Last year I started watching the PBA regularly for the first time in a decade. The PBA is perhaps the most amusing league to watch in the entire world if you can train yourself to suspend reality and forget about everything you have ever learned about fundamentally sound basketball. Anyway, last year I got the biggest kick out of watching Gabe Freeman play for both the Patriots in the ASEAN Basketball League and the San Miguel Beermen in the PBA. Freeman is the perfect import for the PBA as there is nothing Filipino fans enjoy more than passionate and hustle-filled basketball. Freeman is one part Artest, another part Rodman, and another part scoring machine without a jump shot (kind of like glory days Larry Hughes). While this may not sound enticing to anyone who knows basketball, it makes for the most entertaining import in the league. The best part is that no one seems to care that he can't shoot from the outside and is both foul and turnover prone. I think his San Miguel coach Siot Tanquingcen put it best when he paid Freeman the ultimate back-handed compliment: "He is not the most talented skill-wise . . . but you can't measure his heart!"

I am looking forward to at least five more ABL games with Freeman this year. Unfortunately if the reports are true, Freeman is well above the 6'4" height limit for the next PBA conference. Let's hope he has "shrunk" a little over the past year!