Jenelyn Olsim’s biggest triumph
TEAM Lakay lady warrior Jenelyn Olsim is living the life these days. Not only has the 25-year-old Benguet…
The waiting game
IS it just coincidence? Or is it some kind of trend. Looks like teams that have languished long…
One more chance
A LOT of Green hearts were broken last Tuesday as the buzzer sounded on Game 5 of the…
Must-watch NBA Finals
AS we are fond of saying in the native language, “Isang tulog na lang, NBA Finals na!” Just…
Pahiyang Magic
IS there really such a thing as a lucky shirt? Lucky shoes? Rituals that bring good luck? Some…
There can only be one
I’M writing this on the morning of Game 2 of the basketball finals of the University Athletic Association…
Smilla and Jarred
IN the art of war, the element of surprise is said to be a major weapon that can…
Zavier, crowd pleaser
ZAVIER LUCERO, the University of the Philippines’s (UP) blue chip recruit from Cal State Maritime Academy, is largely…
Pep is back
THINGS are rolling out slowly but surely for collegiate ball, the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)…
Crowd is back
TUESDAY, April 5, the day the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) opened its doors to a…
Crazy sports sked
WHEN before, watching spectator sports was like looking up at a black sky during a New Moon, these…
Volleyball journeys
IT’S going to be a super busy year for Philippine volleyball, said Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) president…
ONE: X show stoppers
LAST week we talked about the star attractions of ONE: X, ONE Championship’s super big event for 2022…
ONE X
ONE Championship, the Singapore-based mixed martial arts (MMA), Muay Thai, kickboxing and grappling promotion and Asia’s largest sports media…
Alaska’s sweet science
AFTER the Alaska Aces play out their remaining days in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the amazing franchise…
Let’s move it, move it!
WITH much of the country still under Alert Level 2, and Iloilo and Guimaras in the Visayas and…
Changing fortunes
DON’T look now. But things are not really what they seem. In the blink of an eye, fortunes…
Grudge match
GRUDGES. They’re great motivating factors in the world of sports that give a little extra chili pepper, a…
The name game
“HOW vain, without the merit, is the name,” says the poet Homer, who must’ve realized the power names…
Omicron Games+
HAPPY New Year! That greeting holds despite the fact that Covid-19 continues to create Halloween-like scenarios all across…
The year that was
IF the year 2020 caught us all flatfooted and gave us double and triple whammies all year long,…
Cordillera son rise
DO fathers make the best coaches for their similarly inclined athlete sons (or daughters?) There would be two…
Crème Brawlee
SOCIAL media and basketball culture pages went gaga over the LeBron James-Isaiah Stewart incident in the Los Angeles…
Winter Fire
MIXED martial arts (MMA) never stops. Or at least it seems that way with Singapore-based mixed martial arts…
A PBA adventure
COMMISSIONER Willie Marcial has shared that the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is open to forming stronger bonds with…
Season of ‘The Jaguar’
HE may not be counted among the acknowledged kings and princes of Philippine MMA, namely the Team Lakay.…
Nonstop sports buzz
GREAT time to be a sports fan. Covid is down, sports is back. And there are so many…
75 carats
THE 75th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA) has begun and it’s business as usual. For basketball…
Lady Lakay
JENELYN OLSIM, the smiling Lakay lady warrior who is all charm and friendliness when announced into the One…
FCHWPO
FAITH, Consistency, Hard Work Pays Off. That’s the secret to the awesome and spectacular performance that One strawweight…
PHL hearts NBA
THE pandemic may have put things on hold, frustrated and depressed a lot of people, and stunted economic…
Ongoing saga
PARDON my ongoing fascination with l’affaire Angela Lee and Denice Zamboanga in the dramatic stage of ONE Championship.…
“Angela Who?”
I DON’T think Denice Zamboanga meant to deliberately disparage or belittle Angela Lee, the sitting atomweight champion in…
Road to Angela Lee
MIXED martial arts (MMA) athlete Denice Zamboanga is one tough cookie who’s been making a name for herself…
Girls, girls, girls
ONE Championship is going all out for gender equality in September with ONE: Empower, the all-women fight card…
Olympic Genie
NOW that Hidilyn Diaz has given us a gift of precious gold—one that had seemed out of reach…
Game on!
AFTER a major postponement due to the pandemic, a lot of heaves and hos and heavy soul searching…
Where the boys are
IN earlier days, it was entertainers—singers, bands, performers, dancers—who were lured by the Land of the Rising Sun.…
Top villain
WHAT makes for great theater in the big stage of the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs? Pardon my…
Great expectations
DESTINY will trump savvy predictions every time. When the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 2020-2021 season started, pundits named…
Next-gen Lakay
THERE was a time when the legendary Team Lakay dominated the mixed martial arts world with four world…
Playoffs talk
THE National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs are roaring away everyday. Sometimes we catch them at full fight in…
Louie Sangalang, Pinoy Survivor
AFTER 11 episodes of the 13-episode reality series called The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition, behold, the Filipino flag…
Let The Games what?
