Just in time for the June 12 holiday, an NBA player is proud to be pinoy. NBC Rotoworld called it one of the strangest stories of the off season. If Andray Blatche is proud to be Filipino, can I be proud to be part of the 1972 Maimi Dolphins?
Maybe I am old fashioned to believe that the Filipino team should be composed of Filipinos.
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Blatche was able to play in the NBA for nine seasons despite being drafted towards the middle of the second round. He was born in Syracuse, New York in 1986 and was drafted out of high school which he played in New York state. Please tell me where I missed his pinoy connection.
Andray Blathche is now a Filipino. The Senate passed a law last month according to the Inquirer that allows him to be a citizen. In a country where people drive drunk, kill other people and don’t spend a minute in jail, this makes total sense. So how is that Ampatuan massacre trial coming along? It has only been five years. Nice to know all that legislative fire power is being put to good use. By making it legal for someone who has no substantive connections to this country able to play basketball for this country. No wonder our law makers continue to be paid while serving jail terms. Pinoy pride should start with our law makers.
Maybe I am the one who is stupid for believing that the Philippine team should be composed of, what am I thinking of, oh.. Filipinos. Win or lose, they are yours because there is a connection. While sticking to the world of basketball, I do not understand why the PBA considers someone who never lived or went to school in the Philippines as a “Filipino” yet someone whose parents have roots in service to the community and who played for Ateneo is not considered Filipino. I discuss Kirk Long and Sean Anthony more in this blog.
Jessica Sanchez did not spend one second on Philippine soil before our newspapers saw it fit that she deserved headlines back in May 2012. So what if her mother was born here? She did not watch the same TV or take up the same subject matter in school that defines our community as Filipino. Unless your criteria has nothing to do with those cultural traits. There is a word for that line of thinking.
I already had my issues with the so called national team. No other national team has as part of their team name, a corporation. Again, it all makes sense because pinoys by nature are KSP and epal. In the Philippines, our president is not our president because of what he did but because of who his mom is and when she died. No need to look at his blank resume. Blatche played nine years in the toughest basketball league in the world, I have no idea how anything else he did in his spare time made him a Filipino?
I have no idea what makes him one of us. Does liking reggae make me Jamaican? Does loving Lamb Rojan Josh make me Indian? He claims to have seen impoverished kids playing in waist deep water and that made him want to play for us. Again if I have a crush on Sofia Vergera does that make me Colombian? This logic makes one worthy to represent a country? Just my opinion but anyone who was not born here, does not speak the language or never lived here who wants to be associated with this dysfunctional place enough to represent it I assure you did not go to college. If that is all it takes to be Pinoy, why should pride be associated with something so shallow?
Noynoy Aquino declares an NBA player from Syracuse New York a Filipino since he is our Magic Johnson.
This monumental moment in the annals of Philippine basketball is still actually pending the formal endorsement of our own Magic Johnson, Benigno Simeon Aquino III. I call him that because look at where was June 30th 2009 and what happened to him in the space of twelve months. If that is not magic I have no idea what it. Sorry, no Sixto Brillantes wise cracks.
If Malacanang is big enough to hold 11 Abads and it not be nepotism, why not create a law to grant citizenship to basketball players that can’t even spell the name of the country?
Coach Chot Reyes firmly believes Noynoy will make Blatche a Filipino citizen. Then again this is the same Noynoy who paid the bail of Grace Padaca and saw nothing wrong with it. The same Noynoy who uses his predecessor as more of a token notch on a bedpost than an actual conquest. Noynoy is so proud of that expensive circus he was so happy to put Corona through. There was no disbarment, there was no jail time when you consider the cost to the taxpayer. I am not including the 50 million paid per senator that said yes. That is also coming from the taxpayer. Janet Napoles is accused of making a ton of taxpayer vanish and yet Noynoy Aquino firmly believes the gate keeper of that money has nothing to do with it. Like I said, Magic.
They say over 90% of what constitutes an iceberg is underwater. Meaning what you initially see is only 10% of what is really there. Noynoy claims victory over Gloria but she was never convicted. For all the hoopla of the Corona hearing, he is neither in jail or disbarred. They got him on SALN understatement yet those who stood on judgement were not subject to the same standard. With people like Noynoy Aquino who are all show and no dough, it makes total sense he legally makes Andray Blatche a Filipino citizen. It makes total sense because Noynoy has made a profession of not making sense. Then again Pinoy voters do not make sense voting in the Noynoys of this country into office.
They say things happen in threes. On Monday we had a senator’s privilege speech that had a music video. On that same day we had a congressman with no history of organized basketball appointed coach of a “professional” team. With apologies to the son of Erap I am rounding off this set of threes with the Filipino law makers. Andray Blathche is not the cause of Filipino stupidity but simply the symptom. I bet if he played for another Asian team that beat the pants off of us, pinoys would be screaming “daya!” Do you believe his sob story of kids playing in waist deep water motivated him to give up his off season playing for a country he barely goes to? I don’t. I would sooner believe he was paid 50 million pesos out of the pork barrel fund to play for this country. It is truly Independence Day here in the Philippines.
Putting a very sharp needle into the balloon known as Pinoy Pride since 2012.
