Game 3 of the Singapore Slingers Challenge Series took place last night, pitting us vs the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants (Philippines PBA).
The largest crowd of the Challenge Series was on hand (>5000 people) at the SIS to see us hold off a determined Giants team 92-84.
Ian (Redsports) has a wrap-up of the game here. Jason also has a great match report and photos. You can also read about it on the Slingers website.
I have to say the crowd at the game was fantastic. Admittedly, majority of them were Purefoods fans (James Yap fans probably), but the atmosphere at the game was great. We were playing a home game which at times felt like an away game. Someone told me the crowd number was 5000, but maybe it was more like 6000, and it certainly felt and sounded like 10,000 in there last night.
Shot of the 5000+ crowd (thanks Nic)
Another shot of the crowd
After the week we just had in Taiwan, and the previous 24 hours, it was a fantastic effort to hold off a fast finishing Purefoods team. They were certainly talented, more so than Air 21 and I was impressed by their multiple scoring options. Apart from James, they had a couple of inside/post players who did most of the damage for them. K Raymundo had some great post moves, could shoot the outside shot, and take our defenders off the dribble.
For us, we had a solid team contribution again. Armein was still out with a hamstring injury, and although Eric’s back is still not 100%, his presence on court helped immensely with his defense and rebounding.
- Photos by Francis
It was probably one of the most satisfying wins that I have been involved with – the way we played, the emotion, the crowd, the challenge of backing up to play after arriving back at 5am that morning.
There were a couple of times the game had some altercations, the most serious one involving a member in the crowd and the PTJG coach. I’m not really sure what happened, but it ended up with the guy being targeted by the philippino crowd and coins being thrown. A bottle of water was thrown in his direction and hit a poor lady in the courtside box. I have to say that kind of crowd behaviour is not on and it was quickly stopped by security. I was told that the guy said something to the PTJG coach about going back to the bench. If this is the case, first of all the coach should never have gotten involved with the crowd. This kind of thing happens regularly in the NBL and there is a line those on the court do not cross with those off the court. That is to say we ignore whatever the crowd is saying and do not get involved. Once the coach and team got involved, the crowd started to get involved too and it could have gotten ugly. Luckily some of the PTJG players waved to the crowd to stop it and the game could finish.
It was a great game, and I think the crowd appreciated the way it was played. Purefoods are definitely a popular team and we were happy to bring them here for the local philippino community to enjoy.
Next game is against Sydney Spirit on Sunday. We will have to play well to beat this team as they are a very good side in the NBL. I hope to see a good crowd again and it should be another high quality match.
Darren Ng 
hi darren. it was an entertaining game without a doubt. the showcase of skills on both sides was fantastic. i thought your last play slashing to the hoop was a thing of beauty.
on another note, as much as i had fun, the officiating was very disappointing. i know that some bad calls are inevitable as refs are humans after all, but last night’s case was on the verge of horrendous. there was even one funny play where a slingers player went to the basket, was not fouled, but the refs whistled. upon seeing the crowd react wildly, the refs changed the call to a ridiculous offensive foul. it should just have been a non-call. i guess the refs were just pressured to reciprocate some calls after many earlier bad calls going against purefoods.
in the final analysis, who got the better of the officiating may be subject to debate. but the serious lack of quality of officiating can harm the integrity of the sport in general, and question the credibility of the results. this, in my opinion, is something the basketball authorities in the country have to look into.
cheers and thanks for the good game. š
it was really a great game last night that even though the crowd was mostly for Purefoods, it really created a good atmosphere in the stadium and i think this is the “best” crowd the stadium has ever had for a basketball game. not even when the Slingers were during the NBL had this stadium was filled this much.
in the late 80’s and early 90’s, i was a Purefoods fan (because of #8 Al Solis) and also of San Miguel Beer (because of #8, Allan Caidic). Both #8’s were know for their 3pts shooting. and from what i have seen in the philippines, those who wear #8 are those good in 3pts arc. and Darren, you are #8..that’s why I like you, even when you were still with adelaide. because of your “deadly” 3-pointers.
anyway, we are all proud that the slingers wont inspite the fact that they just came back from a long “exciting” journey from taiwan.
see you all this sunday…and yeah, hope there will be another great crowd.
post note: just want to share with you my idol’s (Allan Caidic) credentials… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Caidic
The game last night was truly amazing! It felt like watching a match in Araneta Coliseum.
Filipinos are just so passionate about basketball, just like people from Brazil are passionate about football. “Ole! Ole! Ole! Ole!” Hahaha! With matching chants.
Anyway, the PBA fanatics were plainly unhappy with the bad calls. And I was shocked to see one referee blew his whistle, Raymundo made a face, and the referee gave the foul to Sandrin. Hahaha! Like, huh?! Winner talaga!
I was also surprised when you missed two free throws. It must be so tiring for your team to run from one court to the other, chasing the ball. Exhaustion was written all over your face last night. Tsk! Tsk! Good thing Gregorio didn’t place Simon (SEE-MON) in his roster last night. Haha! Simon was itching to play. However, he has to rest for next week’s conference.
Besides, Gregorio wanted to know if his new players can catch up with how his old and reliable players play.
But it really was a great game. Both teams played very well. *Pat on the back. Pat on the back.*
*Big heavy sigh!*
Bring Ginebra next time. Last night’s crowd would double.
hi darren, i would estimate it at around 8000 š
i have watched almost all the slinger games since their inception and it was the largest crowd ever for a slingers game by far.
sorry that you guys have been having ‘away’ games so far. must be hard to be booed on your home floor. there are a few of us slinger fans around but we get drowned out by the philipino fans. but not to worry, the rest of the games are bound to be proper home games and you guys can expect a ton of support š
that was a real weird fight with the person from the crowd. unless he screamed something short of racist there is no way the coach should react like that. it was really funny – like a player/coach could ever strike a fan without serious repurcussions. i thought the PBA had games with crowds of 10000-12000 regularly, can’t believe they are so unprofessional.
anyway, rest well guys, we want anohter win on sunday š
Hi Doc – I am a mom of a 9 yr old who is basketball mad – my son plays trains twice a week, and plays in a little league here. We live across the river and have been watcing the Slingers’ every game since their first season 2006. You are a true role model for kids – I tell my son you can be both a great player (and I mean GREAT!) and excel in school – just look at our No. 8 Darren. Be prund that you are an inspiration to kids. You were unstopable Tuesday. You play clean – no taunts, no fights, and no flashy bouts. I tell the kids: just cheer, never jeer. We’ll be supporting the team again this Sunday vs. Sydney. Go Doc! Go Doc!
Hey Bri,
I’m glad you enjoyed the game last night. As for the officiating, there’s a couple of issues here. First of all, these are the best singaporean referees we have. In my opinion, they are doing a reasonable job as we have to remember that while they umpire in singapore, they probably have never umpired in a game such as this – quality of the players, physicality, crowd, etc. So for most of them all of this is new and they may never have seen some of the athletic plays we make. I agree that both teams got some bad calls (the one where eric hit the freethrow off the rim and got called goaltending – that is a legal play by fiba rules, just watch the olympics).
For the moment tho, the aim is to keep the game flowing and we’ll do the rest – for the most part this is happening.
the game was great except the referree’s did not call it fairly…maybe they dont want to give the 10k..hehehe..
i dont have time to enumerate all of them but you or slingers fans can deny it…
the crowd mostly, pf fans (90%) did not go home disappointed even with a loss because its a 6 against 5 game..
anyway, thanks for the orginizers in bringing the pf here.hopefully, next time there will be a fair officiating…its embarassing for slingers with the very obvoius infair calls..
about the coach and the fans, we dont know what happened but a lot of people see the aussie guy standing up and making dirty finger. i guess thats started it all for the fans to retaliate….the guy is just lucky to leave the court withou any black eye…
i guess the crowd yesterday would be difficult to match,its a challenge for the home team to bring th crowd…so bring in more pinoy teams and throng of fans will come..
again greate game except fot the stu*** referees..
It was a good crowd but nt as much as the crowd during season 1 wen Slingers are hosting Melbourne Tigers. It was near a full house with people even sitting on the balcony seats.. Good game BTW..
Throwing coins hehehe that is so Pinoy, Its a tradition in the Philippines when the ref makes a bad call and the team retaliate.
From what I’ve seen, Purefoods were at a disadvantage of height bcoz their offense was blocked easily by Slingers. On the other hand, their defense was strong. I can see that it was not easy for Slingers to break through and score under the basket despite the height of the players. But Slingers moved faster as some pts were registered when their advancement couldn’t be followed by Purefoods.
4Q is the most excellent despite all boos and altercations which I’m still not used to.
Can’t wait to see an NBL std game this Sun. I think Darren must b eager to play w Spirit after 36ers lost to them. Btw, will it b possible to invite Mel Tigers here? I’d love to watch how Rod and Ebi perform.
See you all on Sun~~~
hi doc,
i think i need some aspirin to get rid of the hangover after last night’s fantastic game. the big crowd was expected as purefoods is one the most popular clubs in the phil on top of that it has the “david beckam” of philippine basketball in james yap and former heartthrob alvin patrimonio in their lineup. the atmosphere was electric at times hostile to the point that one fan got involved in an alleged taunting incident with pf coach. i was afraid it might turn into a free-for-all and that would have ruined an otherwise exciting game. both teams played very well and slingers complemented their dominance inside the paint with good outside shooting. to their credit the filipinos despite of their height disadvantage put up a fight with their speed and tenacity. it was a fiery encounter and it’s was nice to see players shook hands (inc. pf coaching staff and that guy) after the game. im a filipino and obviously wished a pf win but it was good match and it was worth the night despite the difficulty getting a ride home.
Could I ask Pinoys to stop bringing your tradition in the Philippines to Singapore because this is NOT your country? To us Singaporeans, throwing coins and stuff at fans is unacceptable. It compromises fans safety and it is definitely not a nice thing to do.
BTW thats the advantage of the home court games. The refs are singaporean so Im sure they want the slingers to win. Im sure that the Slingers would draw more crowd if they get PBA teams to come for an exibition game. one of the reasons why they signed a filipino player to play for the slingers is to draw crowd. I still think that the Slingers SHOULD have local players to play as a team. Coz really you cant say that Singapore won that game coz 95% of the players is not a local singaporean.
You want crowd Slingers, BRING ON GINEBRA
hey darren. thanks for the quick response.
oh yeah, i remember the goaltending call. i’m aware of the fiba rule on goaltending, just never had the chance to ponder on the case when it’s a freethrow. philosophically, it just sounds weird to allow it since the shot’s intended to be a free attempt after all. if it is allowed, i’m really saddened that the refs gave in to the pressure from the crowd and were not able to call it right.
as for the refs, i understand that they are the best in the country already. but out of respect for top-notch professionals like yourself and your opponents, don’t you think it is but fair to recruit good foreign referees? or at least send the singaporean referees for training instead of using the slingers and teams like purefoods as their on-the-job training?
btw, i’m happy your team came out stronger after the game. to come out on top of that hotly contested game with such a rowdy crowd, you guys have shown growth and maturity. exactly why these teams are brought here for. keep it up! š
hi kc. don’t you think it’s barbaric to say coin-throwing is a tradition?
Hi Darren, that was some tight move at the last minute of the game. True it was tough but I reckon you folks are used to this kind of treatment eh? I was glad that the crowd reached at such capacity and looking forward to more basketball aficionados coming to the games.. š
Goooo Slingers!!
hi darren. if the slingers organisation can pay a premium to get quality players like you, i’m sure they can do the same with game officials. š
Yeah darren, great game altogether ‘cept for the bad officiating! You guys did great despite the hectic week before! Did u know? I have to tell u this. It was really funny how at one point, the PF coach trash talked at you saying:”dun be a crybaby! That’s how we defend!”, when you questioned the ref for a foul to be called. Without hesitation, i shouted back and reminded him:”That’s why you guys are down 6 pts!” (at that point in time!). That really hushed the whole PF bench and they looked like they wanted to kill me man! It was really hilarious!
To add on, I really think there shld be more marketing to be made to get our locals to come support The Slingers! It’s a pity alot do not know about The Singapore Slingers! You guys are doing real fine and i am very proud to say that you have converted me to be a Slingers fan! Hopefully, we get better home crowds in due time! Meanwhile…
GO SLINGERS GO!!! š
Cheers and GOD Bless,
Your new fan!
Hi darren, i am a filipino. I think that the slingers are too soft compared to the PBA teams. It is shocking that slingers managed to win both pba team. Obviously, the referees were siding the slingers.
I think aussies are wussies, they are afraid of us. It is a tradition for every pba match to have a brawl. I hope to see one at the next pba match with the slingers. Show your guts. Bring it on…Earn your support instead of getting booed every match.
Well done slingers!It shows that you guys put in plenty of efforts and played the best in this game.Its a great win!Many fan were supporting the purefood, but actually there were plenty of slingers fan over there, just that we didnt screem out loud!haha =) GO SLINGERS!
Great play Darren, especially after landing at 5am and still down with the flu. And what a role model you are to the folks here! Study hard, play hard!
Hopefully our refs will get to experience more big games like these and provide better calls in future games.
jimmy, im also a filipino and its a shame that you say that its a “tradition for EVERY game to have a brawl”…im shocked with what you said coz its not true…
and shame on you to say that…really…saying that the Aussies are afraid of “us”…cmon, we are the ones who are afraid of losing, thats why we dont really put our best to compete in FIBA games to qualify for the olympics, coz we won’t. our last chance could have been about 22yrs ago, but man, after that, philippine basketball slowly started to suck…
i’ve got the slingers respect…
Slingers were better coached that night but the umpires tarnished the credibility of the win.
Sweet drive to the hoop Doc.! Way to go !
I thought the ball was still on the rim when it was swatted by your #14, same way that the refs so it. The Slingers should have been given tons of technical fouls as they have been playing about 6 to 7 players through-out the game..
Oh.. err.. my bad.. the other two were in a different uniform – they were guys in grey… : D
I commend both teams (All the Players and coaching staffs) for shaking hands after the game recognizing a game well played by both parties. Kudos also to the manager and coaches of PF for approaching the ‘taunting guy’ and offered their hand.
By not minding the call and non-call of the refs, the taunting incident by a fan.. I must say, that was great basketball displayed by two competitive clubs.
Hope you guys play well on the remaining games in this challenge series! I’d be watching on your next game and cheer for the ‘home team’.
I thought the ball was still on the rim when it was swatted by your #14, same way that the refs “saw” it — correction sorry š
hi darren
goodluck on your incoming game… hope the slingers will bring the 3 refferee in your incoming game… you have a sure win whenever the 3 refferee are also on the floor… no team can win against the 8 player team…
sorry for being sarcastic… hope your team will deal with what i’m saying… you know basketball and you know how sucks the refferee call and control the game… dont just stand and raise your head even if you know by yourself that you win by means of favorable call coming from the refferee… even you acquire al vergara you will not gain the filipino crowd because they know that slingers only won not by their skills but by the calls of refferee…
i’m not against your team, i even clap my hands if i saw a good moves coming from the slingers…
1 time bring your team to the Philippines and dont worry even your a guest i’m sure that you will have a fair fight against the Pilipino team…
I beg to disagree that aussies are wussies. You can’t say that in general. it’s like saying every pba player plays like jaworski, or all filipinos are hostile or war freaks. Australian basketball players are more physical than the pinoys. Have you seen the Melbourne Tigers play agains the PR National Team (sponsored by San Miguel and Mick Pinisi was part of the phil team) in the early 2000 in Araneta? Man, they’re huge and strong. The Tigers won the first game. The second game, the national team won. The crowd was hostile, too. All players from both teams were way more than flustered. The captain of the Tigers then even had verbal exchanges to our referees.
The game and the crowd last Tuesday was great. The attitude however was unpleasant. We can boo all we want or curse, just no throwing of things.
To GABRIEL, “because this is NOT your country” you can say that again. We wouldnt want your country even if its for free. Trust me. We are only here for the money but at the of the day WE ARE SO DYING TO GET BACK TO THE PHILIPPINES. We love people. We dont think of ourselves as someone above anyone else (we know we are not). We dont discriminate. Even if you come from a country from the bottom of the third-world list, we would still befriend you. Thats what FILIPINOS are. See the difference??? I bet you can tell. Our government SUCKS BIG TIME (I Know) but the people back there ARE GREAT! People, human beings, life — thats all that matters! You can only measure a country by wealth but not by heart. Anyways, youve played well last tuesday darren.
jimmy arroyo: Basketball is after all just a game.. Being involve in a brawl dun make u earn respect or support,it only generate negative publicity which will affect the image of the team and proud to say,the Slingers are professional enough to refrain themselves from the fight thus ending the match on a gd note for all..
Singapore referees indeed make a lot bad calls but they indeed made good calls too. So we hope they can do better next game and dont disappoint us so much again. Work hard officials. Actually Slingers team has indeed used other country official.i knew one.you will know if you came for the previous Sunday game two weeks ago. Slingers sure can hire official from other countries but do you think it is convenient to hire an official from other countries jus for a game in a day, and max in a week just have two games?(this is my thought) he he…Anyway, Tuesday nite game was great and the crowd supports made good atmosphere in the stadium. Seem like watching football world cup in Singapore.Ha ha.. Hi Darren..Game wif PF sure not an easy game for you rite? you really look so tired that day.Hope you didnt injured from the stupid foul made by pf players..Anyway, you are still doing great.That is why you are so special.maybe your IQ and EQ too high?haha….Hope you rest well and play all out against Spirit on Sunday. Gambate ne….Go slingers..
I am an American, and so, am not biased in saying this. I’ve watched NBA games back home for years, and since I’ve been here have watched the ABA teams from USA play Beijing Aoshen in S’pore and the Aussie NBL games. If this is the usual PBA style of play, then they should just stay at home coz the rest of the world knows basketball as a agame of skill, style, grace and speed – certainly does not condon the type of play that got Sandrin almost paralysed. All these 2 PBA teams left behind in S’pore is a bad reputation. Despite the dirty play and unprofessional antics, they still lost. Disgraceful – and its fans’ rowdy behaviour are a just an extension of their players’. I say stop inviting the PBA teams in future. Fans, looking forward to clean entertainment & quality games with Sydney and Aoshen – who are delightful to watch. Aussies are no wussies – maybe they just have more class.
Ok… lots of comments coming in, but I’m afraid no more comments about the officiating of the PF game will be posted up. Apart from the fact it is a cop-out to blame referees for losing a game, my blog is not going to be used as an open forum for this kind of discussion. We, ourselves have seen our share of ‘bad’ officiating in Brunei and Malaysia and lost games, but if we were good enough we would have won those matches anyway.
My last two cents is that PF shot 20 more shots than the slingers (70-50) in the game… if they shot even 4 more of those in, they would have won…referees cannot make you miss shots.
hi darren, no boxscore on the slingers site yet. do you know where i can take a look at the stats?
hahahaha Great stats Darren great stats.. what Darren said is right.. Look at the EPL, those who watch football have you seen the ‘Ghost Goal’ or the penalty C.Ronaldo got ? Those referees make mistakes too and what makes you think those in Singapore wont.. Even in the NBA the highest level of basketball with 3 referee’s in each match make mistakes some even take bribery.. So i must say they are doing their job and should be applauded instead of criticised. Remember the main player of a basketball match is the players and not the referee !! A match can always go on with out the referees but can never be played without players !!
