Slingers vs Satria Muda Britama

The game vs Satria Muda Britama on 7 Dec at the Singapore Indoor Stadium was disappointing. I expected a lot more from Satria given they are the #1 team in Indonesia and judging from the videos found on youtube about them, I thought there would be some challenges.

Well anyway Slingers started 10-0 run with Eric scoring mostly and Slingers went on to win convincingly 75-46 with the locals doing very well especially Pathman #15 who was a starter in this game and ended up again with 6 points consistent with the previous game.


Spotted a fan of Pathman #15 who is an ang moh and seriously is more fanatic about Singapore Slingers than Singaporeans. So far many jerseys have been sold out, so do grab it as I heard from this Pathman fan, the way Pathman is going, the jersey might be worth something in 20 years time!


More of my pictures found here. Did not take much as Andrew returned for round 2 with try out of photos which produced amazing shots and Daniel also tag along to try his new Canon 5D Mk II as he heard from Andrew how exciting live basketball is.

Anyway Jase and Doc Ng has more coverage and full stats here.



I leave you with Mr. Chia's video highlight of the night with Darren throwing Eric an alley oop!



This is Andrew's amazing digitally sequenced shot of the alley oop.

Too much

I believe people should always have just enough - too much of anything is bad.
Too much KFC ice lemon tea gives me tummy aches. Too much chocolate gives me pimples. Just as if a person has too much money, he might indulge in more sins and in turn get into much more trouble like getting drunk.

Too much money drove NKF and many other Singapore charities to improper handling of finances, which eventually led to first class air travels, golden toilet bowls and the unforgettable "peanuts". I bet if their finances are just sufficient, there won't be any money to mismanage or abscond with.

I believe just as our town councils and many more government bodies who have excess cash will all start to behave like mini-funds, mini-Temaseks and mini-GICs and play the role of fund managers wanting more and more {I am sure they do not personally gain from this, but then again I bet KPIs (Key Performance Index) of their performance is part of their annual bonuses}. Would we have blamed them if they had grew the S$2 billion treasure chest instead of losing S$16 million? My only finger pointing is with S$2 billion, why am I still paying SC&C? Why are the subsidies such paltry sums? Are they really subsidies? Or like NKF, the cost of $3 medicine is sold at $4 and is subsidised based on market rates of $6?

The solution to having too much of a "good thing" is accountability and transparency.

1) Be transparent, show the cost of maintaining the Towns - do we really need S$2 billion in reserves? The recent national propaganda media has been showing US universities losing huge sums of investment and are saying it is acceptable in these times to lose lots of $, so we should accept our town councils' mistakes but the US universities have been transparent in their accounts which are published online and made available.

2) Let's be honest, if the government came clean with what they have been doing and apologized for their mistakes then perhaps it would have been easier to swallow. As we all learn from mistakes when we acknowledge them. Not just put on a defensive front and tell everyone to move on. I have been guilty of this many times as it is probably a guy thing but then again it is no excuse. But hey I am not paid millions by the people thus I am not accountable to the people.

I believe our government, town councils and many other GLCs have forgotten who pays their salaries and who gave them money to invest in the first place. I bet my grandfathers/parents and my tax/ERP/SC&C/CPF dollars have contributed some sweat into it and I should have every right to criticize any wrong doings.

Asshole

Was returning to the car after watching "Bolt" at Vivocity this evening,this totally peeved me off as I don't understand how an inconsiderate person could have just walked off after parking like this.



Has to be an asshole to learn how to park like this. I hope the TT owner open the door "forcefully" in order to get into his ride. And I've decided to be a lazy ass and not bother to black out the ass's car plate number.

Singapore Slingers vs Smart Pampanga Buddies

First of all, I would like to say, welcome back Eric. Sandrin was hot scoring 18 points and he proved he was back from the dunks he was having all night.

Here are some of my pictures of the great 2nd match of the double header last Sunday - Photobucket.

Slingers overran Smart Pampanga Buddies 100-72 in what was an exciting first half but as I remembered telling Andrew, this season's Slingers are a great 2nd half team. They have more drive, endurance and consistency. They started routing the Buddies once 2nd half started. Frank Arsego is doing a good job taking over Gordie McLeod from what I can observed, though he does take a longer time-out, often needing the referee to pop over to chase them into the game.

What was also interesting there were 3 ejections on the opposing team; and 3 of our local boys did a great job. Pathman, Desmond Oh and Tan Chin Hong combined for 11 points with fearless tenacity, stood up to the rough plays, taking charges and chasing after their men.



Check out the video highlights of the match with Sam Harris's cap of the game making it to a 100 and his first 3 pointer of the season, he does look like he has been training!

Official match report on Slingers' official website.

San Miguel vs Talk N Text

Talk N Text Tropang Texters beat favorites fellow Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) team San Miguel Beermen in the first-ever PBA regular season game held in Singapore Indoor Stadium. This was the first match of a double header in record crowd of about 8500 basketball fanatics. Talk N Text edged out San Miguel 85-80 in an exciting match between two closely fought teams.

Thanks to Nic who gave Jase, Andrew and myself courtside media passes to capture two great games.



This was Andrew's first time being introduced to live professional basketball in Singapore and being seated at courtside, is now an addict. Seriously there is no better experience than to watch a live basketball match. I got hooked from catching my first NBA game in Staples Centre watching Vince Carter lose by a point.
Anyway do try to catch this upcoming Slingers game on Sun 7th Dec vs Satria Muda Britama (Indonesia)- Don't play play, Satria Muda Britama is the champion of IBL (Indonesia Basketball League). Tickets available at Sistic.

Andrew is a great photographer who has amazing photos of nature, animals, portraits and other sporting actions, and this time he did captured some great pictures of the Slingers in action. Do check out his pictures and these are mine here(Please do not compare - I just started for a few months!).

Will upload and blog about the ensuing match between Singapore Slingers vs Smart Pampanga Buddies. In the meantime read Jase and #8 Doc Ng's entry first.