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Phoenix Fuel Masters now focus on working with new pieces

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

AFTER they let go of a key piece in Calvin Abueva, the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters are now focusing on working with what they got in return and continue with their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) push.

The Fuel Masters surprised many in the PBA when they decided to trade do-it-all forward Abueva to the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok in exchange for guard Chris Banchero and first and second round picks in this year’s rookie draft.

The deal came on the heels of Mr. Abueva signing a three-year extension with the Fuel Masters in December following a stellar showing in the PBA “bubble” last year, where he was a key part in Phoenix’s solid showing, coming within a win away from advancing to its first-ever finals appearance.

He rejoined the team after being suspended by the league for 16 months for conduct unbecoming of a professional and actions detrimental to the league.

In his return, Pampanga native Abueva was still his all-around self, averaging 15.4 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.7 steals and was in the running for best player of the conference.

He also held his emotions in check throughout the tournament, even earning consideration for the sportsmanship award.

In trading Mr. Abueva, Phoenix said it was not an easy decision to make, considering what he brings to the team but something it had to do for it felt there were other teams that could better handle his persona on and off the court moving forward.

“It was a hard decision to make by the management and the coaches. We stuck with him through thick and thin while he was out of the league. Calvin is a very good basketball player, but it’s not just basketball with him. There are a lot of things and everybody knows that. We embraced that for a long time until the Magnolia offer fell in our lap,” said Phoenix team manager Paolo Bugia on The Chasedown program on Saturday.

The Phoenix team official said they considered the offer and felt it will be a win-win deal for all concerned with them getting value in return, apart from pursuing the direction it wants to take, and Magnolia acquiring a player like Mr. Abueva and the latter going to a good team.

“With that offer, we felt like we got a superstar in his own right in Chris Banchero, something that we needed because we didn’t really have a pure point guard to take the pressure off Matthew Wright. On top of that, we also got a lottery pick (sixth overall) in what many consider to be a talent-rich rookie pool. We are now ready to move on and focus on basketball,” Mr. Bugia said.

The deal also included Magnolia getting Phoenix’s first-round pick (10th) in the March 14 draft.

The Phoenix-Magnolia trade came just as the teams are girding for the deep pool of players in this year’s rookie draft where a record 97 aspirants have applied for the draft, consisting of standout collegiate and pro-am players and promising Fil-foreigners.

Mr. Bugia said they are looking to use the picks they got from Magnolia to get a big man and a versatile forward.

Osaka wants to ‘live in the moment’

MELBOURNE — Naomi Osaka added a second Australian Open title to her two US Open crowns on Saturday, but said she would rather “live in the moment” than set ambitious targets for further Grand Slam glory.

The Japanese third seed overpowered American Jennifer Brady (6-4, 6-3) at Rod Laver Arena and is now in the bracket of luminaries like Kim Clijsters and Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, who also won four Slams.

With her career still budding at the age of 23, further major trophies will be expected to follow, particularly if Osaka can convert her hardcourt form to clay and grass.

“Right now, I’m trying to go for five,” she told reporters after winning a 21st completed match in succession.

“I like to take things not big-picture. For me, I like to live in the moment.

“But I don’t want to weigh myself down with pressure and expectations. I know that the people that I’m playing against are the best players in the world and if my time comes to win another Grand Slam, it will come.

Osaka joined Roger Federer and Monica Seles as players to win all four of their first Grand Slam finals.

She said her big match credentials might have stemmed from childhood when she felt more motivated to win in front of a rare audience.

“I didn’t play a lot of tournaments when I was a kid, so I’d always want to take the opportunity whenever someone was watching me, I’d feel like it was more fun that way,” she said.

“So maybe that’s how I developed wanting a crowd and wanting to play in front of more people.

“But I also think it’s because I watched a lot of Grand Slams growing up and seeing the crowds, seeing Arthur Ashe Stadium, seeing how it was in Australia and Rod Laver, and wanting to play in front of people and wanting to be, you know, the person holding up the trophy.”

There was nearly two years’ wait between her first and second braces of Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows and Melbourne Park, a period in which Osaka struggled to deal with her standing in the game.

She said she was now far more self-aware. “I think what I have learned on and off the court is it’s okay to not be sure about yourself,” she added. “I feel like I’ve always forced myself to be strong or whatever.

