ALLAN THE MAN

Calvin Abueva was a contender for Best Player of the Conference in the Philippine Cup and the Commissioner’s Cup.

Each time, despite impressive statistics, the Alaska Aces star rookie came up short after not getting enough votes from fellow players and members of the media.

Alaska Aces super rookie Calvin Abueva, Petron Blaze do-it-all forward Arwind Santos and FIBA Asia Mythical Five member Jayson Castro are in a neck-and-neck fight for the season MVP award with one short conference to go in the 38th PBA season.

Castro is already seeded as an official MVP candidate being the Philippine Cup BPC (Best Player of the Conference) winner while Abueva and Santos are making a strong case for themselves being the leaders of the stats race through the first two conferences.

Gilas did the hard work and brought a measure of redemption to the Philippines’ once-revered status in Asian basketball. That frees us up to goof around and imagine what would happen if the country sent some of the PBA’s most colorful characters and unique talents to compete in FIBA Asia events. Let’s do this.

PART 2: INIS PILIPINAS. 

Calvin Abueva might have a shot at becoming only the second player in PBA history to win MVP honors in his rookie year should he sustain his searing pace in the season-ending Governors Cup slated to start Aug. 14.

Abueva, the season’s second draft pick behind Petron Blaze’s Junmar Fajardo, is on track to making the official candidates list, being a strong runner-up in the Best Player of the Conference derbies in the Philippine Cup and in the Commissioner’s Cup.

GILAS Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes has confirmed that Talk ‘N Text guard Ryan Reyes won’t be able to join the team in its two-week training camp in Lithuania, deepening the injury woes of a team even before it could begin the final phase of its preparation for the Fiba-Asia Men's Championship.

Reyes, the Texters' top lock-down defender, has been nursing a hamstring injury that is slow to heal as he joins Sonny Thoss, Kelly Williams and Jared Dillinger on the list of players who won’t make it to the Lithuania camp set on June 2-16 in the Baltic resort town of Palanga.

Calvin Abueva representing the Philippines in international competition thru Smart Gilas Pilipinas national team?

The idea isn’t seem too far-fetched, at least for the brain trust of the national squad. Members of the Philippine national men’s basketball coaching staff are interested in the brash Alaska rookie to possibly become part of the pool, InterAKTV has learned.

Alaska rookie Calvin Abueva believes he and the Alaska Aces are in for a tough title series, not just against Barangay Ginebra but also in terms of crowd support.

After witnessing how the Kings denied Talk 'N Text in a PBA Commissioner's Cup semifinals series that went the distance, the 24-year-old Abueva said he feels Ginebra is just as hungry for a championship as Alaska.

San Mig Coffee team executive Rene Pardo is batting for a rule that imposes fines on PBA players for excessive flopping.

Pardo, who represents the Mixers in the league’s Board of Governors, made the suggestion after news broke that the NBA fined veteran guard Derek Fisher of the Oklahoma City Thunder for flopping during the American league’s playoffs.

SAN Mig Coffee forward Marc Pingris on Tuesday waded into the war of words between Calvin Abueva and James Yap over their physical skirmishes in Game Two of their best-of-five semifinals series in the PBA Commissioner's Cup, warning the Alaska rookie to brace for all-out war in Game Three on May 8.

Leaping to the defense of hobbled teammate Yap who he felt was at the receiving end of some 'cheap shots' from the physical Alaska rookie sensation, Pingris said he and the entire San Mig team have no reason to fear 'The Beast.'

"Parating mo sa kanya 'to: tignan natin kung sino ang physical next game," an infuriated Pingris told Spin.ph. "Abueva, sino ka para katakutan ko?"

Yesterday, Calvin Abueva  said to James Yap "Mag-chess na lang siya" (read story here). That's after Yap accused Abueva of playing dirty during their Game 2 of PBA Commissioner's Cup 2013. Now, Alaska head coach joined the war.

“Nagpapadehado lang yan. He knows it’s the playoffs.”

That was how Alaska coach Luigi Trillo responded to San Mig Coffee superstar James Yap’s comments about Aces forward Calvin Abueva. 

Alaska’s Calvin Abueva bashed San Mig Coffee’s James Yap for accusing the former of playing dirty during their tussle in the 2013 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals.

Abueva said that if the two-time PBA Most Valuable Player can’t handle a physical game, then the latter should go and play chess instead.

“Lahat naman ng laro physical, hindi ba? Kung isa sa amin ayaw masaktan, eh di mag-chess na lang siya,” the former San Sebastian standout said in Mei-Lin Lozada’s Spin.ph report.