SEAG roster, an overkill?

I AGREE with the decision of national team head coach Tim Cone to get the best ingredients of an ice cream from his Barangay Ginebra factory for the men’s basketball team that will be defending its title in the multi-sport 30th Southeast Asian Games to be held in Manila, Clark and Subic from November 30 to December 11.

Six of his Gin Kings players — guards Lewis Alfred (LA) Tenorio, Scottie Thompson and Stanley Pringle and frontliners Japeth Aguilar, Greg Slaughter and Arthur Dela Cruz — are part of the 15-man training pool that will eventually sliced to the maximum 12 allowable just before the start of the 11-nation regional biennial meet.

Other PBA players on the training roster are three members of the disappointing Philippine team that lost all of its five assignments by a combined 147 points in the recently-concluded FIBA World Cup to finish 32 and dead-last in the quadrennial global meet. These are Roger Pogoy, Troy Rosario and June Mar Fajardo. Also named to the pool were Jayson Castro, Matthew Wright, Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter, Vic Manuel and Christian Standhardinger.

Ten of the 15 players belong to the San Miguel Corporation clubs.

I don’t believe the deployment of PBA is an overkill, while knowing well that the level of competition in the SEA Games is from top class. Then again, it’s too much of a risk if Cone had named up-and-coming players from the Cadets pool.

Philippine men’s basketball is downtrodden at the moment following the debacle in the FIBA World Cup in China so much so we can’t fail in the SEA Games. Losing is not an option. Any medal other than gold is a disaster.

For that matter, our country may lose in some sports events or even fail to secure the overall championship as the host of the biennial meet for a fourth time (after 1981, 1991 and 2005, when the Philippines won the overall crown) – but certainly not the men’s basketball gold.

The basketball crown jewel is the only one that the country has a stranglehold since it made its debut in the SEA Games in 1977. The SEA Games were known as the South East Asian Peninsula (SEAP) Games when they were first held in December of 1959 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Team Philippines is seeking a 19th SEA Games men’s basketball gold. The only time it did not win the top medal was in August 1989 when it was beaten, 107-99, by host Malaysia during the five-team, single-round tournament in Kuala Lumpur.

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After transparency, accuracy is now the name of the National Basketball Association (NBA) game.

Cosmetic this move may seem, the NBA sent a memo to all teams last week requiring them to provide “precise” (truthful) of the height measurements (without shoes on) and ages for all their players within the first week of training camp, which opened last Sunday (Manila time) for teams that will be playing exhibition games outside the United States.

There were cases in the past where the height of a player fluctuated from one year to another. Take for example the case of Kevin Durant, now of Brooklyn and formerly with Seattle-Oklahoma City and Golden State. He has been listed at 6-foot-9 in the team media guides since making his NBA debut in 2007-08. But at the 2007 NBA predraft camp, he measured 6-foot-10.75, which Durant himself claims is his real height. With his shoes on, he is a 7-footer, according to him.

A lot of players have seen their height “adjusted” up or down a bit.

The real age of Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield has been in doubt for some time. Last December, Hield revealed that he was turning 26 (on December 17) – and not 25 as stated in the league and media reports (including Wikipedia.com). His age was found to be inaccurate in 2018 but no move was taken to correct it. This clerical mistake reportedly was what spurred the NBA to come up with the new policy.

Player weight is not being required for the number fluctuates from time to time.

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Even the NBA fashion police is getting into the act …. again. The league had sent a memo to all member teams in May informing them that players will not be allowed to use “ninja-style” headbands as part of their game uniforms starting in the 2019-20 season.

Some members of the NBA’s Competition Committee were concerned over its safety, including the looseness of the headbands.

Last campaign, when there was no clearcut league policy on that matter, several players like Jimmy Butler, Jrue Holiday, Karl Anthony-Towns, Jarrett Allen and Montrezl Harrell made their own fashion statements by regularly wearing “ninja-style” headgears during the games.

The NBA is making some noises again regarding the dress code to the irritation of some players with a good fashion taste.

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Another September 27 NBA memo was sent to all teams last regarding the official tampering guidelines. One major point clarified was that “Isolated comments by a team official praising a player from another team will no longer be regarded as a violation” from here on.

Magic Johnson, when he was an Los Angeles Lakers executive, was fined $50,000 by the NBA in February 2018 for praising the performance of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokuonmpo. Such cases like that of Johnson’s will no longer considered a tampering violation, according to the NBA.

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After the preseason injury to DeMarcus Cousins, there’s another bad news for the LA Lakers. Kyle Kuzma, who is expected to be the club’s wheel after LeBron James and Anthony Davis, has a stress fracture in his left foot and is out indefinitely. Kuzma is scheduled to have an MRI when the Lakers return from China. The Lakers play the Brooklyn Nets in a pair of preason games in China on October 10 in Shanghai and on October 12 in Shenzhen. Kuzma, a shoe endorsement free agent, has hooked up with Puma. Nike, his previous partner, does not plan to match the offer of Puma to Kuzma.

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Recovering from surgery on both shoulders this summer, new Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George is sitting out the entire NBA preseason sked and targeting a November return, meaning he could miss at least six games to start the 74th season, which unwraps on October 23 (Manila time).