Blackwater Sports set to join PBA, says Sy

The buzz had been there for some time, but nobody bothered to deeply dig into the matter until recently.

Blackwater Sports, a team in the PBA Developmental League, was reported to be moving up to the professional level, and the first thing that was required of owner Dioceldo Sy by the PBA Commissioner’s Office was for the cosmetics conglomerate to submit a letter of intent.

Personally, I did not verify the reports, but sometimes, things have a way of unexpectedly  falling into one’s lap.

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Friday afternoon, I was having a late lunch with a business associate at Fridays  along Sgt. Esguerra Avenue when guess who walked past our table en route to the men’s room.

Dioceldo Sy.

I greeted him and he graciously promised to give us two minutes of his time for a very brief interview. Two minutes were all we needed.

“Yes, Blackwater is as good as in the PBA,” confirmed Sy, whose main brand in the cosmetics industry is Ever Bilena. “Blackwater will be the 11th team in the PBA when the 2015 season opens in October.

“We’ve long been working on our application and we’re now in the end phase of tying up loose ends.”

Sy said the coaching staff, led by former PBA cager Leo Isaac, will be carried over the next level, including a number of players ready for the pros.

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The good news, according to Patafa president Go Teng Kok when he invited a small group of scribes to breakfast at Annabel’s in Quezon City early this week, is  he is well on the road to recovery after a seven-month  battle with a mysterious purulent disease that could not be cured by his physicians.

“The disease was a nightmare. I was in and out of the hospital for seven months and did not know if I would survive. The doctors said my disease (he had no name for it) is deadlier than cancer.

Although he walked with a four-legged cane and he had to go to the men’s room every 15 minutes or so, a side effect of the medications he was taking, GTK gained some weight and was looking more energetic.

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Now for the bad news. Having recouped his energy, GTK is back on the warpath after PSC commissioner Jolly Gomez suspended two of his coaches for holding a second job.

“I don’t know why Gomez is singling out my coaches when majority of the coaches in other disciplines also hold a second job to augment their meager salary as national coach,” said GTK, who is preparing to file charges against Gomez, depending on the result of a meeting/hearing with PSC chair Richie Garcia this coming week.

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HOOPVINE: Discovery Access CEO Jacque Ruby shudders at some of the serious ailments discovered in the course of the medical screening undergone by the 100 candidates for the basketball marathon this March 24. One varsity cager was found to have a hole in the heart, while a clot in the brain caused seizures during the actual examination … Lucky Anthony Macri, who bailed out of the sinking ABL, is now with the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA.