Beijing Olympics for Sports Fans

Olympics 2008 Slide Show

Find More Olympics Photos at NBC Olympics.com!

Thanks to LeBronTuron for sharing this Olympic Widget!

Captured on Video

Onie Lucindo, the guy you see at the games with a video camera at the stands, debuts his video masterpiece featuring this year's 2008 PAAD Palaro Champions, GK Warriors.

GK Warriors Teaser Video

If you are interested to get a copy of the GK Warriors games, please get in touch with Onie Lucindo at http://bossonie.pinoyreklamo.com or phone: 631-379-7740.

The Inspiration behind GK Warriors' Championship

Up and Running until Labor Day Weekend!!

(Most Viewed Photo by our ONLINE Guests - 4,885 clicks)

Dear Friends and Fellow Bloggers:

First of all, let me thank you for flooding my e-mail with your requests to bring back this blog. Your messages were so heartwarming and convincing. Some of them were too loud to ignore.

To be honest, I totally deleted this blog with the expectation of never recovering this site back. It's a good thing I didn't reach the treshold of 36 hours or else the site will be gone forever. Thanks to the blogger folks, because of your good timing and persistence, we got the site back.

Special thanks to LeBronTuron, SinoBaKuya , Blog Pulis, cut33angi3 (makukulit na bloggers) and 21 other bloggers who relentlessly requested to bring this site back through their e-mail requests. By the way, I already know who you are so please behave.

Also, special thanks to Herb Monsalud of GK Warriors who accidentally occupied the palaro2008.blogspot.com url/address. As he told me on the phone, he didn't really know what he was doing, he just clicked "CONTINUE" one night when he visited the forum and he didn't know how to get out of it. Because Herb didn't get out of the URL, he actually reserved the spot for us and blogger was able to save our palaro articles. Galing mo talaga pareng Herb!! Great timing ka parati. Salamat!

Just an FYI to all, specially to those blog addicts - LeBronTuron, SinoBaKuya and Blog Pulis will help me moderate the site (because I'm a bit busy at work). Don't worry, they're real people because we talked over the phone already about how to do this task. We apply the same strict rules of no trash talking or dissing someone. In addition, you cannot leave comments for the PSC on this site anymore. You have to direct your PSC Comments to PAAD's e-mail address - paadevents@yahoo.com. Also, for the information of everyone, we banned one blogger forever because of his divisive comments.

Finally, the site will be up only until this coming LABOR DAY Weekend. If you demand for extension, participate on the surveys and we will let you know if we will extend the site or not. Remember this extension does not have the sanction of the PSC, I'm just doing this out of good faith. I also have to emphasize that this BLOGSITE is not connected to PSC or PAAD. This is my personal site now. So behave please.

Again, thank you for bugging me until I gave in. If not, we could have lost everything in this site.

Take care everyone and be safe.

READY.....SET......BLOG!!!!!

Your friend,

\Scribbs

PS> Not all articles and comments were recovered by blogger.com. Whatever you see now in the Blog Archive is all what's left. I was told about 9 articles and almost 275 comments were lost. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks.

GK Warriors halts TFC, wins Palaro 2008 championship, 62-52.

With TFC's Paul Nicdao missing his outside shots at the beginning of the first half, combined with GK's defense stopping TFC's fastbreak, Ryan de Gracia waxed hot as he drilled in four unanswered triples which gave GK the momentum early in the first half.

GK's Leo "the Bull" Yanogacio, flanked by Mario Salazar and Chris Clemente at the paint, provided the height advantage over TFC's centers. The triple-center threat, ably supported by Jeff Wang, Ryan de Guzman, Carlo de Guzman and Ian Clemente showed how deep GK's bench was over TFC.

Not to be rattled, TFC's three-speed-trio of Alex & Rudolph Santos and Paul Nicdao went to work to mount a last ditch rally in the second half. Team Captain, Miguel Sanchez and Ray de Vera controled the rebounds to compliment TFC's pressing defense in the middle of the second half. This ignited TFC to a 14-4 fastbreak run which shrunk GK's lead to a mere 5 points at the two-minute mark. TFC, in a mad scramble to catch-up, utilized a flurry of substitutions to foul GK players at each possesion. TFC's attempt to stop the clock and hope that GK misses its free throws at the other end didn't have enough time to succeed.

MVP Awardees:

Ryan de Gracia was chosen as the Championship Game MVP while Leo "the Bull" Yanogacio was the hands-down pick to be this year's PALARO 2008 MVP due to his consistency and all-around brillance around the paint.

Delaware Titans bow out to GK Warriors, 45-60.

____________________________________________________

Update from cut33angi3 8/14/2008:

Belated HAPPY Birthday to Titans#01 - Jesse Fabian!!
Jesse celebrated his 21st b-day last August 10, 2008. Go Tiiiitaaaaanssss!!!!
____________________________________________________

Notwithstanding a decimated line-up, the never-say-die Titans put up a credible fight against the firepower of GK Warriors.

With ace point-guard and MVP candidate, Steve Antonio, and starting center, Eggy Alafriz, sitting out the playoff game, the GK Warriors pounced on the Titans early on to build a commanding lead in the first half. Unfazed by the huge lead, the backcourt tandem of Jerome Macatangay and Jessie Fabian tried to ignite a rally to keep their finals hopes alive. As quick as the Titans put up a spirited rally, the GK brickwall of Leo Yanogacio, Chris Clemente and surprise starter, Dodjie Allarey immediately doused cold water on the Titans fire. As soon as the GK defense solidified, Ryan de Gracia drilled in go ahead points to keep the Titans at bay.

