Junior recently launched his own site, www.filipinoflash.com, and wrote a touching entry about his father and namesake in his blog for Fathers’ Day.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

I wanted to quote a few paragraphs from it but when I clicked it, it says “copyright,” so just drop by the site if you can.

I first met the Donaires during a simple meeting with a few sportswriters at Mooon Café just a few months after Junior beat Vic Darchinyan.

It was a week before his birthday and Junior was busy training for his first defense against Luis Maldonado.

It was also back then that I learned the Donaires also spent some time in Silway (Sil-why) Siete before they left for the states. Silway Siete sits mid-way between General Santos City and Polomolok.

On hindsight, it seemed a cruel and unusual punishment to let a boxer who is in the middle of training have dinner with media folks whose appetite can sink the Titanic.

I think Junior only ate fruits, while we had a sampling of Mooon Café’s best.

Despite watching us gobble what he couldn’t eat—and making sure Junior didn’t steal a bite—the Donaires had fun.

They seemed more like friends instead of father and son and so it came as a surprise when I read a year later that they have split.

I met Donaire Sr. again a few months ago in a boxing match. Junior wasn’t there. It was a few months after their much-publicized split. I wanted to ask how Junior was, but thankfully, it was one of those moments when I got to think before I opened my mouth.

There is no reason to relive the reasons of their split. There’s no use giving unsolicited advice, as during the height of their “split,” they sure did get a lot. But if you have time, read Donaire’s entry.

If you aren’t touched by the emotions, then better have your cardiologist check your heart, because it isn’t there anymore.

It’s a must-read, not only for a trainer-father and boxer-son tandem, but for every parent who pushes his or her child to excel in sports.

RAGING LUNATIC. While Donaire Jr. is showing another facet of his personality, his one-time foe Vic Darchinyan is showing he is still as one-sided and as predictable as ever.

Darchinyan, who hasn’t met a question he can’t answer with a Donaire trashing, told fighthype.com, “After I beat Agbeko, I will fight anyone who is a true warrior…I’m not only going to break him, but I will retire Donaire. I’m going to have it where his corner or no doctor will stop the fight because I’m going to slowly beat him badly and then stop him and retire him. He talks
a lot and he forgot who made him, you know? I made him and I will break him.”

The Raging Bull is wrong. He didn’t “make” Donaire. The Filipino Flash’s left hook did.

I wonder if somebody asks Darchinyan about the weather, whether he will find a way to blame Donaire for all the rain.

When I first saw Darchinyan, I thought he didn’t seem to be the Raging Bull he projected himself to be. During the press con
for his fight against Z Gorres, he was just busy playing with a tiny glove on his finger.

This is the Raging Bull? I thought. This one couldn’t hurt a fly.

Then he opened his mouth.

At one point, though, he seemed to have been taken aback when somebody asked him, “Why do you talk like that? Why talk trash? Is that how you boost your confidence?”

I forgot Darchinyan’s answer but I could never forget the look on his face before he opened his mouth.

The Americans, who are rarely taken seriously in the international scene, had five-time World Cup champion Brazil in trouble.

They were up 2-0 in the Confederations Cup finals.

A nifty touch off a cross had the US up, 1-0, in just 10 minutes while a counter attack by Landon Donovan—ignored in the Spanish Liga where Brazil’s best play—had the US ahead by two.

This, from the same team the Brazilians buried, 3-0, in the elimination round. The same team that was last in its group going into the final elimination round matches.

Then the second half happened.

The Brazilians showed why they are the best in the world and piled three goals in the second half—four if you count the one the referee didn’t see—to set things in order again.

Despite the loss, the US gained a lot in the Confed Cup, showing they can be at par with the world’s best players, and even beat them, in the case of their win over Spain.

NOT FPJ. Fernando “Poe” Lumacad may have taken up a moniker based on the country’s most celebrated action hero but, based on the figurative and literal bashing the
Pinoy fighter has received, he didn’t show any of FPJ’s on-screen toughness.

Lumacad lost to Jorge Arce Jr. in three rounds and he may have lost far more than just a chance to make it big time in boxing.

Bob Arum and his trainer called him a quitter. And in boxing, that’s a damning sentence.

Michael Marley, the celebrated boxing journalist who sometimes uses his acerbic tongue, quoted Arum, “I’m no fighter. But it looked to me like the Filpino kid just quit. That is so unusual for a Filipino fighter.”

The trainer also told Marley, “Fernando told us he heard the referee count to seven…We asked him through an interpreter why he did not get up then and resume fighting. Fernando just turned his head away. I agree with Arum because he is right. The kid did quit.”

