The Year in Sports: Pinoy Basketball Awards

(Editor's note: The Yahoo! Philippines Sports team looks back at 2013's memorable moments in sports with a series of year-end articles on the topics and events that had the biggest impact on our readers.)

2013 was a banner year for Philippine basketball. It’s easy to make that statement because the country hosted the FIBA Asia Championship. However, the PBA also soared this year as it attracted the biggest crowds and enjoyed its highest ratings. The UAAP and NCAA also had good years as one dynasty ended for the former while another one continued for the latter.

The Philippines also saw the biggest number of NBA players and legends coming over for the pre-season game between the Houston Rockets and the Indiana Pacers. It will be painfully difficult to encapsulate everything in one article so we’ll just hand out awards.

Without further ado, here are the winners for the first annual Yahoo! Pinoy Basketball Awards for 2013.

Rivalry of the year: The Teng brothers

Cone versus Trillo. Santos versus J-Wash. Chua versus Eala. Caguioa versus MOA mop boy. Referee Aquino versus Araneta Coliseum railing. 2013 saw a lot of rivalries in Philippine basketball but a battle of brothers was by far the best. Jeric and Jeron Teng competed in the UAAP finals with the younger Jeron’s Green Archers claiming the title. What made this rivalry so good was that the two were openly cheering for each other in their Final Four match-ups. Jeric wore La Salle’s green for Jeron’s games and Jeron wore UST’s gold for his kuya’s games.

Some people thought that the two would take it easy on each other but the two showed that not even brotherly love can prevent them from trying their very best to win a ring. The two elbowed each other, even trash-talked at times. Jeron won the UAAP title and the Finals MVP award but Jeric made it to the PBA and shared a moment with Jessy Mendiola so let’s just call this rivalry even.

Throwback moment/ankle breaker of the year: Danny Seigle

The set-up was nothing special. Danny Seigle was just on the right baseline with two defenders on him, his Barako Bull led Ginebra by 16 in the PBA Governors’ Cup. Seigle jab-stepped, like he’s done a million times in his career. But then something unique happened. His defenders, Billy Mamaril and Dior Lowhorn, both fell on the floor for a rare double ankle-breaker. Seigle, surprised with what just happened, spent a split-second to look at the carnage he has caused before driving to the hoop for two. There were even rumors from highly unreliable sources who were nowhere close to the situation that Noli Eala shouted “Ikaw na ang maging Danny Seigle” after the play.

Hairstyle of the Year: Lin Chih-Chieh

There were many competitors for this category. June Mar’s blonde and Ronald Tubid’s red hair colors brightened up Petron. Ryan Gregorio grew out his hair while Jared Dillinger did the same for his beard. Reynel Hugnatan also hashed out impressive styles, sporting pigtails and half-ponies throughout the year. There were also the reliable classics such as former GlobalPort head coach Junel Baculi’s perpetually non-moving ‘do and the PBA debut of Terrence Romeo’s hair-and-shoulder fake.

But the award goes to Taiwan’s Lin Chih-Chieh. His comb-over hairstyle and his talent captivated the attention of Filipino basketball fans. He also had the best big shot/hair moment of the year as he took time to fix his thinning hair after draining a crucial shot against China.

Outburst of the Year: Renaldo Balkman choking Arwind Santos

Renaldo Balkman was by far the most talented import in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup. Petron was supposed to breeze its way into the Finals and eventually the title until that one fateful game where the former NBA player choked Arwind Santos. We’ve heard about teammates going at it on practices. We’ve even seen players from the same team barking at each other during games like what happened between LeBron James and Mario Chalmers a few days ago. However, physical altercations between teammates are rare in basketball. This outburst litereally cost Petron the championship. They struggled to find a replacement after as they fizzled at the tail-end of the tournament. As punishment, Balkman was slapped a lifetime ban by the PBA.

Breakthrough of the Year: Luigi Trillo

For the longest time, Luigi Trillo was the new kid no one wanted to seat with in the cafeteria. For the longest time, he was known as the coach who went 0-24 with the Adamson Falcons in the UAAP. All of that ended in 2013 as Trillo brought his Aces back from the dead to the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals. Trillo formed a rag-tag bunch of individuals and made it his team. They still employed the triangle but their signature was a certain kind of nastiness personified by rookie Calvin Abueva and Gabby Espinas. The breakthrough happened in the semi-finals against the San Mig Coffee Mixers led by Trillo’e mentor, Tim Cone. The Aces lost the first game then swept the next three. Alaska carried that momentum towards a sweep of Ginebra in the finals.

Turnaround of the year: Japeth Aguilar

If Trillo was the coach that nobody noticed, Japeth Aguilar was the player no one liked. Even if he is the most athletically gifted Filipino basketball player ever, Aguilar found it hard to gain fans because he moved too darn much. Ateneo to Kentucky. Burger King to Talk ‘N Text. PBA to NBA D-League. Talk ‘N Text to GlobalPort.

Rumors were that Aguilar was getting bad advice but the player often said that he makes his own decisions. He made two really good ones when he openly said he wanted to play for Ginebra and when he decided to play like his life depended on it for Gilas Pilipinas. He turned heads when he became an important part of Chot Reyes’ rotation but his performance in the ongoing Philippine Cup completed his turnaround as he went from the perpetual-project to a Best Player of the Conference contender. Hopefully, this turnaround will finally convince Japeth to, well, stick around.

Post-game press conference of the year: Leo Austria

The media didn’t expect anything out of that press conference. It was just an Adamson win over UP. Both teams were already eliminated and the result was expected. But when Adamson head coach Leo Austria started to speak, his words felt heavy. He went on about the game for a few minutes but his speech led to his announcement that he will no longer coach the Falcons next season.

Austria rued that some of the decision makers in Adamson have already decided to replace him.

Injury of the Year: June Mar Fajardo’s…ummm…injured privates

Injured knees, broken bones, and sprained ankles are your run of the mill basketball injuries. Since June Mar Fajardo is not your run of the mill PBA player, I guess it’s just fitting for him to get a unique injury. The prized Petron center was hit on his prized possession by his friend Marc Pingris. The big man from Pinamungahan in Cebu underwent an operation after scrotal trauma which is a really fancy way of saying he got hot really hard on his balls.

Letdown of the year: Ateneo Blue Eagles

For the first time in six years, the Ateneo Blue Eagles were not a favorite to make the Finals in the UAAP. However, few thought they would not even make the Final Four. The five-time defending champions started their campaign in the worst possible way as Kiefer Ravena injured his foot. The Phenom eventually willed his way back to health but the Eagles never really got into any kind of rhythm in the season. From winning the championship in the past five years, Ateneo had a nose dive as their most memorable moments of the season were head coach Bo Perasol’s explosion after losing to La Salle and their seniors crying in front of their fans after getting booted out by UST.

Buzzer-beater celebration of the year: Sunday Salvacion

Here’s a conspiracy theory. Sunday Salvacion is a clairvoyant. He knew in advance that he was going to nail a game-winning shot against GlobalPort. Salvacion saw the future so clearly that he noticed exactly where PBA photographer Nuki Sabio would be. I mean, aren’t you guys remotely surprised that Salvacion knew just where to look after beating the buzzer?

Game/Moment/Win/ of the Year/Century: Gilas Pilipinas versus South Korea

We’ve seen a lot of great games in the Philippines but it’s not a stretch to say that the Gilas versus South Korea match was the most emotional game the country has ever witnessed. There’s really not much to be said about this game because it resulted to the most inspired sports articles so just read articles made by Yahoo! Sports Editor Sid Ventura and Slam’s Nikko Ramos to relive that game again.