Philippine Asian News Today Vol 20 No 20 | Page 28

SPORTS
28
SPECTATOR
By Al Mendoza
INSTEAD of grieving, Laker
fans should instead be celebrating.
There is a time to mourn, a time to
be joyous.
After all, the opening-day loss in
the just-started NBA season wasn’t
the end-of-the-world stuff.
Be content with seeing LeBron
James opening up with two thunderous
dunks to declare his rousing debut
with Los Angeles.
Big enough for his new team
thinking big of a robust rebound from
years of dungeons-like existence—
James jamming loopholes consistently
pretty soon.
Big enough, too, for the NBA to
learn that its biggest star’s monster
jams could only mean he is “ready to
rumble” in the world’s grandest stage
of basketball.
And, yes, who wouldn’t want to
see the Portland Trail Blazers win?
They were grieving before they
beat the Lakers 128-119.
They remained grieving still as
the passing of Blazers owner Paul
Allen had happened on the week of
the Laker-Blazer game.
Allen, who cofounded Microsoft
with his high school buddy Bill
Gates, had succumbed to Hodgkin
lymphoma. He was 65.
As a sophomore college dropout
from Washington State University,
Allen invited Gates, then studying at
Harvard University, to partner with
him at Microsoft.
In no time in the early Eighties,
Microsoft
made
them
multi-
millionaires.
In 1988, at age 35, Allen bought
the Trail Blazers, long the NBA’S
favorite whipping boys. Soon after,
the Blazers broke their losing streak
to record their best runs in franchise
history by barging into the NBA Finals
twice in three years.
They lost both times, but Allen,
who religiously watched Blazer games
seated next to his mother, was elated
no end.
In Allen’s vacant chair, during last
week’s Laker-Blazer game in Portland,
sat a single rose beside a “Rip City”
baseball cap.
Bloomberg said Allen’s net
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY October 16 - 31, 2018
A Laker loss worth celebrating
worth was $26.1 billion. He donated
$2 billion to the advancement of
science, technology, education, the
environment, and sports.
He loved the arts and the movies,
buying Captain Kirk’s command chair
from the 1960s TV series “Star Trek.”
But what I like most in Allen is his
love for rock ‘n’ roll. He bought guitars
owned by Jimi Hendrix.
In his song, “Purple Haze,” Jimi,
a lefty, had this immortal line, “Excuse
me while I kiss the sky.”
Allen is with Hendrix now in the
sky. Stop grieving.
For once, let our
senior citizens
hog the spotlight
MANNY Pacquiao isn’t fighting
Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December.
N’yet.
No Christmas purse of at least
$20 million for Pacquiao?
That’s bird feed if compared with
Pacquiao’s take of more than $100
million in the Pacquiao-Mayweather 1
in 2015.
But should their rematch
materialize—reportedly in May 2019—
Pacquiao can’t really complain.
Mayweather, too.
Both do not have the luxury of
time anymore. Pacquiao will be 40 by
May, Mayweather 42.
Not even the luxury of movement,
whether in footwork, arm speed or
body weaving and ducking.
Swift swing in dance a la John
Travolta is out, Baryshnikov ballet in.
As I keep saying here, when
Pacquiao and Mayweather make a go
of it again, the world will watch senior
citizens trying to wrestle each other to
the ground in their own sweet time.
But whether in slow motion or
slow drag, stop whining.
Being
sure-fire
suckers
yourselves—most boxing devotees
are like that, anyways—learn to live
with it, love it in all its soulful splendor
and boundless beauty.
When our rocking chair folk do
their thing, show respect. You’ll also
get there, sooner or later.
Meanwhile, who is this Adrien
Broner being bruited about as
Pacquiao’s tune-up foe on January
12?
Don’t look now but “The
Cincinnati Kid” is a four-time world
champion: 2011-2012 of the WBO
junior lightweight division, 2012-
2013 WBA lightweight, 2013 WBA
welterweight and 2015-2016 WBA
light welterweight.
And Broner, 29, has a 33-3-1, win-
loss-draw record, with 24 knockouts.
Never been knocked out.
I saw him fight the undefeated
Mikey Garcia, losing on points after
giving the Mexican a hell of a brawl
Broner is no patsy for Pacquiao,
whose last victory recently over Lucas
Matthysse was easily the Filipino icon’s
most distasteful knockout win ever.
Why, because Matthysse had
literally begged for his own stoppage
by dropping to his knees at least
twice, forcing the referee to declare
the Argentinian out of it.
If their fight pushes through, I
hope Broner will not make Pacquiao
a fake KO winner two in a row.The
thought sucks.
Yes, Pacquiao
must avoid
Crawford
TERENCE
Crawford
looks
invincible and Manny Pacquiao must
be wary of him.
That’s how Crawford appeared
on October 14, when he fought
fellow American Jose Benavides Jr. in
Omaha, Nebraska.
While both were unbeaten when
they climbed the ring, Crawford (34-0,
with 24 knockouts) had more cunning
and skills than Benavides (27-0, 18
Kos).
Result? Crawford, 31, knocked
Benavides, 26, out in the 12th round.
Did it help that Crawford fought
before his adoring fans—Omaha
being his birthplace to make him a
town mate of Warren Buffett, one of
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
the world’s richest men?
While the win solidified Crawford’s
grip of the WBO (World Boxing
Organization) welterweight crown he
captured by knocking Jeff Horn out in
the 9th on June 9, it also unmasked
Benavides’ supposedly glowing record
as suspect.
Were Benavides’ 27 previous
victims worthy opponents?
“Hindi kaya katumbas lang sila
ng magtataho rito sa atin?” said Jake
P. Ayson, my good neighbor. (Were
Benavides’ foes merely the equivalent
of taho vendors in our country?).
Early in the fight, I could see the
knockout coming.
While Crawford busied himself
throwing punches at every opportunity,
Benavides did nothing but crouch.
Benavides also did a lot of raising
his arms as if to attack, only to balk
Oh, yes, Benavides loved to
shake his head when he got hit, as
if telling Crawford his shots were but
powder-soft punches.
Not true, of course.
While Benavides might have
blocked some hits, most of Crawford’s
body blows had found their mark.
Clearly, they were jarring shots.
Absolutely, too, they weakened the
body.
And, as the sweet science credo
tells us, when the trunk is constantly
chopped, the arms would fall leading
to a collapse in defense.
For absorbing body blows
unrelentingly
for
11
rounds,
Benavides, obviously waiting to land
his haymaker that never came, got
himself virtually reduced to a pulp.
Thus, going to the fateful 12th,
Crawford saw clearly that Benavides
was ready for the slaughterhouse.
In a rare infight that a desperate
Benavides had hoped he could
connect his knockout shot, Crawford
crushed his foe’s jaw with a well-time
right to end it at the 2:42 mark of the
final round.
I just couldn’t understand
Benavides.
Was “Waiting for Godot,” the
classic theater of the absurd, a
favorite of his?
In practically the entire first 11
rounds, Benavides did nothing but
cock his fists and aim—only to abort
pulling the trigger at the last minute.
Were his 18 knockout victims
patsies, or he simply had too much
respect, fear, of Crawford?
It might also have something
to do with Crawford switching to
southpaw starting in the second
round—when he is officially listed as
an orthodox fighter from Day One?
Did that confuse Benavides no
end?
Ah, befuddling or not, Benavides
was simply not in the fight this time.
And to think that he is monikered
“Merciless.”