from: THE LOOP PH <[email protected]>

to: JEM MIKHAIL VARGAS <[email protected]> 

subject: Russell Yape and the Art of the Unsung Play

mailed by: theloop.ph

Russell Yape and the Art of the Unsung Play

Russell Yape is my least interesting interview on the Blue Eagles roster. Not because he has nothing to say, but because he shows up, does the work, and leaves. There is no mythology here. No narrative he's managing, no image he's curating. What you see is what you get, and what you get is deliberately, almost aggressively unremarkable.

In a team that has Teo Piencenaves—who will talk to anyone about anything—and Jem Vargas—who, initially, says exactly as much as he needs to and not a word more—Russell Yape exists in the space neither of them occupies.

He, apparently, believes he is not the story at all.

The thing is—he carries a name that has been a story in this league for decades. His twin, Kovi, is also a standout player for the AWBT, which means 'Yape' is currently circulating in two rosters simultaneously. There is no escaping it, nor is there a hallway in any UAAP venue where someone doesn't know what that name means.

Ivan Yape's retired jersey hangs in the Blue Eagle Gym. Most UAAP fans of a certain age remember exactly where they were when he made that half-court buzzer beater shot—the one that still gets replayed at the start of every season highlight reel like a reminder of what this program is capable of producing. The name, then, has come to mean something specific: composed, skilled, generational.

So my questions, walking into an interview with Russell Yape, were: is he trying to fill those shoes? Is he running from them? Or is he simply unbothered by all of it, playing basketball with the same nonchalance he apparently applies to everything else in his life?

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D.A.

6:34 PM

Thank you for the session, Doc.

You did really well today, you're making progress. 😊

As for your friend—if she ever decides she wants to talk to someone, I have availability. But that's her call to make when she's ready.

Yes po, thank you, Doc. Also for the prescription.

I'll see you in two weeks.

See you, Jem.

nepo babies

6:52 PM

Alessandra

theloop.ph/sports-uaap/russell-yape-and-the-art-of-the-unsung-play

Thoughts?

teo

di ka naman kumakanta ah

Russ

Did she just call me boring and bland?

Alessandra

Yes, in 10 different professional ways.

But she also said: "On the court, Russell Yape is good. Genuinely good. He reads the floor before the play develops, he is the reason Jem Vargas's rigidity and Teo Piencenaves's unpredictability don't cancel each other out—he is the neutral ground between them, the player who makes the system work without ever demanding credit for it."

teo

bakit parang mas mahaba yung sayo kesa sakin e least interesting ka nga

ang dami kong daldal tas ang iksi?????

Alessandra

I didn't think there was a story here and she found a good angle.

Ruthless yet good.

kovi

wala akong masabi

tama siya

teo

bakit nung sakin nag-aaway kayo

Russ

Are you also calling me boring and bland?

Alessandra

She called you the least interesting interview and still made it my most interesting read this week. You should be thanking her.

Russ

Being wary of journalists and being the "least interesting" are two different things, Ate Alessandra.

Alessandra

The point is that you gave her nothing and she still wrote four paragraphs about what that nothing means. Being guarded doesn't make you less of a story, Dean. It just makes the journalist work harder and it means she's really good at her job.

Ah, and you ARE nonchalant in the other aspects of your life.

Russ

Like?

Alessandra

We can go through your rotation either alphabetically or chronologically, pick one.

teo

hoy tumigil nga kayo di ko na kayo naiintindihan

hoy *ate tsaka gago

ace

wag ka makisali mga matatalino lang nag-uusap

teo

hugutan kita ng hininga e

chini

"We ended the interview with those same questions—only slightly less unanswered, perhaps, even with his characteristically spare responses. What I can now say with some confidence is this: Russell Yape actually loves basketball in a way that has nothing to do with Ivan Yape's retired jersey or what the Yape name means in this league.

He just loves it. And in a roster of legacy players who do the sport like an obligation—who play because they were always going to play, because the alternative was never really an option—that is, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about him."

ace

parinig sayo? @Vargas

Vargas

Likely. I'm not sure.

🔒 @jyv

She wouldn't be wrong, though.

Yvanna 😾

7:32 PM

Hey, you.

I read your article.

Couldn't stop reading and rereading actually.

There's bite to it. Sharpness, like your cat fangs.

And I can hear your voice so clearly in every word that it's almost unsettling—like you're just talking. Not writing, but talking to me.

is that not weird for you?

No, not at all.

Weird good. Weird new.

What did you use for Russ?

the dark knight, creed, top gun, slam dunk

Huh. I'm a bit surprised.

from my observations, he's a bit unfeeling towards everything except what he does on the court. so it matches that energy.

Okay, fair. Makes sense.

Ate Alessandra said you're really good at your job.

i do my best. tell her thank you

The ending, though.

Any player in particular you were thinking about when you wrote that last part?

well, if the shoe fits

or if the basketball fits in your hoop? goes in your hoop?

Do you think I play just because the alternative was never really an option?

i'm the wrong person to ask, jem.

No, you're exactly the person to ask, Yvanna.

i think you love what you are when you play. but that's not the same thing.

my question for you, which is included in my article, is: do you love basketball, or do you love what it means to the people around you?

read

I have something to tell you.

and i have something to ask you, pero i have to drive back muna, kakatapos namin mag-pitch meeting

Malakas ang ulan. Drive carefully.

Location?

Yvanna 😾 shared her location

Thank you. Ingat.

🔒 @jyv

It's normal. People do this. I've told her harder things than this.

🔒 @jyv

...Maybe not, but fuck, come on, Jem. Get your shit together.