fine post by Jan, with lots of direct quotes from Louie Alas and Fictor Roring, Freeman and Hartman. Yet, somehow, it can still be seen as biased. Why so sensitive and defensive, folks?
We just don’t have as much regular access to the Patriots simply because of where we are based (Singapore). I would love to have volunteer reporters and photographers in every ASEAN country filling in the blanks for all of us on Hoops but that will take time (3-4 years) to build.
It was great to have Jonathan Chuongco and Jahred Salazar writing stories for all of us to enjoy from Manila and Jakarta respectively. Hopefully we can get more stories from them and other interested fans in the seasons to come. We welcome one and all.
You send it, we post it!
I set up Red Hoops for the ABL, definitely not for Singapore basketball! There is not enough happening in Singapore basketball to justify a stand-alone site like this.
We do our bit for Singapore basketball in redsports.sg. (And please, nobody start accusing me of being anti-Singapore now! lol)
I agree with Irangels suggestion – I think leaving blood, heritage, nationalism aside is wise advice on his part. An innocuous, straightforward comment or quote about it somehow always triggers an outpouring of emotive comments. I shall from now on take his advice.
@Irangels – by the way, Marcus Ng parents are both Malaysian Chinese, as far as I understand. He filled the ASEAN heritage slot each team is allowed. Similar to Wainwright’s status in the team.
to all people writing their comment at the end of your comment please indicate if you are relax or not for the sake of jan and les..t.y
Be careful in sending any team in Doha fiba games.
Leave jan, shes already taken by handsome australian guy
@Sinigang – Kabayan
, Chris Tiu is not Chinese, he is Pinoy. He was born and raised here.His family before him is/was Filipino. He’s a blue eagle! 
Most Chinese are rich here in our islands because they do business. Being rich does not come automatic when you’re Chinese. Di ba pare? We’re all Filipinos, Filipino Chinese (Tsinoy), Fil-Ams, Ilokano, Waray (My ethnolinguistic grouping, Kapampangan, Bisaya, Tausog.. etc. Chris Tiu is more Pinoy than most of us, just like most good Pinoy balers, he excels at the point guard position.
I just want to explain to our ASEAN friends here at Red Hoops, lest you get misinterpreted. Thanks Sinigang.
@ Sinigang”he came from a wealthy Chinese family,” ay sori!. I misread your post. I take back what I said on the automatic chinese thing. Yay, nakakahiya! Mea Culpa!
philipino fans write many things about their team over not many talented in south east asian teams
qatar will welcome them in fiba championship..
@Sinigang – I think a mid-tier PBA player (200-250) can be matched with what ABL has to offer especially if he goes in as an ASEAN import for any team. I think the biggest barrier is mindset as readers like 3stars have pointed out that all along, Pinoys grow up dreaming of playing in PBA but hey, now there is this new gig.
It’s then understandable that they would turn down any offers in the first season as there’s a huge risk no doubt, but what the league is offering now as Freeman has advocated is the chance of playing better basketball with imports like Freeman all season (teams are pressed to bring in Freeman-calibre imports to match up with Patriots).
With screening of the games on ESPN, it opens up a plethora of benefits and opportunities for PBA players as well. And if this league becomes successful and increasingly recognised, then the salary cap should increase and matched up with what PBA has to offer. But until a mindset shift, top Pinoys will look at PBA as second option.
Bringing in guys like Chris Tiu will also add more “personality” to a team and the league – and you have expounded very well on how he is rather well-positioned to take up the ABL gig. Mindset shifts will take a long arduous process but it has to start somewhere!
sorry, i meant @jan. =D
@jerby
it’s okay. we know Filipinos are just more diverse. Chris Tiu, Joseph Yeo, and Ty Tang can be easily mistaken as Mandarin-speaking Singaporeans.
@jerby – Yeah I think Sinigang meant that Chris Tiu is Chinese by ethnicity (according to his ancestral roots) and most of my Filipino friends call themselves Filipino-Chinese (or Filipino-born-Chinese) too. Thanks for expounding on the topic with class!
As to so to speak “timing”, I for Red Hoops write about the league as an entirety and what comes out of the locker rooms, that’s what I’m most concerned about. As you know, fans of all teams are welcomed to submit their stories about their team
There are 2 match reports/analysis on this game already, a great pre-finals analysis by Louis, on top of 100s of comments discussing about how Patriots did it! There are endless things to write about after a C’hip but there is only so much/little time!
So my belief and priority is such that it’s not so much about writing what’s “logical” than it is of my job to write about what you don’t already know, as such the things players and coaches talk to Red Hoops about as we’ve gotten to know them first hand!
Hope this clarifies your concern : )
@3stars – Have you thought about, if you read less into the stories, you will feel less prejudiced because it’s really not about you
Red Hoops moderate/delete provocative comments to whoever because this is a discussion platform not an assassination battle field.
If anything, I hope it makes you feel better knowing the question posed to Freeman is by a Jakarta reporter at the press conference
For tough competition, PBA players can go in as imports for other teams – this is the whole idea of a regional club championship.
I think what you’ve said is a classic case of why ABL will never be esteemed! If the best and fans in the region are to continue to regard ABL as a 2nd-tier competition then the league becomes meaningless. Overkilling or not, it’s first and foremost about how the league is perceived by the fans and regional’s best.
And take European football for a somewhat similar comparison, if top teams/players from any of the domestic leagues (EPL, La Liga, Serie A) ever decides not to participate in/boycott the regional Champions League, then the entire league will suffer and whoever wins the title will be meaningless and will always be haunted by “But club XYZ from league XYZ didn’t compete what?”
That’s what I’m talking about!
jan and les ive been waiting to say this… relax