I’m no expert, but the question for me is why the hell did Lumacad’s manager book him a fight against Arce in the first place?

Going into the Lumacad fight, Arce was 51-39-5 with 40 KOs. Lumacad only turned pro in 2006 and was 19-1 going into last Sunday’s fight.

Eleven of his wins were against guys who had more losses than victories, and it was his first time to fight abroad.

One writer said for those who are used to see Manny Pacquiao, or the other fight-till-everything-drops-Pinoys, Lumacad was a “paradigm shift.”

Yep, he could be right.

But you know what could also be a nice shift? Going after unscrupulous managers who lead their fighters to a massacre.

I wonder if Lumacad’s manager is the same guy who’s sending Pinoy fighters to get butchered in Australia.

SO DARLING. You have to hand it to Robin Soderling.

Watching him at the end of the match against a guy named Roger Federer, you wouldn’t know he just lost his 11th straight match to the Swiss.

He was all smiles.

Number 11 came after loss No. 10 in the French Open finals, when Soderling said he was looking forward to Wimbledon because, “After all, no guy can beat me 11 straight times.”

In an AP report, Soderling was asked after No. 11, since he couldn’t beat Roger in tennis, can he beat him in anything else?

“I think I will beat him in marathon easy,” he said. “I’m pretty good at marathon. I’m a strong guy. I think I’m stronger than him.”

Typical Roger, of course, wouldn’t just roll over and lose.

“I’ll stay behind him and pass him at the end.”

Weak team, lucky to be in the semis, faces the No. 1 team who hasn’t tasted defeat in quite awhile—35 matches in almost three years.

At Nos. 1 and 14, only 13 spots separate the US from Spain in the world rankings, but talent-wise, they are worlds apart.

Spain was supposed to remain undefeated in a record 36 matches, and win its 15th straight—another record.

But the US beat the European champions, 2-0, in the Confed Cup semis.

As US and Everton keeper Tim Howard aptly said, “Sometimes football is a funny thing.”

The US wasn’t supposed to be in the final four. It was fourth in its group going to the final elimination matches.

But the Americans found their groove and beat Egypt, 3-0, and Brazil helped book them a semis seat by beating Italy, 3-0.

The US, Italy and Egypt all finished with three points on one win and two losses and the Italians and Americans were tied at minus two on goal difference. The US, thanks to Brazil, got the second spot in Group B through “goals for” at four to Italy’s three.

In Group A, Spain won its first three matches, 5-0, 1-0, 2-0 and people were already salivating at the thought of a Spain vs. Brazil final. Too bad the Americans forgot their role.

The Americans may have Brazil to thank for their semis stint.

But after the win against Spain, the Samba Kings will have to thank the US.

Had the Spaniards won, it would have meant they have broken Brazil’s 35-match unbeaten record.

For now, the two teams are still tied.

KILL JOYS. This one is also a familiar story, a sad one.

Philippine basketball faces an international ban
because—surprise, surpise—leaders can’t stay in the same room without killing each other.

The Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), led by failed senator Prospero Pichay and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP)—sort of a Tagalized name of BAP—are back fighting each other again.

Did you know this whole mess started in a game involving movie stars?

Back in 2004, the Philippine team—which was set to play in an international event—lost in a game against a team peppered by movie stars.

Somebody, somewhere thought, “This is ridiculous!” And the movement to replace the officers for life of BAP was started.

BAP was expelled from the Philippine Olympic Committee, and Pilipinas Basketball (PB) stepped in.

BAP clung for dear life, Fiba rejected PB, banned RP from international play and forced the two to form a new group, hence SBP was born.

A year later, BAP got resurrected, thanks to failed politico Pichay.

A year later, the two are back fighting. And now, the Philippines faces a ban, again.

It’s quite ironic that the progress of Philippine basketball is hampered because two groups—led by a guy named Prospero and another who wants to be known as MVP—can’t prosper and they disrespect each other’s value.

MARIA’S EXIT. For the second straight year, Maria Sharapova is out of Wimbledon in the second round.

But she went out fighting, though, and screaming. Boy did she scream.

At one point during the live telecast, you could see the shadow of a jet passing by the court. And of course, you could hear the plane’s engine.

But what was louder? Sharapova’s “Eeeyah!!! Aaaaiii!!!” I even thought she shouted something like, “Ayayayay,” while chasing a shot.

In the middle of the rally, while she anticipated a return to the forehand Gisela Dulko, hit a drop shot—for the nth time—and I swear Sharapova was screaming, “Ayayayay.”

It’s either that, or she was saying something like, “Yawa, padagan-daganun gyud ko nimo.”

But that was the case in last Saturday’s main event.

Mark Ediva got too much wax.

Way too much. Perhaps he thought it was a “You are sissy” event, not URCC.

What, in heaven’s name, is wax doing in an MMA event?

No, Ediva didn’t go to a salon before the fight. According to first-hand accounts, he applied liberal amounts of wax so Engi Piloto couldn’t catch him.

Master Ekin Cañiga, Piloto’s coach, was pissed.

They didn’t mind losing, as long as the other guy plays fair.

You see, in MMA, getting a hold of the other guy is essential. You can’t score a submission if you can’t get a grip.

Because of the wax, Piloto got axed.

Though Ediva got warned early in the fight, he still got away with being artificially slippery.

So, I hope in future MMA events, the organizers will pay attention to waxing, and check fighters before a fight.

And if some of these fighters insist on applying a liberal amount of wax, you can call your friendly cross-dressing beautician to give that guy a real waxing.

Let’s see how tough he is.

SABAH-AN. When I learned Sabah Fadai was going to join the URCC event, I knew whoever that guy was facing was in big trouble.

A few months ago, a few members of the Sportswriters Association of Cebu dropped by Loft to get a few pointers on MMA.

After our session, I saw Fadai face a guy who looked like he just had a couple of refrigerators for snacks and could throw Fadai on a kitchen sink, out the window.
Fadai just manhandled the guy.

And last Tuesday, Andrew Benibe got to taste Fadai’s skills.

It’s a good thing that Fadai won because leading to the fight, he was oozing with confidence.

Had he lost, the next time he opens his mouth during MMA fights, somebody might say, “Saba dai.”

CONVERT. Renault Lao, the owner of Loft and the organizer of the event, just earned a new fan in Councilor Jack Jakosalem.

Jack The Wack, a boxing buff, watched the fights and learned firsthand why the sport is growing in the US.

“First time ko nalingaw live MMA. Now I know why MMA is beating boxing in the US,” Jack said.

Boxing may be at its peak in the Philippines, but in the US, some consider it a dying sport.

And in its place, the MMA events are sprouting up and getting bigger PPV buys than boxing.

“It can do the same here if Renault and MMA organizers further improve the quality and sustain the momentum,” Jack said.

I agree. But MMA is a growing sport and practitioners are not that many, that’s why “You are sissy” events are rare.

But, fret not, MMA fans. There was also a time in Cebu when boxing promotions were rare. So, the future looks bright in your sport.

There is just this tiny thing about wax though.

FEDERER MISSES. Roger Federer may have been his usual impressive self in his first round match, but according to Yahoo, his outfit had some ample room for improvement.

Yahoo’s tennis experts blogs wrote, “Roger Federer was going for the Generalismo motif. Looking either like a cross between a guy leading a coup and a backup dancer from Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” tour, the five-time champ’s military get-up was an interesting choice, but not as interesting as the tuxedo vest he wore in warm-ups…The only chance that look has at making it from Wimbledon to the country clubs is if it’s being worn by the valets.”

I guess, some tennis experts are just bored.

The Los Angeles Lakers won in five games.

Just like I said they would. LA in five, I said at the start of the NBA finals.

Win in five they did. And my man Kobe Bryant won the Most Valuable Player award.

And that came after Roger Federer, as I hoped he would, completed his career grand slam at the French Open.

What a lovely two weeks these have been.

And Wimbledon—the major tennis event that requires its players to wear white—starts on Monday and I hope good luck come in threes.

Because right now, things are looking good for Roger Federer’s fans.

Aside from Federer getting his 15th major this year, one of the other things I am looking forward to is Maria Sharapova’s return to Wimbledon after her second-round loss last year.

I wonder if she’ll show up with that “tuxedo outfit” again.

Sharapova, in that outfit, lost to No. 154 Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round, and her fellow Russian had scathing words after that win,

“It’s very pleasant to beat Maria. Why? Well, I don’t like her outfit. Can I put it this way? It’s a little too much of everything. It was one of the motivations to beat her,” she said.

Sidelined for almost 10 months, Sharapova dropped to a low 126 in the rankings.

However, she’s played quite well in her last three tournaments, making two quarterfinals—including in the French Open—and one semifinals.

Should that trend continues, either she’ll lose in the semifinals at Wimbledon or lose in the finals.

Either way, I’d be happy.

As for Federer, it looks like he won’t get to beat Rafael Nadal in Wimbledon.

The Spaniard is still nursing a bum knee and though he is seeded first in the grass event, he’s going to decide today whether he will defend his title or not.

The Spaniard missed the tuneup event for Wimbledon but played one exhibition and is set to play in another friendly game before deciding whether to rest or not.

And reports indicate Nadal may be back in Spain sooner than expected.

Nadal lost to Lleyton Hewitt in his first exhibition match and his coach said he isn’t optimistic of his ward’s chances of playing in Wimbledon.

“If it’s me, I’m (flying) to Mallorca,” his coach said in an AP report.

PHONICS. Here’s something funny. I overheard an editor last week—he shall remain unidentified for his safety—say the acronym for Universal Reality Combat Championships, ironically, sounds like “You are sissy!”

Ouch.

I’ve always thought URCC sounded funny.

When I first heard about it a few years back, I thought it was a fight sponsored by a ketchup company. I thought then that you have to be a really sick marketing folk if you want to associate your ketchup with a bloody fight.

But, URCC, like it or not, has stuck.

And today mixed-martial arts fans can have the fill of their action in URCC IV at the CICC.

Just don’t go shouting “U! R! C! C!” to anybody’s face.

TYPO ERROR? If URCC wants to get to the same level as boxing here in Cebu, fixing their weight divisions is a good start.

Going to the weigh-in Mark Ediva thought he could make the limit. He weighed at 154 pounds, five below the 159-pound limit.

The problem is, Ediva is fighting at the 149-pound limit.

But if Dancesport Team Cebu City (DTCC) will have its way, it wants everybody to dance to that tune—cops, politicians, and every Juan included.

Even every one who is against the Cha-Cha.

But, unfortunately for the congressmen and women and Ate Glue—as Valentin Dakuykoy calls her—this is not about House Resolution 1109. This one is about the real cha-cha, or chachacha to be precise.

Ed Hayco, his lovely wife Eleanor and DTCC want to break the record for the largest dance class at the Cebu City Sports Center and everybody is invited to join the party.

The current record was set by Budapest at 2,289.

It was just one of three records broken by that city on May 23, 2009.

Curiously, the Budapest event was also led by a husband-and-wife tandem, identified only in
www.community.guinnessworldrecord.com as Norbi and Reka.

DTCC is targeting 4,000 participants and should it get that number, they’d have enough buffer to get the record.

I think the CCSC football field’s dimension is 90 by 60—or an area of 5,400 square meters. And if a pair needs a dance area of 1.5m by 1m, the field can hold 3,600 pairs or 7,200 participants.

According to the Internet report, 2,954 joined the Budapest event, but due to Guinness’s strict guidelines—those who stopped dancing before the 10-minute mark was up were not counted—only 2,289 were included in the record.
DTCC’s event was originally scheduled for June 23 but has been moved to June 27.

So have yourself counted! Let’s do the cha-cha.

But leave your politics at the gates.

THRILLING NUMBER. While looking for articles online about the dance class record, I came across a curious story.

Last May 15, the College of William and Mary in the US set the record for the most number of people simultaneously dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in one place at 242.

I thought the CPDRC folks number more than 242?

FAJARDO SAGA. You have to admire University of Cebu (UC) basketball director Baldomero Estenzo.

He makes UC look good while stopping 6’9” June Mar Fajardo from training with the Smart Gilas national team, and he gets to swipe at the University of the Visayas (UV) while doing so.

Estenzo said UC values Fajardo’s studies, and letting him play for the national team would hamper that.

“How can he attend classes if his training is in Manila?” Estenzo told Sun.Star last Saturday.

Which is indirectly saying, “How can Greg Slaughter attend classes if his training is in Manila?”
It’s a known fact. Basketball players make for bad role models for education.

This reminds me of a curious little incident that went unnoticed when the first Partners Cup was held. One coach said he
was still having problems gathering his players because they were still on vacation in the provinces.

I remember that quite clearly because I was still studying and that came out when we were already in our sixth week of classes.I so wished then to be “still vacationing.”

Anyway, is UC right in stopping Fajardo?

Well, in football, people who force players to play for their club instead of their country are selfish buggers.

But, this is basketball. And for UC, it seems the Fajardo case isn’t about club and country. It’s about proving a point.

Hmmm.I wonder if Cesafi is amenable to holding a couple of side events this season—an academic contest for its athletes, and an athletic competition for its Dean’s Listers.

