Here we go again

Sponsored by a new player in the sports apparel market, a countrywide 3-on-3 basketball tournament were held in different locations around the country.  Regional teams play in eliminations where the top qualifiers move up to the national finals.  The national champion then goes to represent the country in international competitions.

Organizers of this tournament asked assistance from the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) for the Cebu leg and was assured that the local champion will be sent to Manila for the national finals and whoever wins will go overseas.

This is supposed to be that simple but organizers, blessed with a complexly twisted thinking ruled that the champion team need not be the one to carry the national colors, and dammit, there will still be a selection for the final composition.  To state the obvious, they already had a few privileged free loaders in mind. I’m saying free loaders because the tournament’s purpose of selecting the best team was defeated.

Manned by the Under-18 players of the University of Cebu, they ruled over all other entries for the 3x3 Southeast Asia Philippine Leg held last week at Bonifacio Global City.  The Webmasters would have been given automatic tickets to the FIBA U-18 3x3 Asia Cup to be held in Malaysia in the later part of May this year.

So what exactly is the point of having this tournament when a champion team who battled the odds and earned the right to wear the national uniform are discarded?  Let’s speculate, like maybe because they are probinsyanos and bested the well-shod and swagger of big city cool kids.  It’s bullcrap.

The nation’s governing body for basketball said that nothing is final yet. Don’t confuse your already complicated minds some more and make things easier.  Send John Bryl Cuyos, Alen Pelegrino, Virlou Orquez and John Emmanuel Bautista to Malaysia and include on the lineup one or two of your favored pets.  Not the other way around.  If you can’t sponsor UC, ok fine, whatever.

This is not discrimination anymore.  Because the probinsyanos are making their presence felt, the big city is getting envious and resentful.  The provinces are catching up to them that even traffic is not their sole domain anymore.  They distrust and begrudge those that outlast and outperform them, yes, media and sports in particular.  They can have that effing Malaysian tournament.

No matter the outcome, in our hearts and minds, the UC Webmasters 3x3 crew are the national champions and no one can take it away from them.  Any other Phl team to the U-13 Asia Cup are pretenders to the throne, are inferior and are phoney titlists.  But on second thought, uso naman ang pirated.

Here’s another one.  Probinsyanos occupied the top ten in the recent bar exams.  From Malacañang to 3-on-3 to the bar, the promdis rule and the pseudo-elite can’t take it.