SACRAMENTO, California—When are we finally going to get it?
When are we going to realize that we are focusing too much on basketball’s foolishness while we are missing other sports’ chances?
When are we letting go of a team with no probability of winning an Olympic gold and honestly start looking at the others with prospects of pulling off that feat in our lifetime?
We are busy worrying about our pampered basketball athletes qualifying at the FIBA-Asia championships in Tokushima, Japan this month when we should be bankrolling our boxers, archers, divers, shooters, etc as they hone their skills to the max for Beijing in 2008.
When are we finally going to get it?
We are allowing a single team to monopolize our sports consciousness and shoving others that should be grabbing it.
Worse, we are letting ourselves to be mesmerized by one man’s public relations savvy.
We are tolerating a coach who turns his team’s failings into sports headlines and the grotesque into good news.
We the sports media are playing into his hands. We can’t seem to see through the smoke and mirrors.
We choose to be thunder-struck when he elevates the post-game interview into his stage.
We tend to go along as he feeds the frenzy of our cage-crazed populace with the sound and fury of his quotable quotes.
When are we finally going to get it?
That Chot’s chatter is just that. Empty talk.
When are we going to be party poopers for a change?
We need to curb his enthusiasm with our own cynicism.
Even if we hurdle Tokushima based on his now legendary sound bites and his road map of probabilities, terrible fate surely awaits us in Beijing.
We don’t need the collective wisdom of our basketball Ph.Ds to figure that one out.
All it takes is common sense.
No need to look back 35 years to realize we don’t have a ghost of a chance to medal in the Olympics basketball tournament.
Never had, never will. Be it in 1972, in 2008 and beyond.
When are we finally going to get it?
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Filipino-American fight fans in the Central Valley and the Bay Area of California are aware of the World Cup of Boxing featuring the finest of boxers from Mexico and the Philippines.
But it remains to be seen if these boxing aficionados will come to Sacramento’s Arco Arena on August 11th to watch world championship boxing that does not feature Manny Pacquiao.
Two outstanding Filipino fighters—Boom Boom Bautista and Gerry Pe?alosa—are in the main events.
Bautista will box with Daniel Ponce De Leon for the WBO junior featherweight championship. Pe?alosa will face Jhonny Gonzales for the WBO bantamweight championship.
Ticket prices for this Golden Boy Promotions card range from $275 for ringside and $40 for the nosebleed seats.