Darran congrats and i really admire how you guys play a match after a 6? hour flight and a sleepless night.. Keep up the Great work
omgosh i’m so lost with all the technical speak in the comments on this entry! so i’m gonna write some bimbotic comment to break the trend here, haha.
just wanna say that i really had a great time watching the exciting game and although we were outnumbered by the massive numbers of filipino fans, i hope u guys know that we were still out there in the crowds, cheering the team on! š
especially me!! i had a sore throat the next day after cheering so much at the game on tuesday! haha. i cheered so much that my CEO (who was there too) now knows that u r my favourite slinger player. *blush*
WAHAHAHAHAHA.
ok it’s an open secret now. hur hur hur hur.
and oh! nice shoes!! š
oh yeah! francis: GREAT SHOTS! darren seems to always be photographed in mid-air.. haha.
Darren, I agree w u.
The world will nvr b fair. Somebody will always get privileges. Not to mention the sports industry, while we are chatting online cozily, there are still thousands of kids in African without food and people in the Middle East suffering wars. Is it fair to them? Absolutely not. So same reason, we should learn to be content as long as we tried our best.
Anyway, it is just a game. (quoted from the DJ) Guys, calm down!!!
“My last two cents is that PF shot 20 more shots than the slingers (70-50) in the gameā¦ if they shot even 4 more of those in, they would have wonā¦referees cannot make you miss shots.”
Good point doc..
Amen to that Darren. Do tell us what you think of Sydney team (they were ex Sydney Kings of NBL, right?), and what we acn expect on Sunday. Are both Kirkland and Sandrin back to 100% ?
Sorry Darren…Thats true about wat Darren said…I am also a basketball player.i know the feeling when you get a bad call from the officials.Everyone made mistake.You should not been affected by the officials too much and should overcome it yourself if not sure you cant play out your best..Right Darren?he he…
I am totally agree with Darren. He is rightā¦Please cool down everyoneā¦It is just a game and please no blaming anymoreā¦They are still human like usā¦sometimes will call some bad calls due to the difference angle of their views and jugdements.they are improving thoughā¦Players and coach should not be affected too much to the bad calls but think some ways to overcome it.if not, the player sure cant play all out during the game, right Darren?he he…why dont we just give officials more supports to boast up their confidence in officiating rather than just blaming them for their mistake?
hi darren.
i just found out about this blogsite in a popular internet basketball forum in the philippines.
it’s nice by the way š
it a good thing the singapore slingers invite philippine squads (especially pba teams), because these teams are top caliber teams in our country, and can definitely draw huge crowds. in a way your team will likewise earn mileage (in our country) by playing with them.
i believe the slingers also signed up a filipino player in al vergara.. hope he’s doing well with the slingers. im just curious how did he fare in your game against purefoods? because vergara was supposedly signing a contract to play for the giants but at the last minute he was left out in the roster. a couple of days later your team offered him a contract. hopefully he’ll showcase his skills and talent with you guys.
ok, that’s all. i just dropped by to post, and i am impressed with you coz you still found time to blog despite your busy sked.
more power good luck to the slingers!
Glad to see that everybody loves you, Darren š
Yea I agree with ‘Not An Aussie or a Pinoy’. I’ve made lots of great filipino guys and we play basketball together. ‘Ironman’, I’m not saying that you guys are bad people or something. I’m just saying that there has to be a difference while watching the game. You guys can’t throw stuff around in the stadium because it is not right in Singapore. It’s about not leaving a bad reputation. We didn’t like the way Air21 deliberately foul Sandrin so bad that he was injured and couldn’t play his 100% at the game. I’m sure you guys wouldn’t like it if James Yap is paralysed because one of the Slingers hit him with a cheap dangerous shot right?
To all aussies: I would love to see a match between australian national team and ginebra cos it is my favourite team and it is unbeatable. Purefoods lost not because of skills. They respect theslingers and did not want to win them in their home court. The crowd wanted a fight but purefoods did not give it. To all pinoys hater, How dare you say that we are low class. In philippines, we encouraged people to fight because we are oppressed by the government. That explains our fighting nature. Darren, you are weak and dare not fight with my idol james yap. Otherwise he will surely beat you to a pulp….
Actually, we only treat singapore as our gold mine. I encouraged more filipinos to come to take advantage of the opportuities…..
pardon me for not fully agreeing to this,
“is that PF shot 20 more shots than the slingers (70-50) in the gameā¦ if they shot even 4 more of those in, they would have wonā¦referees cannot make you miss shots.”
if we go by stats you can also tell that slingers were given more FT’s..32 to 19…men that a free unguarded shots given by the refs…(even more worst in Air21 game,Air21 got only a FT)…yes refs cannot make you miss shot but surely they can give you more unguarded shots…
surely if the refs call it fairly, the complexion of the game will greatly change…
probably change Richard Sim, Philip Lim & Steve Goh to start with…
but still slingers played well however the victory was spoiled by the refs…
Lordie! It’s really time to move on. Bottomline is, we ALL love the game: pinoys, sporeans, aussies, whatever. So what abt that NEXT game, guys.