Filipino stupidity at its best!!!!
Hopeless and wretched…we are definitely run by self-serving incompetents who have no real achievements except to plunder this country. Someday, sooner or later karma will surely befall these thieves, and may their whole clan be ravaged by pestilence and disease!
we are taking advantage of fiba’s rules allowing up to 1 naturalized player. this is intended to increase the level of competition, especially among lower-ranked teams (like the philippines).
1. take note that all of this is done following procedure. so don’t compare the extralegal actions of the abads, ampatuans, and the aquinos
2. we can opt not to take in any naturalized player. pero walang sisihan as to the possibly poorer tournament outcome
3. you have to admire what pangilinan (mvp stretches him to undeserved legendary status) is doing for philippine basketball, even if it means shelling out money to make people move. a bit disappointing that the pba, sbp, and bap (and include the poc) are playing politics that prevent us from sending the best sports representatives we have.
4. as for the name, hopefully they can change it so it represents the entire country, and not just a corporate sponsor. other national teams have no such issue; they only have the sponsor logos on the jerseys.
5. as for jessica sanchez though, 100 % agree. she didn’t live and do anything here before becoming famous. and just because she’s half-filipina and went so far in american idol, she can just come here for extra cash? same for bruno mars. at least apl de ap is active with humanitarian projects.
Thanks for all the different points. You reacted to it as a whole and agreed and disagreed. No problem. They allow one naturalized player but to microwave a law when there are other priorities? You might know me by now but I cringe at 95% of the proud to be pinoy chants. I saw the flag waving of the FIBA games last year. Yet they are going to trumpet the two NBA “imports” . I find it canned, I find it artificial and I find it staged.
What is pride? What is pinoy? What substance do our laws have? This is the Philippines where the letter of the law does not matter much and neither does the spirit. All that matters is epal, KSP, and pinoy pride. Damn public welfare and damn values.
The current government is only good at being vindictive and showing up for photo ops. This changing of the law to accommodate an import with no real connection other than “waist deep water” anecdote is an extension of his credit grabbing modus operandi.
My personal belief, I rather get creamed with all Filipinos on the roster so pinoys can stop being mayabang about their national pasttime. The only country devoted to basketball and can’t even be relevant consistently in Asia. Love what you love but just don’t act like the world owes you attention.
Still in a land of toothless, useless laws. This gets to go on the express lane.
Still I thank you for taking the time to go through it point by point.
All-Filipinos, meaning the likes of Dondon Hontiveros, Mark Barroca, and the like. I agree.
Putting the naturalization of Blatche on a high roller rather than taking cognizance of the fact that they already did so with a few more others who are playing supposedly because their “mother” is a Filipina (remember Sonny Alvarado?) and who gained citizenship because marrying a Filipina is an easy trip to Manila (Asi). Yep. That’s how flawed our laws are.
Sir,
The natiralizeation issue of blatche is not even comparable to other pending bill
Sir,
True. The naturalization of Blatche is a minor issue. Albeit the ramifications of which is that at least 360 session hours have been spend on discussing his naturalization, rather than the pressing bills that should be filed, i.e.:
1. FOI bill
2. Anti-Epal Bill (my personal favorite)
3. Anti-Dynasty Bill
4. EPIRA amendments (due to regulatory capture)
etc.
Let’s face it, basketball is a tall man’s game. We filipinos need genetically tall players so that the Philippine team will have fighting chance against other “genetically-advantaged” teams in this crazy world of basketball.
in RP, there are too many laws that even a high caliber lawyer cannot ingest in his brain. Yet some politicians keep on enacting redundant and stupid laws, to what? protect and benefit the people. Duh!
“I have no idea what makes him one of us. Does liking reggae make me Jamaican? Does loving Lamb Rojan Josh make me Indian? He claims to have seen impoverished kids playing in waist deep water and that made him want to play for us. Again if I have a crush on Sofia Vergera does that make me Colombian? This logic makes one worthy to represent a country? Just my opinion but anyone who was not born here, does not speak the language or never lived here who wants to be associated with this dysfunctional place enough to represent it I assure you did not go to college. If that is all it takes to be Pinoy, why should pride be associated with something so shallow?”
Please tell that also to the Filipinos who EMIGRATED to USA, Canada and Australian, who do not have American, Canadian or Australian blood. Maybe they are also shallow for wanting to have BETTER OPPORTUNITIES.
Enlighten me how playing for a team whose country is the only one on Earth obsessed with basketball but goes decades between significant international tournament appearances is a better opportunity? If given a choice between the US team and the Pinoy team which would it be?? Pinoy pride is a stupid cause.
The Yolanda plan took over a year but the Blatche thing he signed was done in about 5 minutes. Par for the course for a moron. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/648035/finally-aquino-oks-p168b-yolanda-plan
I am of Indian blood, but was raised in the Philippines from the age of three until I was 24. Thereafter, I left for Canada. I am a proud Canadian citizen now. I wanted to be a Filipino citizen and yearned for acceptance. But society cast me away because I was a “Bumbay.” Now that I’m in Canada, many of Filipino peers proclaim that I am “pusong-pinoy.” I’m Canadian, only. My talents and heart belong to Canada.