NBA: Hype, hype, hooray!

THIS must be the start of a sporting year, a fresh new season, and fans in our city wet market trooped as one to a new site, away from the fish vendor hub that had catered in the past few months to speculators playing into the see-saw of odds for the failed superbout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

This can’t be taken to mean the Pacquiao mania has suddenly died down.

Far from that, although there are signs hysterical Pacquiao fanatics, who could not accept how their idol lost (to Mayweather), have started waking up to reality.

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Latest word says suits have been pouring in from fans and outfits that felt cheated with the false disclosure made by Team Pacquiao about the injury in his right shoulder.

There were belated legal claims the injury should’ve not been concealed as the over-hyped fight of the century could stand postponement for the good of the general public.

Meanwhile, Bob Arum of Top Rank, Inc. was unsure if it was Pacquiao himself or chief adviser Michael Koncz who should be answerable for the inadvertence.

Pacquiao has started therapy on his shoulder.  It was, however, unclear when he would return to the ring, or retire, as is the wish of his family.

Arum, a lawyer, assured he should be able to represent Pacquiao in court, a totally different battle venue for the beleaguered Filipino boxing superstar.

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The big show in town has nothing to do with Pacquiao or Mayweather, for that matter.

The entire sports town has tuned in to the NBA Conference Finals playoffs, a sure-fire usher to the Finals proper, that had needed no form of super-hyping.

Uncertainty is thick and yesterday, the prodigious Golden State Warriors wiggled from a lethargic first half where they fell behind by 16 points, caught up, took the lead, were tied down again, before suppressing the Houston Rockets, 110-106, to take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals. The Rockets, led by the unstoppable James Harden, could still come back, but it would all depend on strongman Dwight Howard, who rode the bench for the whole second half, his right knee in an ice pack.

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In today’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the sensational LeBron James, who goes for a fifth straight NBA Finals appearance, can only be expected to surpass himself as he again carries the Cleveland Cavaliers, his original outfit, on his legendary shoulders.

Favorite spectator base in the Mandaluyong City wet market, the Munting Palengke, is Manding’s famous meat stall that provides free entertainment via a wide-screen wall TV overhead.

With Golden State reliant on sharpshooter Stephen Curry, Houston going all-out through James Harden, Cleveland pinning hopes on Lebron James, the biggest mystery remains the Atlanta Hawks, who have so far not enlisted a prodigious star in making it to the NBA elite round-of-four.

The secret behind Atlanta’s success should be unraveled against James & Co. today when the NBA, minus the big hype, shows us all there could be honest sports life in the Philippines after Pacquiao.