Aha!
That, my friends, was my initial reaction at the murderous rampage coach Chot Reyes’ boys gave the visiting Myanmar quintet at the opening of the SEABA championships last Friday.
It wasn’t an expression of surprise as you would normally understand but more of a kneejerk reaction to an already preconceived result. So, what?
You see, Myanmar was pretending its squad was a national platoon bravely meeting their counterparts in the ASEAN region.
No, the Burmese played more like a barangay-level selection if you look at the 107-point difference, 107-40, in favor of Andre Blatche and company.
Wow, I could interject that even with Sec. Bong Go’s Davao team, they could overwhelm easily the visitors with the same amount of effort and intensity Gilas displayed.
I thought coach Reyes should have held back his horses as a protocol strategy to a foreign squad who is just beginning to learn the rudiments of the game.
I tell you, if that were football, the results would have been far different.
Frankly, I did not appreciate Reyes’ statement after the game.
“I just like the way we went out and did the little things,” he said wryly, to over-emphasize the point that Gilas got the talent. Rubbing salt over the wound, huh?
Just for the record, the SEABA championship is the weakest of all regional sports events in this part of the world. All the members concede that the Filipinos are unbeatable in this qualifying event to the World Cup.
Many basketball armchair observers still believe that Gilas could have just gone through the motions, instead of literally manhandling a neophyte Myanmar roster to pieces. Gilas ruthlessly embarrassed a visiting team that already conceded defeat even before the opening jump ball.
Recall this to mind some decades ago when the Chinese blew past the Robert Jaworski-mentored RP team by 60 points in the 1990 Asian Games, what did you and the millions of Filipino basketball fans and followers feel? Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets wasn’t even in that line-up yet.
I was among those who felt sick about the setback and thought about inflicting revenge someday. I supported through my sports columns in a national broadsheet the efforts of the then BAP and the PBA in the formation of a truly-talented RP five that would enable the country to enter back into the Olympics basketball contest.
Unfortunately, as the years wore on, the harsh reality finally dawned on me that even gathering together the best basketball talents there are today (including the hiring of a “capable” foreign coach and naturalizing a tall, well-equipped ex-NBA player) would not be enough nor equal to the foreign competition as they are likewise better improving.
It is just like Don Quixote fighting the windmill.
Sports authorities and policy makers are well advised to turn their eyes on games and disciplines that would provide Filipino athletes an equal chance to excel in the world stage.
Basketball, I’m sorry to say, cannot give us the gold medal in Asia for as long as China is around. The Olympic gold is a much more difficult goal. It is an impossible dream.
So, what is Chot Reyes, in effect, saying? That his present Gilas 5 are ready to take on the world?
It’s been a promise that every national coach has made but has never been fulfilled. A broken vow. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
