2015 NBA Playoffs Philippine TV schedule

Set your alarm clocks now, #NBAPlayoffs start tomorrow morning at 12:30AM! #SKYcable #WorldOfSports pic.twitter.com/AQTWtPHBOv
— SKY (@SKYserves) April 18, 2015

It's time for the 2015 NBA Playoffs! Bored out of your wits with that oversaturated coverage of the awesome Lakers and Heat seasons? Do you want to see high quality basketball involving teams no one even realized that existed a couple of years ago? Don't fret, it's playoffs time!

Hopefully, more live games on free TV! The channel that airs delayed games has to die a quick death. Yes, I'm talking to you, @ABSCBNSports that blocked me for calling out such shitty service. Now that Sir Chip and Maya are happily screwing each other like rabbits ever after, we basketball fans deserve a break.

2014-15 PBA Philippine Cup standings and magic numbers

You guys know the drill. If you don't, check out what magic numbers are, see this.TL;DR: The magic number is the number of wins a team has to earn for them to qualify; the "tragic" number is the number of losses the team has to get before it is eliminated.

Your Asian Games basketball cheat sheet

Despite losing three consecutive games already, Gilas Pilipinas can still make it to the knockout stage of the 2014 Asian Games. How? See the cheatsheet below:

Advancing teams:

• Red: South Korea & Qatar
• Green: South Korea & Kazakhstan
• Yellow: Kazakstan & Qatar
• Blue: South Korea & Philippines
• Purple: See Note (A)
• Orange: See Note (B)

Notes after the jump:

2014 PBA mock draft: Literally mocking edition

So yeah, you've probably read all of the 2014 PBA mock drafts known to man. You probably know that Stanley Pringle is going to be the #1 pick. And that Kia is picking Manny Pacquiao at the first round. You've probably even have a cheatsheet on actual draft day. You're probably planning on going to Robinsons Place Manila wearing your Barangay Ginebra San Miguel knockoffs then throw rocks at the jeepneys outside to vent your frustration realizing that Ginebra would still be in deep shit no matter what.

So what makes this mock draft lottery, aside from mocking you, the hard-working Ginebra fan? Here, we literally mock the draft applicants, the teams, Robinsons Place Manila and nearby schools. Yes, even those. Let's get started.

Nope, the Philippines most likely did not play football under Spain

There's an article on Rappler entitled "Remembering the Philippines as a football nation". It discusses the history of Philippine football, and its current status. The facts are mostly right, except for these two passages:

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in one diagram

In honor of The Telegraph's awesome FIFA World Cup Venn diagram, I present the FIBA World Cup version. after the jump.

The case for Andray Blatche

Andray Blatche, barring a presidential veto, is bound to be the newest naturalized Filipino. There have been questions on why not X player? Indeed, why not Kevin Love, or all-D-League-team winner Justin Hamilton?

Indeed, there are many questions, but we'd all have to  restrict ourselves into some criteria.

2014 NBA Playoffs Philippine TV schedule

It's that time of the year again when Lakers fans pound their chests shouting to high heavens "LET'S GO LAKERS" on draft lottery night! Woohoo! For the rest of us, there's the playoffs. And they begin later tonight!

How to solve uneven schedules in the NBA

Earlier, I solved tanking. This time, I'll solve uneven schedules in the NBA.

How to solve tanking in the NBA

Well OK, just two: tanking and the fact that the sub-.500 Knicks can be the #8 seed, and two(?) among the Mavs, Grizz, Suns and Wolves can't. Tanking and schedule inequality: two of the NBA's ills nowadays, and I have solutions! First, tanking:

2014 PBA Commissioner's Cup team standings and magic numbers!

We're past midway the tournament, so the standings, and the magic numbers, are beginning to take shape. For details on what magic numbers are, see this.

#Spain2014: What you may have missed

Draw's over, we've had enough with pots -- eight of them -- in one week. Everyone's has had their piece with what has happened, so I won't have any of those. Instead, I'd pitch in where everybody else apparently missed.