That way, we’ll know who the brainiest brawns are, and the brawniest brainies.

Well, it’s just a thought.

Like millions of Pinoys, he loves basketball and follows the NBA religiously.

The problem is, like the rest of other fans who follow sports in another timezone, he’s at work when all he wants to do is chug that beer while cheering hoarse for the Lakers (or the Magic for you non-Kobe believers).

Luckily for Harry, he’s got an Internet connection in his office and he gets to follow game results online (Note to HR manager: Harry doesn’t work for your company.)

I remember, when Michael Jordan and Karl Malone faced off in the 1996 and 97 finals, Sun.Star ran a story of how certain guys at City Hall went missing in the hours between 9 and 12.

Now, because of the Internet, folks like Harry don’t have to skip work to follow the games.

But that comes with an inconvenience. Doing such may be detrimental to your physical and employment health.

How can you pretend to be hard at work if you shout “Yes!” every time Kobe makes a basket? Or when that Superman
makes a dunk? And how can you suppress your emotions when your team wins and you’ve just won a sizeable bet?

Aaah. A fan’s dilemma. It’s every advertiser’s dream.

They know sports fans, wherever they are in the world or whatever it is they are doing, will always look for ways to watch their teams.

PARTNERS CUP. My previous column about the demise of the Partners Cup attracted a few reactions, including from Cesafi Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy himself.

Tiukinhoy said he heard the Cebu Football Association (CFA) questioned his appointment of Jonathan Maximo as the tournament director for Cesafi and that he was embarrassed for the sponsors since they’ve been asking when the event will start.

To be honest, when Tiukinhoy appointed Maximo, like the CFA board, I was surprised, though for a different reason.

I thought the board assumed the director would be someone from them, while I thought that after four years at CFA, Maximo would stay away from anything football.

But the way the Cesafi games were ran—except that little incident about the phantom punch—erased my doubts.

Tiukinhoy also added that the Partners Cup will push through in July but this will be the first and last. Well, who can blame Cesafi?

Their responsibility is only to organize one tournament a season. They tried to go the extra mile and got rejected.

Another one, Sugbu, also commented in my blog, “Partners Cup Death, this one is something that I don’t quite understand.Why would a well-planned Cup with a decent budget be postponed or be affected by CFA’s cold treatment? Small time festivals don’t get postponed if CFA won’t sanction it. The only logical reason I see fit for now is probably the colleges themselves don’t see the mutual advantage of the Partners Cup (that’s) why only a few enlisted. Or it could be that some teams are not just ready for the competitive demands of the cup yet.”

To be fair, the reason I got was that only two teams were ready. The snub—which came from the coaches, not from the CFA—was assumed.

But I’ve covered football long enough to know that when teams don’t join a tournament, it’s because they don’t want to, not because they are not ready.

Another one also said, “Why is CFA making a fuss about Cesafi not coordinating with them? What about this ___ Festival? Is it in the calendar of activities of the CFA? The reason is very clear. CFA is just politicking. They can’t accept the fact that Maximo is a mile better than them in terms of organization.”

It’s quite a stretch to say Maximo is better than the current board in running a football organization. But the present board can learn a thing or two about running a tournament from him.

Beating up a kid for wearing the other team’s jersey? Done that.

Throwing a coin at the linesman for a wrong call? Ditto.

Charging a ref for a non-call on a penalty? That too.

It’s too bad that a stupid dude decided to show the tennis world how rowdy football fans can be in one of the sports’s grandest stage—the French Open finals between Roger Federer and Robin Soderling.

The guy probably thought he was being funny. But after the Monica Seles incident, things like this aren’t funny.

And Monica Seles was the first thing on the mind of most fans who are old enough to remember the 1993 stabbing.

Clad in red and waving an FC Barcelona flag, he tried to force Federer to wear a red hat. After escaping the guards the first two times, he jumped over the net, lost his balance and was met by a vicious tackle that one reporter said “would have made a rugby union player proud.”

At first, I thought it was that crazy German “football consultant,” but CNN said the guy was a known prankster in Europe.

Well, that prankster got his 15 minutes of fame, and Roland Garros, and other tennis venues, will now be watching out for his ilk.

FESTIVALS. In local soil, some footballers are also quite hard to understand. (Crazy is too strong a word.) Somebody announced in my blog their school’s coming football festival, and as predicted, somebody disses the event, calling it a money-making scheme.

It’s not new. It’s a recurring theme. It’s probably true in some cases and not in others.

Disgruntled footballers see it as a scheme because of the registration fees for the teams, but do organizers of these festivals have the right to charge fees?

