INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines – Faced with a daunting task, Nokia Team Pilipinas would rather win against China on the court than inside the board room.

Doubts were raised on the eligibility of the Chinese players in the ongoing Fiba Asia U16 Men's Championship after they demolished all of their rivals with relative ease, RP coach Eric Altamirano revealed.

“If somebody brings it up, then we will support it,'' said Altamirano on the eve of Team Pilipinas' semifinal duel with unbeaten China. ``But we will not take the lead.''

Some officials of the Fiba Asia central board reportedly brought up the idea of conducting random bone scanning to determine the real age of China's players.

With an average ceiling of 6-foot-4, the Chinese team could easily pass off as a seasoned collegiate squad after crushing high school players from Chinese Taipei by 47 points (108-61), Korea by 70 (121-51) and Japan by 50 (115-65).

If proven guilty and assuming China captures the crown, Fiba Asia could strip the title and award the two available seats in the Fiba World U17 Men's Championship in Hamburg, Germany to the runners-up.

``We'd rather win the game on the court than in the board room. We're going to fight until the end,'' said Altamirano, whose Nationals dumped the Jordanians to arrange the semifinal encounter with the Chinese scheduled last night. Iran crossed paths with Korea in the other pairing.

Altamirano said the RP team met the Chinese twice this year—in the Nike All-Asia Basketball Camp in Beijing last June and the Asian Youth Games in Singapore last August.

``We just have to find a way to hide our weaknesses and use our strength, which is speed and ball handling, to our advantage,'' said Altamirano.

``The Chinese are not kids, they’re giants. They have a mature game and they know how to win a big game like this,'' he added.

According to Altamirano, the Nokia RP team also played with the Chinese in a series of tune-up games in Beijing last July where the coaching staff and players were given the rare opportunity to interact with Chinese coaches and visit their training facilities.