Bare Eye
James Yap a shoo-in for nat’l track team?
By Recah Trinidad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:40:00 07/15/2008
Filed Under: Basketball, Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)
MANILA, Philippines—PBA millionaire superstar James Yap should expect a call from Go Teng Kok, president of the national track and field association, anytime soon.
These two sportsmen should also be able to hit it off well.
First things first: The way the refs were working the import-laced PBA series, which has entered an intense, bruising phase, they were more like sleepy rock band members promoting a bar-room brawl.
Buddy Encarnado, Sta. Lucia Realty team manager, was both displeased and alarmed when he insisted the referees should’ve been both quick and consistent.
* * *
OK, rules could also be used to serve as music in a ballgame.
But of late, there’s often the need to do police work on the floor.
No, the refs need not resort to truncheons like mad-dog cops around Malacañang.
But using the whistle like a flute whenever shoves, elbows and invectives fly on the floor is a no-no.
“I don’t blame the players, they were just trying to explore ways to win a game. The issue was the total neglect by game officials. Instead of preventing them, they allowed all the terrible bumping and trash-talking,” Encarnado told the Daily Tribune over the weekend.
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Things predictably went out of hand.
And look what happened to poor James Yap, described by his lovely wife Kris Aquino as the most popular player in the pro league today.
Yap, carried away by the unrestrained wildness on the floor, ended up exposing the shallow, ugly side of his superstardom.
First, Yap kicked Talk ‘N Text import Terrence Leather from behind.
That was understandable. Yap was only human, as Ms Aquino would explain on television.
Second, and worse, Yap scampered like a frightened frog once the furious Leather turned around to get back at the handsome, high-scoring pride of Negros.
* * *
Sorry, Yap said later, adding all he wanted was to save his teammate, Jondan Salvador who had shoved the ball at Leather, from impending harm.
It was also reported that Yap later approached the Talk ‘N Text bench to apologize to some players and to Phone Pals coach Chot Reyes.
Well, it was clear Yap was terribly bothered, if not shattered, by the dirty incident. As a result, Yap, short of hiring a public relations firm, had to do some frantic explaining in both print and broadcast.
Kris, daughter of Ninoy and Cory Aquino, a heroic and well-loved couple, also appeared visibly hurt.
That was quite unfortunate.
* * *
But listen, please. In Yap’s case, it would’ve not been a problem if he grew up on the basketball court in the days of legendary enforcers—Badion, Reynoso, Melencio, Jaworski, to name only four—who never turned their back at the height of man-sized confrontation.
These self-made hardy cagers operated on the rugged floor guided by an exacting, unshakeable code: tooth for a tooth.
These same legendary basketball warriors always waited patiently for the perfect timing before inflicting pain on opponents—with hardly a trace.
The claim that these battle-scarred players had elevated into an art the practice of invisibly causing discomfort on pesky foes was no exaggeration.
* * *
In Yap’s case, there obviously was the streak of an enforcer burning inside him.
He could’ve waited for this heroic urge to mature fully.
It was just too bad that the streak exploded at the wrong time and the wrong place.
Yap was completely unprepared for the moment of truth, for the upheaval he had invited.
In bullfighting, this is equivalent to the moment of truth.
Yap pitifully failed the test, the singular rite of manhood.
He has vowed never to do it again.
* * *
Yap indeed meant well, but what pitifully got magnified was not the heroic side of his superstardom.
You need not do a poll to agree that the sight of Yap scampering after having kicked someone from the back did not sit well with the masa.
In fact, there were taunts that, in Yap’s case, he could be readily considered for the national track and field team.
This is not to say Yap may no longer be as hot and saleable in the PBA after what happened in that Purefoods game against Talk ‘N Text last week.
But with the sprinting gifts he had accidentally exposed in beating that hasty retreat, Yap may be a shoo-in for Go Teng Kok’s army of sprinters.
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