Jimmy Arroyo- If you can find it in you to pay back a little to this “gold mine” that’s been feeding you, come to the next game and support the Slingers-Not-the-National-Team. Me & family are non- S’porean too, but I still support this team whilst this our home.
Next time I see Gordie, I’ll tell him: Time for name change to Slingers-Not-the-National-Team.
If you love the game above all else, prove it – come for all the Slinger games, bring your friend. We hv a good team this year – so that’s worth supporting in itself. Just be entertained. What we shd REALLY be complaining abt is the LACK OF LIVE SPORT IN SPORE.
See you all on Sunday. I dare you.
The courtside drama Tuesday night erupting after the Purefoods coach was shammed back to his bench from half court was pure entertainment. Pretty boy Alvin Patrimonio and team behind him trading insults with our new “super fan” (kudos, whoever you are) made me feel like I was back in high school. Another great win that left me pumped past midnight. Just ask not-another-hockey-mom. Keep it up Darren. You are no doubt our best all rounder, rounder. Great to have you in town.
Jawo you know how it is, its homecourt. Ofcourse the refs are Slingers and Im sure they want the Slingers to win. Kinda sucks aye, Dumb ass Slingers management, ofcourse if you want to gain more crowd in Singapore Stadium. They SHOULD get local players from singapore not foreign then they’ll get more crowd. Think about it if I go to singapore and watch a bball game. Im hoping to see Local players not Aussies. And as for the idiot who said that NBL is more Physical than PBA. Well u got no brains, when the Sydney Kings played Talk n Text here in Sydney. CJ Bruton himself said pinoys are more physical than aussies when it comes to playing. If ur not dumb you would notice that NBL teams prefer to shoot the ball from the outside. That what they talk about in bball forums here in Australia.
As for the Slingers where is your crowd?????? doesnt look like you have much crowd when a PBA team is playing. BTW Sydney Spirits is up next hmmm if I can recall, they are coming 2nd last in the ladder here in Australia. I dont think the crowd will be full, I think maybe less than 500 seats would be filled.
The Slingers do not control the calls of the referees…and I believe they are not really that unfair…I have managed to capture some photos of Air21 and PF committing fouls and there was never a call. I even have a photo of James Yap pulling Janev from behind and almost ripping off his shirt (while darren was driving to the hoop) but there was never a call…I have a photo of Enrico Villanueva hitting Fitzgerald on the head with a clenched fist but there was no fould called…I’ve got a photo of CaƱaleta pushing down Darren on his shoulder and the result was Darren having a bad fall, but there was no foul. I’ve a series of photos of how Eric Sandrin was given a flagrant foul by De Ocampo (yeah he was given a foul) but that resulted in Eric injuring fracturing his back and will be sidelined for a while.
I feel ashamed that some filipinos here tell things like its a tradition to throw coins in a game…that there is a brawl in every game, etc. I guess that bad calls not only happen in Singapore. I’ve watched PBA games since the early 80’s and I’ve seen many calls in favor of another team.
Most especially if the game is having Ginebra, the calls are more in favor of Ginebra and one reason why they become “unbeatable”. But PF has beaten them many times, so they are beatable.
BTW, if the referees here really make bad calls, then Harbour Center could have not won last year against the Slingers.
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To Jason…hope to see you this Sunday…if you will be shooting along side the court, ill be there…and i’ll see you.
Dear Jimmy, I think pinoys are great but your last 2 comments on
“Darren, you are weak and dare not fight with my idol james yap. Otherwise he will surely beat you to a pulpā¦.”
“Actually, we only treat singapore as our gold mine. I encouraged more filipinos to come to take advantage of the opportuitiesā¦..”
doesn’t reflect very well on you and might give people wrong impressions of pinoys.
Definitely an exciting game and I’m glad the Slinger fans got a taste of the PBA. Unfortunately what we saw in the stands especially coming from those who threw stuff onto the floor was the ugly side of the passionate filipino fans.
Refs make made calls that’s part of the game but like Darren pointed out PF had 20 extra shots so PF had their chances.
My question to Darren is why in the world were the Slingers applying full court pressure with such a huge lead in the 4th quarter? Made no sense whatsoever and almost cost the Slingers the game.
@Ron – I think we played a fair bit of full court press at the end because PF was shooting more free-throws in that quarter. After a free-throw we will full court press as a rule, so that is what we were doing. I remember us being in the penalty for fouls at that time. I agree, that PF made their comeback while we were pressing, perhaps it was because we forced them to attack us a bit more. I guess it was fortunate we had a good lead.
As for the refs siding with the Slingers, why would they? We have no Singaporean players in the team, apart from Pathman (who did not get on court on Tuesday), so what is their allegiance to us?