“I feel like the biggest thing that I want to achieve is — this is going to sound really odd, but hopefully I play long enough to play a girl that said that I was once her favorite player or something.” — Reuters

Pau Gasol denies Barcelona return

BARCELONA — Double NBA champion Pau Gasol says he is not ready to return to playing and is focusing on recovering from injury after Spanish media reported he is set to return to boyhood club Barcelona.

“After hearing the news out of Spain today, I wanted to share that I remain focused on my recovery and I am not ready to get back to competing just yet,” Gasol, 40, said on his official Twitter account on Saturday. “As soon as I have something to announce, I will do so via my social media channels.”

Gasol has been out of action since 2019 due to a series of ankle injuries, last playing for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo had reported on Saturday that Gasol would play for Barça until the end of the season to regain full fitness ahead of this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Gasol, regarded as the best Spanish player of all time, has represented his country at the last three Olympics, earning silver medals in 2008 and 2012 and bronze in 2016. — Reuters

NBA, Smart Communications relaunch league website with local fans in mind

THE National Basketball Association (NBA) and Smart Communications last week relaunched the league’s website here aimed at providing content that suits local fans’ taste.

In a virtual press conference on Thursday, officials of NBA Asia and Smart shared their excitement in furthering their existing partnership through NBA.com/Philippines.

They said their ramped-up linkup is built on the groups’ common thrust to bring the league to more Filipino fans in a manner they can appreciate better.

“We greatly appreciate the interest and support we get from Smart. Our business is dependent on global companies that are innovative and driven to provide the best experience to our consumers. And Smart has a long history of this, delivering this level of quality,” said Scott Levy, NBA Asia managing director, during the press conference.

“NBA.com/Philippines will be a one-stop destination for NBA fans, everything about the league. We are thrilled to extend our cooperation with Smart and we are excited to discuss even more ways that we can work together,” he added.

The relaunched NBA website will offer Filipino fans access to game highlights, stats, standings, scores, schedules and more.

But to make it more “localized,” it will feature a roster of sports reporters and basketball personalities here, who will give their recaps and analyses of games.

The people behind the website said among the personalities set to join their team are former Philippine Basketball Association and national team player Jimmy Alapag and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas project director and Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin.

They also said a number of PBA players and coaches have expressed interest to share their thoughts on the website.

A weekly podcast titled “NBA Hype Squad” is also being worked out. It will feature discussions hosted by local influencers about the latest league news. 

These are in addition to the already existing offering of the NBA and Smart, which includes access to NBA League Pass for Smart subscribers and NBA.Smart, which livestreams NBA TV Philippines, a localized version of the NBA’s dedicated 24/7 channel.

The redesigned website is also now part of Smart’s promotions, where the network provides its prepaid and postpaid subscribers access to editorial content on NBA.com/Philippines without incurring data charges.

“This is a huge milestone not only for Smart, but also for Filipino fans who now have a dedicated new platform to follow their idols, stay up-to-date on games, and engage with fans who share the same passion for hardcourt action,” said Smart President and CEO Alfredo Panlilio of their latest partnership with the NBA.

“We want to address the passion of NBA and basketball fans here.”

NBA ALL-STAR GAME
Meanwhile, in league news, the NBA All-Star Game took further form last week with the starters and coaches revealed.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant will lead the competing teams in the Midseason Classic set for March 8 (Manila time) at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

Mr. James will be joined in his team by Luka Dončić (Dallas), Stephen Curry (Golden State), Nikola Jokić (Denver), and Kawhi Leonard (LA Clippers).

Team Durant, meanwhile, has Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn), Bradley Beal (Washington), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee), and Joel Embiid (Philadelphia).

Coaches are Quin Snyder (Utah) for Team James and Doc Rivers (Philadelphia) for Team Durant.

The 2021 NBA All-Star Draft will be held on March 5. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Ronda Pilipinas MeMOErial Ride

THE Ronda Pilipinas on Saturday held a tribute ride that started and ended at the Tarlac Recreational Park in San Jose, Tarlac for its late chairman Moe Chulani.

It was solemn event, dubbed “A MeMOErial Ride, A Ride for Moe,” that was attended by Mr. Chulani’s brother Ravinder, close friend and Ronda co-founder Dino Araneta and past champions Jan Paul Morales, Ronald Oranza, and George Oconer.

