Fine, Fine Time

Whoever at Nike decided to print only 150 Ateneo three-peat championship shirts is an absolute idiot. Either that, or he has developed an aversion to making money. In any case, it feels good to refer to that asshole, whoever he may be, as an absolute idiot. Almost therapeutic, even.

Look. Those 150 shirts would not even be enough for all the resident-students of Eliazo Hall alone. That is how dumb that decision is. That a demand for this shirt was artificially created is obvious - there is not enough supply even for the residents of the smallest dormitory in campus. It's like providing a slice of cake to a convention of supermodels the day before the apocalypse.

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Of course, by now everyone knows that the blue birds from Loyola Heights won the UAAP men's basketball championship yet again, making them champions for three years running. This year, like last year, the cows from Morayta were favored to win it all, for good reason. The cows had two players who are members of the national basketball team. They had the eventual MVP and ROY. The birds, on the other hand, lost three players to graduation. All three players ended up being picked in the PBA draft, two of whom were picked first and second overall.

After the Game 1 blowout, there were suggestions of game-fixing. So, I will take this opportunity to confess. Yes, I bribed the entire crayola squad to play like shit that day. That is the only way I can ensure a 23-point blowout. Pay off every single soul wearing a yellow and green jersey. Having only the MVP in your pocket just doesn't cut it.

This explains why I almost had no more budget for the second game. Beavis almost refused to lose the game until funds were transfered just before he took three free throws at the endgame. He missed two, setting up Buenafe's shot of a lifetime on the other end.

If you believe any of that, then you must be someone from Nike who thinks that printing only 150 shirts for the most rabid basketball fans in the country is a cool thing.

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I was lucky enough to watch most of the first round games, and some of the second round games live - including both games against the pepsters. The first round game was already won, before one player decided to lose the game all by himself. The second round game was pure, unadulterated pleasure. It was a game that was over by the middle of the first quarter.

Which is very much like the first game of the finals, which I watched from the comfort of a hotel room near Taft. I am still hoping that that would be the last time I would spend a night at that hotel. I watched the second game from Upper Box A, in the same section where an elated Jumbo Escueta later climbed up to moments after the final buzzer.

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Speaking of the apocalypse, another moron decided to ruin some otherwise promising lives one afternoon in Manila, by throwing a fragmentation grenade at a huge throng of people in a celebratory mood. Over 40 people were injured, including a sophomore law student who had to lose both legs because of the senseless act of an idiot who could very well be the living argument that abortion should be legalized. I will forever be in awe of the courage shown by Ms. Raissa Laurel after the incident.