I have played 5 years in the Australian NBL and the way the game is played and officiated there is they way it is done internationally. Compared to the NBL, the difference playing the filipino teams is that the filipinos commit many more fouls (that they do not think are fouls). That does not mean they are tougher or that Aussies are soft – it means that they do not play within the rules. Maybe that is the way they play in the PBA, but when it comes to international basketball, they will struggle as the refs do not care how many fouls they call… I know that with their olympic qualifier against lowly ranked Iran they had a technical foul in the closing minute of the game that cost them the win and going to the olympics. I can only imagine this was because of arguing with the referee.
I have to say that the talent in the PBA is amazing. There are great shooters, great athletes, very skillful players in the teams we have played so far. I have no doubt some of them could compete in the NBL. It is just adjusting to the way the game is officiated internationally which will help – look at the USA, they actually play the game less physically in the NBA so had to train to teach the players they could apply more pressure on the ball in preparation for the olympics. Maybe the PBA should teach their players how to play without committing so many fouls.
i really felt that Air21 and PF had really good chances of winning because of their skills, as darren had said.
but if only they’d spend less energy and focus and effort on trying to foul the Slingers and trying to bring them down, they’d be able to score more.
*shrugs*
as a non-Singaporean, non-Australian, and non-Pinoy, i will say that after watching 3 games with the Filipino teams, my respect for them has gone down quite a bit due to the amount of dirty play on court.
back in my international school, i always tremendously admired my Filipino classmates cos they used to play with such skill, such grace, and such style! really hope to see this in the Harbour Center game.
IF RP harbour team can win the previous slingers team which is more competitive and better than the slingers, i doubt sydney spirit is anywhere near the purefoods team. For tml match, i will tell my pinoys friends not to waste their on this lousy, low skilled match.
to jimmy arroyo…please don’t give wrong impression about filipinos, i am filipino and i totally disagree with what you said about what you call “fighting nature”. I was a student activist in my uni days, but that is something you fight for a cause. basketball is totally a different thing, its a sport and sport is about discipline. i was a sportsman myself (played in national games – table tennis) and we were taught that, win or loose, fair calls or unfair calls, it is a sport, and discipline should always be there.
darren didn’t dare to fight james yap (as what you said) because that was the right thing to do…otherwise, if these basketball players from the philippines want a fight, then they better change sport from basketball to boxing…and who knows, may even follow the footsteps of manny pacquiao.
and about what you said that the crowd wanted a fight…i was part of the crowd and i never wanted a fight to occur in a sport match. I strongly believe that this is more of a personality stuff.
some people are just war freaks.
OK, i apologise for giving a wrong impression. Just want to let people know that philippines have good baskeball players. To darren: Sorry for hurting your pride. Could you ask the organizer to lower the ticket price as i am not earning much but still want to go to the games. Can we have a special rate for filippinos?
first u come here n insult all our players and the team’s skills, then u say that u r gonna tell ur friends not to waste their time watching the slingers n spirits game because they are “lousy”.. then u ask for ticket discounts.
wow. this is… amazing!
To all Pinoys – Thanks to the barbaric play of Air 21, one of our players Sandrin sustained 3 fractures to his spine. Enough said – we should just ban pinoy teams from playing outside their country. I think we all DID get the RIGHT impression about them – they are just animnals. In and out of the court. All this defensive talk is hot air. You’ll just never get any respect outside your country.
this game happened like what, 5 centuries ago. get over it, people. stop being grannies and harping on things that happened aeons ago.
c’mon! keep up! u’ve got to jog a li’l, don’t just drag your feet and walk!
Yes poor Eric is out of action for at least 6-8 weeks because of Air 21’s play. Nobody should be proud of what Air 21 did.
To the slingers organisation: i don’t think we filipinos are supporting the slingers anymore. Look at the crowd number today. It is less than one quarter than the purefoods match. Just for your information, the indonesian and malaysia teams are only slightly better than the lowly singapore national team. Slingers should choose a more worthy opponent if they think that they are better than pba. The amateur team like the RP harbor team can easily win those two teams by 50 points. It is the same as nba playing with the nbl……If you want to draw a pinoy crowd, sign popular players like eric menk,james yap…..and jimmy alapag. Al vergara is a nobody and won’t draw pinoy crowd…
Hi Ironman….you don’t really understand what this News meant about Slingers bringing in a big crowd is that, by bringing in purefoods to play with them, it brought in the crowd. The Slingers invite teams to play in the challenge, and with Purefoods, the crowd came in.
To Disgusted with Pinoys…don’t generalize coz I’m a pinoy. And Im a Slingers supporter and friend of some of them…and I’m always with the Slingers in their games…even against my PBA team, Purefoods.
err. this is not a singapore vs philippines fight.
zzz. i read abt 10 lines n then i got kinda disinterested.
this is about basketball, not about countries / politics.
jimmy arroyo: er. first u criticize our team that there’s only one singaporean, then u ask the slingers to sign on pinoy players. … a bit contradictory, yeah?
are you a little confused about your own arguments? cos u r confusing all the rest of us.
let me try to recapitulate this for everyone:
1. u don’t like the slingers but u want the slingers management to give u discounts for tickets.