Approved by both the Inter-Agency Task Force and the local government of Tarlac, the tribute ride was participated in by teams from Navy-Standard Insurance, 7-Eleven, Go for Gold, Army-Bicycology, Tarlac, Placido Valdez’s developmental team and executive friends like Jeremy Go, Quin Baterna, Wilson Cheng, and Roland Cunanan among them.

“This is for Moe,” said Ronda project director Bernadette Guerrero.

Under Mr. Chulani’s leadership, Ronda has staged a total of 10 multi-stage races starting in 2011 that produced some of the best cyclists in the country today, including last year’s champion Oconer.

Ronda organizers have deferred holding a race this year due to the pandemic.

But organizers announced there will be qualifying races late this year for the main event set on February next year.

Herald of new age

For all the narratives about how the Australian Open women’s singles title was up for grabs, it could not have been but Naomi Osaka’s to lose from the outset. For other supposed contenders casting a moist eye on the hardware, it certainly didn’t help that safety protocols wreaked havoc on practice schedules. Forced quarantines threw off the conditioning of hopefuls who had the misfortune of having flown in to the continent on chartered planes with passengers stricken by the novel coronavirus. That said, she was always the conservative choice, and not simply because of a successful run to the championship at the United States Open.

To be sure, Osaka’s campaign at Melbourne Park wasn’t all roses. She had to withdraw from a tune-up event the weekend prior to the start of the Australian Open due to what she described as a “niggling injury,” although the oblique reference indicated that the move was more out of an abundance of caution than of anything serious. After coasting in the first three rounds, she then had to fight off an equally determined Garbiñe Muguruza to advance to the Round of Eight; she had to claw back from a set down and survive two match points in order to keep her bid for a second Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup alive.

Above all else, of course, Osaka had to deal with Serena Williams en route to the crown. Forget that the 23-time Grand Slam champion hadn’t claimed a major stop on tour in four years. As far as she was concerned, the widely acknowledged greatest of all time in the sport remained her biggest obstacle. And for a while in their semifinal-round encounter, it looked as though she would, indeed, find the going tough. After bowing in the first two games, however, she proved superior by far and wound up defeating her childhood idol three and four in largely workmanlike fashion.

In the aftermath, Osaka stayed typically humble, cognizant of her latest achievement but with a clear understanding that it was no guarantee of future success. All the same, the relative ease with which she dealt with Williams, coupled with the latter’s seeming resignation to the fact that Father Time is undefeated, effectively signaled a changing of the guard. And she’s exactly what tennis needs in a time of uncertainty; she’s confident, self-assured but not off-putting, and, most importantly, dependable. She’s the herald of a new age, and figures to be for some time to come.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

Thailand pushes cannabis as next cash crop

BANGKOK, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Thailand is promoting cannabis as a cash crop for the country’s farmers as another source of income, a senior official said on Sunday.

“Everybody has the right to grow marijuana by partnering up with provincial hospitals for medical use,” deputy government spokeswoman Traisulee Traisoranakul said, adding that those interested would have to also seek approval from authorities.

“So far, 2,500 households and 251 provincial hospitals have grown 15,000 cannabis plants,” she said. “We hope that cannabis and hemp will be a primary cash crop for farmers.”

Others that can seek licenses to grow cannabis include universities, community enterprises, medical professionals and traditional medicine professionals.

The announcement comes after Thailand last year removed certain cannabis and hemp parts of from its narcotics list.

Cannabis can also be used in food and beverages at restaurants, as long as it came from an approved producer, Traisulee said, adding that the Medical Marijuana Institute will hold information sessions for investors and the public this month.

The state drugmaker, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization, said it would buy cannabis from approved community enterprises for up to 45,000 baht ($1,500) per kilogram, for those containing 12% cannabidiol (CBD). – Reuters

Israel starts reopening as COVID-vaccinated population nears 50%

JERUSALEM – Israel reopened swathes of its economy on Sunday, with the government saying the start of a return to routine was enabled by a COVID-19 vaccination drive that has reached almost half the population.