They do, they can. Tough luck.

If this was organized in Polomolok, the group would have been hailed as heroes. Since it is in Cebu, they are considered good-for-nothing and money-hungry bastards.

If the fees are too high, then teams can opt not to join. Without the teams, there are no tournaments.

The Cebu Football Association can’t organize a tournament covering every weekend. Heck, without these festivals, teams will be lucky to play in one tournament in a year.

Some footballers in Cebu are a funny bunch. They want to play in all tournaments and want them for free. They want organizers to be world-class, but can’t even follow a simple instruction like “pass the lineup on time.”

One common comment I often hear from players and from visitors are “Cebuano footballers don’t know how lucky they are. They have lots of tournaments and they get a lot of media mileage.”

The first is still true, the second isn’t anymore—but that’s a different story.

PARTNERS CUP DEATH. The Partners Cup for football was supposed to start last May 30, but it has since been moved (indefinitely?) because of lack of interest. Only two teams were available.

Hmmm.

The director of the event is Jonathan Maximo, the former president of the CebuFA, which has since decided to call itself anew as the CFA. The current board has complained that its former president’s event isn’t in their calendar and Maximo didn’t coordinate with them.

I may be out of touch of the football beat, but I can still pretty much read between the lines and it seems the current board is saying, “You won’t bother coordinating with us, we won’t join your event.”

There is no way of sugar-coating this, but the animosity between the current board and the previous president is not good for collegiate football.

And the snub on the Partners Cup isn’t either.

I thought it was about time Cesafi recognized football’s importance by organizing a separate event for the sport.

With this snub, it may turn out the Cesafi was right in ignoring the sport.

The guy named after a famous beef his parents saw on a restaurant menu, Kobe was as cold as stored meat.

While the Lakers were trailing the Jazz in the first round of the 1997 playoffs, he air-balled a potential game-winning three in regulation and hit nothing but air in two attempts from the arc in the last minute of overtime.

Nick Van Exel, then LA’s starting guard who sank a catch-and-shoot trey earlier in the season, was pissed why the play was designed for Kobe.

I remember, after that miss, Kobe had a “what the hell am I doing here?” look.

The Jazz won the series, and went on to face the Chicago Bulls in that year’s NBA finals.

Van Exel is gone, while Bryant is now known as the greatest NBA closer—the go-to guy in the closing seconds—since Michael Jordan.

And he’s back in the NBA finals for the second straight year and scored 40 points in LA’s Game 1 rout of Orlando.

I officially became a Bryant fan just recently, but I actually started to admire the guy during one of his lowest points of his career.

In Game 6 of the final series against Boston last year, fans showered Bryant with the chants, “You’re not MJ” in a 39-point loss.

I remember a striking picture in that final. Kobe had his head turned slightly to his side, while fronting him was a fan with those words, “You’re not MJ.”

That season started with Kobe demanding a trade, so I half expected the post-season reports to be of Kobe demanding this or that, or of blaming him or that for the fiasco.

But, I don’t remember him saying anything bad.

Now that LA has won Game 1, I’m pretty sure the Lakers will win the finals. Phil Jackson is 43-0 when he wins Game 1 of a series.

I’m so confident the Lakers will win, I’ll have a former columnist eat his phone if they lose.

BAD REP. On the other hand, another player who jumped straight from high school to the pros and who could be greater than MJ, LeBron James, is getting quite a bad rep lately.

James was brilliant in the post-season, even during the six-game loss against the Magic in the conference finals.

But, after the loss, he refused to shake any player’s hand and walked off the court. One columnist called him a brat, while the NBA fined him $25,000.

QUOTES: “You know how I be, last week Kobe couldn’t do without me,” Kobe’s former teammate Shaquille O’Neal rapping after LA’s loss to Boston in 2008.

“I am saying it today and today only—I want Kobe Bryant to get number four,” Shaq said on his Twitter account in 2009.
I guess Shaq hated his first ex-team more than his second ex-team.

FROM DOWN UNDER. Graeme Mackinnon, the former Carmen coach who also follows tennis, reacted to my last column regarding Jelena Dokic (“God, can’t you give her a break?,” June 2). Here’s Graeme:

You are right, Mike she does need a fair go. With a DEVIL for a father she has spent more time in hell with him than anywhere else. So for just being able to escape him God has given her a break.

Thanks Graeme. I hope we see Jelena again in Wimbledon.

The ECCP festival this weekend at CIS and the USP cup on June 20 and 21.

Have fun!