2. u despise our team because we r made up of mainly foreign players, but u think we shd import pinoy players.
are you 15 years old? cos ur line of thinking sure tells us that u r in that age group.
TO Francis: āSlingers draw biggest ever crowd in fiery encounter with Filipino giantsā — its pretty self explanatory and i dont think it is meant as a metaphor or something…. its basically a strategy to lure more singaporeans to watch the slingers, putting a title like that. read the whole context, there is no way the writer is crediting the purefoods for bringing in the huge crowd. its like 1+1=2 men. all the purefoods got credited in that article is the one causing the altercations.
to Ironman: Its says there “Purefoods is one of the biggest teams in the Philippines.” explained one Filipino fan. “There is sure to be a big, explosive crowd whenever they come to play”.
I’m not actually defending the writer coz I don’t like him either coz he asked for my photo and never even bothered to credit me. All I got was a lousy sorry (sounded like a standard reply to apologize) and a reason that my name didn’t get through when he sent in the news. Which I won’t buy, coz the fact that my picture which is about 6MB, got through, and the news which was about 12 paragraphs, got through, but my name, which has only about 15 letters didn’t get through, well that’s is simply ridiculous. And now, am thinking to sue that guy, Shamir Osman, for infringement. I still have to consult may lawyer about it, but as per Singapore law, that’s a minimum $10k fine. And I hope he reads this blog.
To all readers/posters,
can we please try to keep all comments away from having a go at one another and this Singapore vs Philipines racial/country debate. We live in a multicultural society where everyone plays their part, so let’s not get into a verbal fight about it here. Basketball is what’s bringing us together, so why not talk about it!
Everyone lets head to the blog’s owner request…but first comments with racial undertones should be stopped (like these”Could I ask Pinoys to stop bringing your tradition in the Philippines to Singapore because this is NOT your country? To us Singaporeans, throwing coins and stuff at fans is unacceptable. It compromises fans safety and it is definitely not a nice thing to do.” If these comments are here I’m sure this wont stop, i guarantee u all…
To Francis, ur kababayans will support to correct the injustice done to you by the news reporter and organization…go lets be instruments of change agains injustice….GO!GO!GO! to the court…
By the way darren,are there anymore PBA team(or any Filipino Team) coming? Slingers site has no update on this..maybe u can update ur readers on this…
Jawo, the only Filipino team I know that is coming to play is Harbour Center (Al and Jason Castro’s old team). I do not have a date for that game as yet, as soon as I do I will post it. There may be another Filipino game coming, but this is in no way confirmed yet (my thought is it could be a big one).
that’s good news…
i heard also the most popular team in Phils is coming, GINEBRA and Talk&Text(jason’s team) to play a PBA regular game in the stadium..
we will definitely watch that & it will surely be an explosive stadium..
suggest to invite teams from the middel east(jordan,iran,qatar)i heard they have competitive leagues…
and if these teams get to play here, then thats good news for me as well as i will be having a good background filled with big crowd on my photos…
your suggestion will be taken i guess, and if the ASEAN pro league pushes thru and becomes a hit, then, a bigger Asian Pro league would definitely be a popular one.
the commercial teams in the middle east has dramatically became very competitive. as compared to about 10yrs ago.
anyway, i hope the bloggers here support the games of the slingers. do come, and enjoy watching live pro basketball games. and meet the players after each game…tell you, they are all friendly and down to earth guys…thats one reason why i love this team.
Well it looks like Pba teams wont becoming to Singapore coz the season just started there. Pity as I would love to see PBA teams in Singapore, at least something different to watch. Hopefully they can Bring Ginebra Kings one day to play in Singapore
Hello, i am back. Is derrick low is filippino? We can import him to be our shooting guard. He has good dribbling and shooting stroke.
hi…the previous comment wasn’t from me.
i agreeeeee with francis! i love all the slingers players not only cos of their gd play but also cos they’re all so friendly n approachable š ya. esp darren, right? see, he even has a blog so he can talk to his fans š hahaha
Daphne Maia: I am not saying that singaporeslingers suck…. I only suggested to import better players from the PBA like james yap to raise the standard of slingers to the next level. What is wrong with you? Don’t you want the standard of singapore to improve and take on better teams instead of malaysia where even our 15 year old can win…………………………………….
slingers have not met the best in philippines yet……… Don’t be smug
Fantastic!
The crowd was awesome.
I wish I were one of the crowd.
Take care.
be agresive more in some games..james and kerby..be less mercy..
Im a Slingers Fan and when I see the way PBA teams played here in Singapore. They were Awesome, I really love Homer Se and Kramer. Reality check guyz we can get more people/fans if we invite more PBA teams here. BTW for some reason it hit me when our own Singapore Slingers are not local players. We should have the majority of Singapore locals on the team and two imports instead of Australians. I know we have a superstar player like Darren Ng but I’d love to see Phatman rise up or any local singaporean become the talk of the bball games. Im sure we can do it coz philippines can.