Shops were open to all. But access to leisure sites like gyms, hotels and theatres was limited to people who have had both doses of the vaccine more than a week prior, or recovered from the disease with presumed immunity. Those people get “Green Pass” status displayed on a Health Ministry app.

Mask-wearing and social-distancing were still in force. Dancing was barred at banquet halls. Synagogues, mosques or churches were required to halve their normal congregation sizes.

Coming exactly a year after Israel’s first documented coronavirus case, Sunday’s easing of curbs was part of a government plan to open the economy more widely next month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is up for reelection.

“We are the first country in the world that is reviving itself thanks to the millions of vaccines we brought in,” he tweeted. “Vaccinated? Get the Green Pass and get back to life.”

Israel has administered at least one dose of the Pfizer Inc vaccine to more than 46% of its 9 million population, the Health Ministry says. The risk of illness from COVID-19 dropped 95.8% among people who received both shots of the vaccine, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The country has logged more than 740,000 cases and 5,500 deaths from the illness, prompting criticism of the Netanyahu government’s sometimes patchy enforcement of three national lockdowns. It has pledged that there will not be a fourth.

But Nachman Ash, a physician in charge of the country’s pandemic response, told Army Radio that another lockdown “is still possible … Half of the population is still not immune.”

Elementary schoolchildren and pupils in the last two years of high school attended classes on Sunday in Israeli towns found to have contagion rates under control. Middle schoolers are due back by next month, after almost a year of remote learning. – Reuters

Big U.S. companies slash donations to politicians after Trump election challenge

WASHINGTON – Ten U.S. corporations slashed donations to candidates seeking federal office by more than 90% in January, after pledging to cut off giving to the Republicans who supported former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his election defeat.

None of the political action committees of 10 major companies reviewed by Reuters, including Microsoft Corp , Walmart Inc, AT&T Inc and Comcast Corp , donated to any of the 147 congressional Republicans who voted to support Trump’s claims just hours after his supporters launched a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Disclosures to the Federal Election Commission ahead of a Saturday filing deadline showed the group of corporate PACs affiliated with those 10 companies made $13,000 in new donations to candidates in January. The reports were the first by the PACs to detail contributions made since the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The money donated during the month was less than one-tenth the roughly $190,000 the 10 company PACs gave candidates in January 2017, and tiny relative to the roughly $10 million donated to candidates during the 2019-2020 election season. The 147 lawmakers who voted to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory had received more than $2 million from those 10 PACs during the last two-year political cycle.

Only committees tied to two of the companies – General Electric Co and American Express Co – reported any new giving to federal candidates in January.

American Express’ PAC gave $5,000 to Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, while GE’s gave $5,000 to Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a prominent Republican Trump critic, and $1,000 to Representative Rick Larsen of Washington, a Democrat.

Political giving usually slows down in the months after a U.S. general election and money from corporate political action committees is a small slice of the funds raised by political campaigns.

But the paucity of corporate-affiliated giving in January points to a slower start in one corner of political finance ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Corporate PACs cannot donate money from the company treasury but generally serve as a conduit for contributions from managers and shareholders.

Committees affiliated with Best Buy, State Street Corp, Dow Inc and Nike Inc did not report new donations to any candidates in January.

While more than a thousand PACs are associated with corporate America, the 10 reviewed by Reuters include major companies which made clear public statements that they would throttle back donations following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. – Reuters

United Airlines Boeing 777 lands safely in Denver after engine failure

WASHINGTON – A United Airlines flight landed safely at Denver International Airport on Saturday after its right engine failed, the Federal Aviation Administration said, with dramatic images showing debris from the plane scattered on the ground.

The Boeing 777-200 plane, with 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, was heading to Honolulu when it suffered an engine failure soon after takeoff, the airline said.

There were no reports of injuries, either on the plane or the ground.

Images posted by police in Broomfield, Colorado showed significant plane debris on the ground, including an engine cowling scattered outside a home and what appeared to be other parts in a field. Police tape was used to cordon off the debris.

One video taken from what appeared to be inside the United plane showed an engine on fire.

Another video on social media showed a cloud of black smoke being left by a plane.

“Something blew up,” a man on the video can be heard saying.

In an audio recording, a United pilot could be heard making a mayday call to air traffic control.

“Mayday, aircraft just experienced engine failure, need to turn immediately,” according to audio from the monitoring website liveatc.net which was reviewed by Reuters.