GK's huge lead over the Titans at the last minutes of play, gave enough cusion for GK's bench to finish off the win. Player-manager, Mel Madarang, Sonny dela Torre, Dado Mendoza and blog-MVP, Joel Valenciano sealed GK's win to a tee.

WSA fail to topple TFC's speed, 36-49.

Wala Sa Ayos, coming off from a two-game skid, failed to keep pace with TFC's small "run-and-gun" guards that led to their 3rd place finish in Division B. The low-scoring ballgame saw an intense defensive stance from both camps as shooting percentages dropped to a low average.

TFC, on the other hand, looked hungry and anxious to go to the finals as the triumvirate of Alex & Rudolf Santos, combined with spitfire, Paul Nicdao, run roughshod over the hapless WSA team. The well-oiled rotation offense of TFC's "frontlines" was simply too much to handle for the WSA stalwarts.

TFC, known for their offensive jump-starts, were also impressive inside the lane as they kept WSA forwards quiet at the beginning half of their playoff match. The stonewall defense continued to blank out WSA in the second half, which gave them a compfortable 12-2 scoring binge to coast to victory.

Scramble at the PLAY-OFFS!

It started with 12 teams, divided into 2 divisions. After five grueling divisional games, only 4 teams remain to contest this year's coveted championship.

One thing is sure, a new champion team will emerge this year after WSA boots out defending champions, Red Bulls, in the play-offs circle with a higher Q points in Division B.

GK Warriors, this year's hands-down cinderella team, makes its first appearance in the playoffs after 3 years in the league hugging the cellar.

TFC Mainline, a newbie in Palaro, is expected to give everyone a good fight to the championships. Fresh from their perfect slate at Philly's FACAA league, the Jersey boys are hungry for another title this time here in Delaware. Will the TFC snatch another inter-state crown from the locals?

Delaware Titans, a veteran team of PAAD Palaro league, emerges from last year's hapless campaign to become this year's never-say-die team as they wrestle GK's cinderalla entry at the playoffs. Clearly, the TATANGS, as everyone fondly call them, have captured the hearts of the PALARO fans. Both an off-court and on-court, as well as a blog-favorite, the Titans claw their way up in their bid to frustrate GK's 5-0 slate and squeek into the finals.

Wala Sa Ayos, on the other hand, will try to make it a two-peat to the finals roster by facing the mighty TFC in their playoff tussle. In their failed game against GK Warriors, everybody has doubrs on whether they can break TFC's frontlines. Will WSA end their losing slump and emerge in the finals by beating TFC?

Let's see what the fans say... we're now open for your comments!

Delaware Titans thumps PHI Blue Devils, gains last playoffs slot, 51-41

Despite kibitzers predicting a PHI win, Delaware Titans sends a message to the other contenders by thumping the Blue Devils in a convincing win.

PHI started strong behind the one-on-one spirited play of Bong Imperial. However, his aggressiveness resulted in three quick fouls even before the end of the first half. PHI maintained their lead throughout most of the game up until the latter part of the second half. With a very aggressive pressing defense led by the Titan's Steve Antonio, the Titans stole the ball several times from PHI and made easy baskets.

In addition, Bong Imperial was called for two more fouls and he fouled out with five minutes left in the game. With no point guard to break the Titan's pressing defense, PHI had problems bringing the ball half court and led to additional fast break points for the Titans.

In the closing minutes of the game, Jomar Ugarte (Titan's MVP - most visible player) entered the game without informing the referees. He was close to being called a technical. However, he immediately atoned for his mistake by scoring a beautiful running bank shot and sealed the game for the Titans.

The Titans now look forward to a formidable task of upsetting the GK Warriors in the playoff. As they say in Philippines when speculating on basketball championship games, the "ball is round and anything can happen".

GK Warriors narrowly escapes WSA for a sweep. 57-53

Cinderella team, GK Warriors narrowly escapes from the claws of 2006 Palaro-champions, Wala Sa Ayos. The game which was anticipated by many started fast for WSA with a quick double digit lead due to three consecutive three pointers by Balagtas. GK players settled down with their defense and started to chip away the WSA's lead. WSA players sustained their spirited play and led by three points at the half.

At the start of the second half, GK played with a disciplined teamwork by passing the ball down low to their center. Everytime, he was double teamed, he would pass the ball to an open teammate who would make the cut and score close to the basket. This strategy worked very well for GK. If the center was not double teamed, he would muscle his way for an easy two points and sometimes three if he is fouled and gets a bonus free throw.

However, WSA showed a lot of composure and the players rallied to keep the game very close up to the last minute. A critical miss under the basket by a WSA player and then subsequently losing the ball out of bounds spelled the difference for the WSA team. Had they made the critical miss and/or not lose the ball out of bounds, the game could have gone to overtime or if they made a three-pointer would have won the game for them at that point.

WSA players, interviewed at the end of the game, noted that they had their chances but could not convert at the end of the game. They are looking forward to next Saturday's playoff games and are optimistic that the ball could bounce on their side at that time.

GK players were jubilant but noted their mission is not complete. They achieved the first one which was to win all their division games. Now, they look forward to sweeping the playoffs. Will GK sweep the games all the way to the championships? We will see!