Inside the Green Mind

Throughout the years, there have been many prominent names that have indulged themselves in writing about the Green Archers’ performance. Among the famous and controversial would be Tony Atayde Sr., who is popularly known as the Green Mind.

Atayde is a former DLSU track and field star and basketball player during the 70’s. He hails from the Atayde lineage, a family that has  limitless pride and passion for the Green-and-White University. Nowadays, the Green Mind is widely known for his sharp, critical and precise commentaries about the Green Archers and other UAAP stories.

The concept behind the blog entitled “The Green Mind” arrived when  inboundpass.com approached Atayde to write occasional columns for the website. The Green Mind section soon gained popularity because of its frank and straightforward analysis, becoming a household name for columns in collegiate hoops.

Unfortunately, because of conflicts with the website owners and a third party, Atayde had to leave the website. He still continued to write his columns and blogs, finding a new home in goarchers.com, a fan-based blog for DLSU sports news.

After a few weeks of publication, Atayde had to disable the blog last Aug. 15 for the welfare and safety of his family.

Now that the blog is officially down, Atayde aims to once again write about the DLSU basketball someday and promises to present nothing but the truth.

“I am a columnist, not a reporter. I write about how I see the game and nothing else,” Atayde defends.

Atayde could not hide his disappointment towards the performance of the Green Archers. According to the Green Mind, what frustrates him the most is that the Green Archers have the talent to compete with teams such as Ateneo, Adamson and FEU, but their potentials and skills are not maximized.

“I miss the days when our team would walk to the court [and] there was fear in our opponent’s eyes,” Atayde recalls the times where the Green Archers would seem invincible in the UAAP hardcourt.

Despite what is now considered as the Green Archers’ dark ages, Atayde feels that the Taft-based squad, with proper coaching and player rotation, can contend for the UAAP men’s’ basketball championship as soon as next season.

The Green Mind notes that his ideal starting five would be Arnold Van Opstal, Yutien Andrada, L.A. Revilla, Sam Marata and Norbert Torres. He believes that the roster could bring back the intimidation factor that the Archers have been searching for many seasons now.

He also hopes to see young cagers such as Axel Torres from De la Salle Santiago Zobel and Xavier School stand-out Jeron Teng to hoist a Green Archers uniform one day.

Indeed, the La Salle community misses the critical and all-out blog of The Green Mind, but expect to hear it thinking aloud again, soon.