The quiet man behind Sotto, Belangel

And, look at this: Arben doesn’t receive a single centavo in all his dealings with his players. He just loves to help— with nothing in return.

Humans, by nature, are liars?

The great writer Norman Mailer delighted in saying Truman Capote was “the greatest liar” in history.

No surprise there—Mailer’s tirade, I mean.

And even Capote admits to telling lies if only to make a conversation interesting.

In their time, they were the fiercest of enemies.

Mailer would immediately leave a bar the moment Capote arrived.

But one can’t detract from the fact that Capote, like Mailer, was also—still is—one of the greatest writers of his era.

I’ve seen Mailer in the flesh when he came here to cover the Ali-Frazier “Fight of The Century” on Oct. 1, 1975.

He wanted to write a sequel to his book about the Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” classic in Kinshasha, Zaire the year earlier.

He was also in Zaire when Ali stopped Foreman in the eighth round, after Ali stayed in the ropes for his famous “rope-adope” weapon lasting seven rounds.

Mailer, a famed womanizer, was with a young girl—maybe half his age—when he came for the Ali-Frazier fight.

He introduced the girl to Recah Trinidad and me at the Araneta Coliseum, venue of the Ali-Frazier classic won by Ali via a 14th-round TKO.

Mailer’s book, “The Fight,” remains the best read on the Ali-Frazier encounter that had no equal in brutality and courage.

I read sometime ago that some genes are connected to lying, in effect making lying hereditary.

Woe is the kid with lying parents.

And why am I into the lying thing today?

There is this lie being spread around that both SJ Belangel and Kai Sotto, generally acknowledged as the future anchors of Ateneo basketball, are protégés of MVP (Manny V. Pangilinan).

In fairness to MVP, he knows not a thing about this canard.

The truth of the matter is, Arben Santos has been shepherding the basketball careers of Belangel and Sotto—very, very quietly.

That has been typical of Arben, the quiet man behind the careers of such past PBA stars like Enrico Villanueva and Richie Alvarez, and current PBA stars like Fonacier and Tenorio, to name but a few.

And, look at this: Arben doesn’t receive a single centavo in all his dealings with his players. He just loves to help—with nothing in return.

If that’s not incredibly awesome, what is?

Push pa more, Arben.