The Daily Tribune <<< Without Fear or Favor >>>

What many basketball fans suspect as an off-court machination will have the controversial Japeth Aguilar meeting on-court today the very team that traded him in only after a game just a few days ago.

Aguilar suits up for Smart Gilas which will play Burger King in the opener of a triple bill at 2:30 p.m. in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum, in a game where many are expecting the classy 6’10” leaper to be raring enough to give the Whoppers a reason to regret their losing him.

In other games, Coca-Cola collides with Sta. Lucia Realty in the second game at 5 p.m. while Talk ‘N Text and Rain or Shine meet in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.

Purefoods won on opening day with that victory over Burger King, while Barangay Ginebra and Alaska Milk followed suit last Wednesday by respectively bringing down San Miguel Beer, 98-86, and Barako Bull, 99-83.

Made the No. 1 draft pick by Burger King during the annual draft last August, Japeth had found himself in the middle of a three-team trade also involving Barako Bulls, which served as conduit, and Talk N’ Text. It was Talk N’ Text, a sister team of Burger King, which handed Smart Gilas, a national training pool team of Manny V. Pangilinan, the rights to Aguilar.

But as to whether Aguilar really holds a grudge against Burger King remains to be seen because of the widespread perception that he really wants to play for Smart Gilas, a brainchild of TNT owner Manny Pangilinan, who is said to hold a small stake in Burger King.

“It’s a family affair, so to speak,” said an avid PBA fan. “But isn’t the PBA a family affair to start with?”

The game will also see for the first time Burger King’s Carlo Sharma clashing with his very own brother in Rabeh Al-Hussaini, vital cog of the newly-crowned UAAP champion Ateneo de Manila University who is with Smart Gilas.

And if Burger King mentor Yeng Guiao is still smarting from the loss of Aguilar, he was not showing it at all and was short of dismissive of any controversial angle one may see as to the game between the Whoppers and Gilas.

“Our purpose is just to recover from a bad loss,” said Guiao, whose Whoppers, with Japeth in their side, suffered an 80-93 loss at the hands of a mighty Purefoods TJ Giants team on opening day of the kick-off tournament last Sunday.

“We have a lot of respect for the Smart Gilas team but we treat them like any other opponent in the league,” said Guiao, adding that no team is really that safe against Smart Gilas.

“We prepare for them as hard as we prepare for any other team,” he said.

Smart Gilas, a team built around collegiate standouts and assembled by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas under MVP, has been allowed to take part in the Philippine Cup as part of its build-up in its bid to earn a slot in the next Olympics. Serbian coach Rajko Toroman handles the Gilas quintet.

While Smart Gilas is not eligible to win the championship, all the games played against it will be credited to the win-loss records of 10 regular participating teams in the league.