HAMLET would have been so at home with the Tokyo Summer Olympics situation. “To be or not to…
Game changer
THEY call the three-point shot “the equalizer.” And many times, as when a barrage of triples hits the…
Jump Men
Ray Allen. Derek Anderson. Vin Baker. Michael Finley. Eddie Jones. Those guys were the original Team Jordan Starting…
Folayang-Aoki III
THERE’S something about a trilogy that makes for great spectating. The third encounter of an ongoing battle that…
Life after Kobe
KOBE PARAS has left the lush campus of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman to seek greener…
Destiny’s children
DO you believe in destiny? I do. I always look for signs of it in the encounters of…
Memorabilia mania
THE pandemic has taught people to hunker down and cocoon themselves in the safety of their homes. It…
Destiny’s children
DO you believe in destiny? I do. I always look for signs of it in the encounters of…
Memorabilia mania
THE pandemic has taught people to hunker down and cocoon themselves in the safety of their homes. It…
Pinoy Pride on ‘The Apprentice’
WITH most competitive sports events currently on hold because of the public health situation, the little screen grabs…
Rey and the Samoans
FORTY-ONE years ago, Rey Rodis Sr. was hailed as the country’s youngest international boxing promoter by Sports Weekly…
Give me an E
The eSports industry has grown tremendously over the years, and guess what. It’s still growing. Increasing viewership has…
Bully-proofing Quaden
SOMETIMES your worst day could be your best day ever. Or at least the start of something good.…
Singson’s Shoes
AS far as I am concerned, Carlo Reyes Singson, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) associate vice president and…
House of Kobe
ON January 26, 2020, a Sunday, the House of Kobe was inaugurated in Barangay Karuhatan, Valenzuela City. It’s…
Kobe, one last time
IN June 2016, Nike Philippines brought Kobe Bryant to Manila for his Mamba Mentality Tour. It was just…
Year of The Rat Games
2020 is not just a brand-new year, it’s also a brand-new decade. And if you care for a…
Impressive young netters
PHILIPPINE tennis has a bright future. That’s what Ivy League coaches from three US NCAA Division I schools…
ONE action-packed January
TWENTY-NINETEEN was a very good year for ONE Championship, the largest global sports media property in Asian history,…
Acrobats are athletes
With the beauty of gymnastics in full display during the recently concluded 30th Southeast Asian Games, our attention is…
Christmas wishes
I’M leaving my laptop open so Santa can see. I have quite a few wishes that I have…
Golden golf
With Filipinos hogging most of the medals in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games 2019, a lot of hopes…
Learnings from Beda-Letran Finals
THERE’S been no dominant force in collegiate basketball stronger than the San Beda Red Lions in the National…
Katipunan Chronicles
As I write this piece, the undefeated Ateneo Blue Eagles faces the surging University of the Philippines (UP)…
Fourth Quarter Sparks
SOMETHING wicked this way comes in the local sports scene. And all we have to do is watch.…
Temporary setback
Five Filipinos participated in the sensational ONE: Century martial arts event held in Tokyo over the weekend. Only…
Workhorses
AMONG all the Beatles, I liked George Harrison best. He was described as “The Quiet Beatle,” and compared…
Glorious ends
SEASON 82 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines has just begun, but already we’ve been dazzled…
UAAP feast
IT’S the beginning of a new University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) season. And what a delicious…
No small feat
DON’T look now, but young Pinoy athletes have again made a name for themselves on the world stage.…
We shall return
ON a rainy night in August, thousands of Pinoy MMA fans braved the rain and floods, and showed…
This glorious off-season
IT’S the off-season. Many regard this period as down time, a period of inactivity, the blahs. But no.…
MMA stars in ONE: Dawn of Heroes
IT’S still a month away, almost to the day, but the next ONE Championship fight scheduled in Manila…
Bright future
The future of Philippine basketball—both men’s and women’s—is intact. The results of the recent Jr. National Basketball Association…
NBA banner season
With the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals standing at a bettors’ dream 1-1 count, the hype is real…
Unforgettable Season 81
It ended the way it began—with a bang. Season 81 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines…
Collin and Ticha
AFTER four months, Jr. NBA Philippines 2019 presented by Alaska has reached its peak moment: the National Training…
Eagles, Tams and Tigers
SOMETHING feels a little different about the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Women’s Volleyball tournament this…
Jr. NBA All-Star Dreams
THE Jr. NBA program has been in the Philippines for the past 12 consecutive years, but this year…
ONE star-studded night
ONE Championship had a bombastic debut in Japan in March and now erupts in Manila with a follow-through…
Great expectations
Welcome to Wonderland, where things are seldom what they seem. Or so says librettist WS Gilbert in the…
The numbers game
AFTER LeBron James made National Basketball Association (NBA) history in early March by passing Michael Jordan for 4th…
That championship season
FILIPINO striker Rene Catalan just earned an impressive win over former ONE world strawweight champion Yoshitaka Naito of…
Barking
IT’S not just for dogs. It’s not just for jeepney or bus rides either. Barking is not just…
Jr. NBA going places
AND just like that the Jr. NBA Philippines program presented by Alaska is 12 years old. Three of…
Climb every mountain
IT’S back to the drawing board for Coach Mark Sangiao and the legendary Team Lakay, the country’s proud…
You Pig!
WOULD you believe it. LeBron James is a rat. James Harden is a hissing snake. And Kyrie Irving…
Busy January for MMA
THINGS are popping in the martial-arts scene early in the new year. For ONE Championship alone, the largest…
Destiny’s child?
IT’S a historic season for the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons. The UP Men’s Basketball Team…
He’s Bright!
HE was a big basketball name that buzzed in the grapevine of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines…
‘Double F Word’
THE “in” word these days in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) is the “F” word.…
Pinoy power
THIS weekend, ONE Interim Bantamweight World Champion Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon will be the only Filipino fighting in…
UAAP report card
SEASON 81 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) has just finished its first half— exactly…
An Eagle for others
FOR the past two seasons of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), a lot of support…
The UAAP Extravaganza
THE University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) opened in a spectacular manner over the weekend, with no…
Mamba Jamba
NBA 3X Philippines 2018 presented by AXA wrapped up on Sunday, August 26, but this is one NBA…
Crazy (medal) rich Asians
PINOY hopes and aspirations are always high when the Asiad rolls along. The 18th edition of the Asian…