The Scariest
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
3. Mark Cardona
He won the Best Player of the Conference plum last conference but all he got outside the yellow throngs of supporters of his team were sneers.
Capt. Hook's a flashy player with an even fierier heart. No way will you see him let those sneers grow to grins when October 14 kickstarts.
2007's best Willie Miller is always with these knives stabbing him all around about those two MVP awards of his. That he only got them- those two- because on both occassions, all his toughest rivals were out there, donning the Philippine flag for international basketball. And so, to prove his rejuvenated-2001-critics wrong, come the next confy Mister Thriller here would send basketball thrills down the veins of everyone on the hardcourt- play like the MVP that he is.
Get real. Miller has always played like that way.
Cardona, though, has just found his "i don't believe it!"-game. Right when the Justice League were out of the country.
Expect a stomach-ached-infested population because of eating their "dahil wala lang sina asi at jimmy.." comments.
2. Mark Caguioa
How good was The Spark before he skipped the '07 Fiesta Conference? Well, he finished the Elimination Round of the previous confy with league-leading 22 points-per-game record. He fired more than 30 points in six of his Ginebra's 12 playoff games. He was player of the week twice.
In the months that followed, the 6'0" firebrand was groomed to be the second offensive-option for the National Team. The result: a stronger, bulkier, faster and more accurate Caguioa. With the way his physique and speed looks like right now, it seems like only fellow NT-mainstay and resident defensive ace (and beefed-up too, if I may add) Dondon Hontiveros may be able to contain him. Speed, power, stamina- the debunked reality that Caguioa is smaller than all but one of the league's shooting guards got outdated even more.
How good was The Spark before he skipped the '07 Fiesta Conference? He was the All-Filipino Cup Best Player. How good might he be this next season? Try the three letters.
1. Asi Taulava
But even then, Caguioa can still be limited. The same statement is teetering on the brink of falsehood when The Spark's name is replaced by Asi's.
Even in that most recent Philippine Cup, Taulava was already the most dominant bigman of the league. Standing at 6'9" and with excellent stripe-shooting for a man of his size (and, of his reputation), the only reason that his Talk N Text Phonepals lost to Ginebra back then was because Asi could not run as fast as a guard.
Dare him to guard Caguioa this October 14 conference and he might think it over.
The need to grapple with a couple of seven-footers around Asia required The Rock to move the couch and the TV over at the gyms. But, the need to grab all those offensive rebounds also required Asi to lay off the cholesterol.
No one would be able to guard against the faster and bigger version of Rudy Hatfield right now.
posted by arvee @ 8:25 PM,