The FAA said it and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB said it had opened an investigation.

“If you find debris PLEASE don’t touch it or move it. The @NTSB wants all debris to remain in place for investigation,” the Broomfield police department said on Twitter.

The 26-year-old 777 was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. Investigators will focus on what caused the accident and will look at whether a fan blade failed.

Boeing said its technical advisers would assist the NTSB with its investigation, while United pledged to “work with federal agencies investigating this incident.”

United said most of the passengers on Flight 328 took off on a new flight to Honululu late Saturday.

Engine failures are rare but are potentially dangerous whenever rotating parts pierce the outer casing – an event known as an uncontained engine failure.

In February 2018, an older Boeing 777 operated by United and bound for Honolulu suffered an engine failure when a cowling fell off about 30 minutes before the plane landed safely. The NTSB determined that incident was the result of a full-length fan blade fracture.

Because of the United fan blade separation incident, Pratt & Whitney, which is unit of Raytheon, reviewed inspection records for all previously inspected PW4000 fan blades, the NTSB said. The FAA in March 2019 issued a directive requiring initial and recurring inspections of the fan blades on the PW4000 engines. – Reuters

Taiwan scrambles air force again after Chinese exercises in South China Sea

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s air force scrambled for a second straight day on Saturday after a dozen Chinese fighter aircraft and bombers carried out drills close to Taiwan-controlled islands in the disputed South China Sea, the defence ministry in Taipei said.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as Chinese territory, has carried out repeated air missions in the southwestern corner of Taiwan’s air defence identification zone in recent months, mostly near the Pratas Islands.

After nine Chinese air force aircraft flew near the Pratas Islands on Friday, the Taiwanese Defence Ministry said it tracked 11 aircraft on Saturday – eight fighter jets, two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine aircraft, also near the islands.

It said Chinese naval forces were also involved but gave no details.

Taiwan’s air force warned the Chinese aircraft to leave and deployed missile systems to monitor the activity, the ministry said.

China has not commented on the last two days of activities. It previously said such manoeuvres were a response to “collusion” between Taipei and Washington, Taiwan’s main international backer and weapons supplier, and to safeguard Chinese sovereignty.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department on Saturday repeated a call for Beijing “to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan,” adding that it should “instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives.”

The Pratas Islands sit in the top part of the South China Sea and are also claimed by China.

Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, they are only lightly defended by Taiwan and are considered by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance – more than 400 km (250 miles) – from mainland Taiwan.

Chinese aircraft fly in the southwestern corner of Taiwan’s air defence zone on an almost daily basis, though the last such large-scale activity was on Jan. 24 when 12 Chinese fighters were involved.

Taiwan on Friday unveiled a reshuffle of senior security officials, including the appointment of a new, U.S.-trained defence minister, to help bolster military modernisation and intelligence efforts in the face of what it sees as a rising Chinese threat. – Reuters

Britain to offer all adults a COVID-19 vaccine by end of July

LONDON – All adults in Britain will be offered a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of July, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday ahead of a planned announcement on the cautious reopening of the economy from lockdown.

Johnson will set out a roadmap to ease England’s third national lockdown on Monday, having met a target to vaccinate 15 million Britons from higher-risk categories by mid-February.

Britain now aims to give a first dose to all over-50s by April 15, the government said, having previously indicated it wished them to receive the shot by May.

If all adults receive a dose by the end of July, it will be well ahead of a previous target that they would receive a vaccine by autumn.

After suffering the world’s fifth-worst official COVID-19 death toll and a series of mishaps in its pandemic response, Johnson’s government moved faster than much of the West to secure vaccine supplies, giving it a head start.

Johnson cautioned that there was a need to avoid complacency, adding that lockdown would only be lifted slowly.

“We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place,” Johnson said in a statement.

“But there should be no doubt – the route out of lockdown will be cautious and phased, as we all continue to protect ourselves and those around us.”

So far, he United Kingdom has given a first dose of vaccine to 17.2 million people, over a quarter of its 67 million population and behind only Israel and the United Arab Emirates in vaccines per head of population.

Two vaccines – one made by Pfizer and BioNTech , and another developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca – are being rolled out, and UK officials have advised that there can be a 12 week gap between doses. – Reuters

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