Blame Yeng Guiao

I’ve seen a lot of basketball in my life. I’ve watched the NBA, Euroleague, Olympic basketball, the World Championships, the PBA, PBL, UAAP, US NCAA and even Philippine NCAA. I’ve witnessed basketball players do some amazing things with a little ball in their hands that sent jampacked arenas into a frenzy. All that being said, I had never seen anything as despicable as what Burger King team captain Wynne Arboleda did in a game against the SMART-Gilas RP Team on October 15, 2009. Much has already been written and said about Arboleda’s attack on Gilas fan Allain Katigbak.

SMART-Gilas versus Powerade-Pilipinas

Let’s put things in proper perspective. On October 5, 2009, the SMART-Gilas RP Team composed of mostly recent collegiate basketball stars and one American candidate for naturalization (CJ Giles) played the Powerade Team Pilipinas composed of professional PBA players to raise funds for victims of Typhoon Ondoy. Gilas was coached by Serbian coach Rajko Toroman while Powerade had BK coach and Pampanga vice-governor Joseller “Yeng” Guiao in charge. Most expected the pros to obliterate the amateurs. After all, these were just kids while the pros were supposed to be the best ballers in the country. Instead, Coach Toroman’s boys blitzed their elders to the tune of 98-69. A thorough ass-kicking that had many people wondering if Guiao was indeed the right man to handle the Powerade squad who didn’t even crack the top 5 in the recent Asian Basketball Championships in Tianjin, China.

In that same tournament in China, Guiao included the PBA’s number one draft pick for 2009, former Ateneo basketball player and 6–foot 9-inch tall Japeth Aguilar, in the lineup. Aguilar was drafted number one by Burger King, and Guiao wanted to see if his future superstar could immediately contribute to the cause. Now if you’ve watched any PBA over the years, you’ll know one thing about Guiao: he loves cussing out his own players and the referees. He screams at them to the point that the players look like castrated sheep after a few games under Guiao. Guiao is also credited with being able to maximize players who might not be the most talented into a cohesive unit. Of course, this also means he’s often gotten these players to play rough in order to beat the more talented squads. This was especially evident in the years that he handled the Red Bull Barako team in the PBA. With players like Jimwell Torion, Junthy Valenzuela, Homer Se, and the like, Guiao’s teams dished out a combination of elbows, knees, and punches that opposing players dreaded. And he was given the national team to coach as a reward.

The Amazing Disappearing Aguilar

After the Powerade team was embarrassed in Tianjin, Aguilar announced that he’d rather play for SMART-Gilas than Burger King, despite the Whoppers drafting him number one. I didn’t like that move because Aguilar effectively spit in the faces of every other PBA team and player because he wanted out of his contract after he had already been drafted. Why didn’t he do so before the draft and spared us all from the circus that followed? Apparently, some quarters have said that young Aguilar hated being constantly disparaged and cussed out by Guiao. The coach’s winning personality was grating at the youngster, and he tried to get out of it to play for Toroman, someone whom he had played for before, and someone who didn’t demean him.

In a few weeks’ time, Aguilar and Burger King management came to an agreement: Japeth would play one game with the Whoppers, then he would be traded for draft picks to Barako Bull who then would trade him to Talk ‘N Text (BK’s sister franchise). The Tropang Texters then allowed Aguilar to sign a contract with SMART-Gilas, and once the contract is done, he would be welcomed into the TNT fold. Imagine how well Guiao felt after being given the runaround by this kid.

Guiao’s pre-game message to BK

PBA sportscaster Patricia Hizon talked to Arboleda before the game started and he related what BK coach Yeng Guiao told his players. Hizon mentioned on Twitter on October 17 that it was something along the lines of “malayo pa bago nila makuha spot nyo. Pero ipakita nyo that this is your spot. Put them in their place and have pride.”  Every Burger King player just had to read between the lines and understand that their coach wanted to send a message to these kids. Now how rough the message is, well that’s subject to the context by which Guiao said those words to his team or how his players felt Guiao wanted the message sent.

Soon enough, Arboleda had delivered a forearm across the face of Jvee Casio on a drive. Rookie Ronnie Matias dropped Chris Tiu with an elbow to the face on a rebound play. It was becoming obvious that there were marching orders for the Whoppers to get rough with the Gilas kids. We can argue all day long on the level of roughness the PBA has allowed their players to play over the years, but the past few seasons, the league has been trying to cut down on too much physical play.

When Arboleda went under Mac Baracael clearly trying to take out the forward’s knees, all hell broke loose. You see, undercutting is one of the worst things you can do in basketball. It makes your opponent lose their balance, it puts them in such an awkward position that they might fall badly. It’s the kind of thing that ends careers. Arboleda has had a reputation for rough play in years past . The son-in-law of Burger King co-owner Lito Alvarez has been a bruising player since his days in the defunct MBA and their Laguna Lakers. Putting Arboleda under the guidance of a temperamental and vindictive coach in Guiao was like putting a firecracker next to dynamite, you knew an explosion was going to happen sooner or later.



Who’s Afraid of Yeng?

Mr. Katigbak can’t be completely blameless in this incident. After all, he supposedly screamed all kinds of invectives at Arboleda. However, there is absolutely no excuse for a PBA player to attack a fan. We are the paying customers who expect that when we go to the arena, we’ll get some good basketball and we can scream our hearts out to support our team while haranguing opposing teams and players. We can blame Araneta Coliseum security for not being fast enough to react to Arboleda’s assault on Katigbak. We can blame Arboleda’s dirty play for setting the dirty tone throughout the game. What I find fascinating is that so few people have called out Guiao for his headhunting call.

Don’t you think the rookie Matias would be scared to deliver a flagrant foul unless he knew his coach had his back? I have hardly seen any sportswriters point to Guiao as the person who initiated hostilities with his little tongue-in-cheek speech. In fact, Guiao defended BK’s style of play as mere preparation for what Gilas will face in international competition. Eh gago pala itong si Yeng eh, how will the players compete in international competition if you have your headhunters trying to end their young careers? Coach Toroman has gone on the record to say about that game against Burger King, ““In my 46 years of watching basketball, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Indeed, unless you saw the early days of the PBA, you’ve never seen anything as dirty as what Burger King did in that first half. It took a reprimand from PBA chairman Lito Alvarez for Guiao’s team to stop the roughhousing.

Governor Guiao?

There is a fair amount of blame being given to Arboleda, he’s even made international news (I bet the PBA just loves the international notoriety!)  Now that the PBA has suspended him without pay for the rest of the season, there’s even been an online petition to have the income Arboleda would have been paid by Burger King to instead be given to victims of the typhoons . That’s well and good, but I still say we can’t place all the blame on the player or the fan. Look at the bald dude who smugly issued the directive to put the Gilas players in their place. That same guy plans to run for governor of Pampanga in 2010. It might be better if he did win, at least then, he’ll spare the PBA and the rest of the country from the embarrassment that his petty vindictiveness has left in his wake.