Your #Spain2014 mascots: 10 things Ole and Hop are not

Say "HELLO!" to #Spain2014 mascots, Ole and Hop!

More on Ole & Hop, the official mascots of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, here http://t.co/OoIuqgcwib #Spain2014 pic.twitter.com/17gCmXzvGt
— FIBA (@FIBA) January 31, 2014

If you're paying attention, Ole and Hop resemble the two hands at the logo of #Spain2014. But wait, haven't you seen these goofy hands from somewhere? These are the 10 things are pals, Ole and Hop, aren't:

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup mock draw 3.0

First, the massive news: FIBA has awarded the 4 wild cards to Brazil, Finland, Greece and Turkey. They complete the 24-team tournament in Spain.

Congrats @HellenicBF @BasketFinland @CBB_basquete @TurkishBBall! See you Monday at the Draw of #Spain2014! http://t.co/wnPWScsN6L
— FIBA (@FIBA) February 1, 2014

Second... wait, Finland? How did even Finland get in the mix? First, the massive, I repeat, MASSIVE withdrawals of Germany, Italy and China, and the pseudo-withdrawal of Russia opened up three slots in the wild card race.

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup mock draw 2.0

A week from now FIBA will announce the four wild cards which will complete the 24-team FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. A week from Monday, they'd draw the teams to determine how the groups are split up. In between those dates, FIBA will announce how the teams will be seeded, and how the pots will be split up. Way back in September 2013, I already made a mock draw, before the conclusion of the EuroBasket. Now that all of the continental championships are over, and the 15 wild card entrants are known, it's way past time for a version 2 of the mock draw. Let's begin!

The PBA Championship Belts!

Here's an idea: Why not keep track of the winners of the very first game this season (there are two, so we'd go by the complication later), give them hypothetical belts, then once the winner of those games are defeated, the hypothetical belts would pass over to the winning team. We'd do that until the season ends. It's like NBA Regular Season Championship Belt at Grantland, only that we'd go into playoffs, and unification matches, if we're lucky!

But first, since there are two opening games this season, so we'd have two titles: The Alvin Patrimonio belt, which begins at the Ginebra vs. San Mig Coffee game at Araneta, and Ramon Fernandez belt for the Meralco vs. TNT game at Cebu. Of course named after the only players that won four MVP titles. Don't worry Jawo fans, I'd name the unified title after him. Let's begin!

Tanking for Ray-Ray

We don't actually know if Bobby Ray Parks, Jr., who hasn't settled for a basketball nickname yet so let's just call him "Ray-Ray", will be signing up for the 2014 Draft. All we know is that his UAAP playing days are over, he has next-to-nil chance of being drafted to the NBA, and he could very well be elevated by the BDO D-League team if they're thinking of joining the big leagues.

That means if Ray-Ray's isn't going to find a UAAP rule loophole to play again in 2014, isn't going to the NBA, isn't being elevated from BDO D-League team, there's a 100% chance he'd be picked first in 2014. This has to be the easiest #1 pick since the 2009 draft where Japeth was picked #1 by Air21... and you know the story; ever since that brouhaha, Air21, now known as Barako Bull, has never dealt with a MVP ballclub ever. Well, OK, maybe not on big-time deals.

2013-14 PBA Philippine Cup team standings and magic numbers!

We're past midway the tournament, so the standings, and the magic numbers, are beginning to take shape. For details on what magic numbers are, see this.

Which is bigger? PBA, UAAP or NCAA?

Happy PBA Opening Day!
Have you ever wondered which among the PBA, UAAP and NCAA garner the biggest amount of interest? This Google Trends (of course!) chart should finally resolve any discussion.


Heck let's resolve all of our differences with a truckload of stats, after the jump.

What's the oldest (and youngest) PBA team?

Have you ever wondered what the average age of every PBA team is? InterAKTV has just published the final team rosters for the 2012-13 PBA Philippine Cup. This is supposedly the "final" list but teams left out college players who are still playing (explained after the jump). Cross-referencing from the PBA official website players list, we can determine how old the players -- and their teams -- are.