Before anything else, my condolences and prayers of comfort and peace to the Ajero family whose patriarch, Tony Ajero, our Editor in Chief, passed away recently. Tony left a void that will be difficult to fill.
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Hey, let’s face it.
Let us not place too much hope that our young boys competing at the FIBA Asia Cup will reap honors.
Gilas is not the ideal squad we all expect it to be as was seen in its last three games in group D play.
They were smothered by Lebanon, 95-80, expectedly eased comfortably by weakling India 101-59 and were waylaid by New Zealand, 92-75.
Mind you, Pinoy national teams have been mangling their foes during the time the FIBA Asia Cup was called the Asian Basketball Championships in the 60s and 70s.
Without the likes of tall centers Kai Sotto and Ange Kouame and power forwards like JunMar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar, the Gilas five the Philippines sent was a token team that was not representative of its true strength and worth.
Has not Justin Brownlee, Ginebra’s all-around go-to guy and the recent PBA’s Best Import, volunteered to be the Gilas import much earlier?
I am just wondering why SBP sent a cadet platoon to be fed to the lions as Gilas losses to Lebanon and New Zealand were as embarrassing as a slap on the face of basketball officials.
Did you see how the big guys of Lebanon and NZ toyed with our boys as if the tournament were a barangay competition?
It’s a shame because Pinoys were being looked up to by perennial rivals South Korea and Japan as icons of the game.
I thought Gilas came in unprepared for this tournament. Pardon me for saying this but my heart bleeds whenever Pinoy hoopsters lose to opponents we could beat.
So the Philippines has been relegated to fight for sixth place against an impressive sharp shooting Japan which I think truly improved over the years.
I wish our mindset and culture would change from “okay na” to “let’s do it”.
The former is a state of mind that borders on mediocrity, if it is not already in mediocrity.
The latter strives to achieve excellence by exerting the best efforts necessary to make it to the top.
Indonesia, our favorite whipping boy in the SEA Games, taught us a hard lesson in Vietnam by taking our scalps and dethroning us. They are also going notches up the ladder by putting up decent opposition against much fancied rivals.
Excuses and various explanations are being offered to downplay and soften the impact of Gilas’ losses.
This is hardly what we need to improve ourselves. Tsktsktsk. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com. GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
