INQUIRER Sports

PEOPLE ARE GETTING A BIT DIZZY and confused. They?d like to know once and for all exactly what?s the game plan for the PBA?s top draft pick Japeth Aguilar, who finally signed up with Burger King after holding out for several weeks.

Japeth played only one game with the Whoppers. The ink on his BK contract had barely dried when a three-way deal was forged with Japeth ending up with Talk ?N Text.

Did the journey end here? Ask me again.

Since the opening of the league?s 35th season, there seems to be a new development on Japeth everyday. The other day Talk ?N Text shipped the 6-foot-9 cager to Smart Gilas, the national team of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas headed by Manny V. Pangilinan, who is also the TNT owner.

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So now you?re probably asking what the round robin exercise was all about.

I don?t have the answer. Or maybe I do but can?t tell.

All I can tell you from what I was told by highly reliable sources, is that Smart Gilas is Japeth?s final destination?for the next two years at least. Or up to the 2012 London Olympics, if we get really, really lucky and qualify.

So you see, that opening-day game between Burger King and Purefoods is Japeth?s first and last game for a PBA team. That doesn?t mean though that PBA fans will no longer get to see him play in the PBA.

Smart Gilas, as you know, is playing as a guest team in the ongoing Philippine Cup.

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He may now be in his sixties but the PBA?s Living Legend Sonny Jaworski still looks fit as a fiddle and ready for a 48-minute game of professional basketball.

A special guest on opening day of the PBA?s 35th season, the Big J dropped by the press room of the Araneta Coliseum last Sunday to say hi to old friends. He was accompanied by league commissioner Renauld ?Sonny? Barrios.

Sonny had motored to Manila to catch the opening ceremonies. Earlier, he was in Pangasinan doing his share in helping the hundreds of flood and landslide victims.

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We asked the former senator about his plans for the 2010 elections.

I inquired which presidential candidate he was going to support. I presumed it was Noynoy Aquino, since he is the first cousin of his daughter-in-law Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski.

Curiously, Sonny was non-committal. Not only about his presidential choice, but also about his own political plans.

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Former Pasig mayor Mario Raymundo, who could easily be voted the PBA?s No. 1 fan, was dressed to the nines on opening day. He looked dapper in a gray plaid blazer with matching trousers and well-polished black shoes.

One of his friends asked if Mario was headed for a party or some important social occasion after the PBA game, but he said no.

Mario?s friend didn?t notice at first. But when he scanned the Burger King bench during the game, he saw a familiar figure in the familiar jacket.

It was Mario Raymundo.

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For a moment there, he was puzzled. What was Mario doing on the BK bench? Had he been appointed as an official of the team? Team manager maybe? Or assistant coach?

But where does that put Lito Alvarez and Junel Baculi?

Mario sat on the BK bench the entire game, looking very serious.

Later on, the friend found out that Mario sat on the Burger King bench as BK team manager of the game. Next match it could be somebody else.