Philippines’ centre Andray Blatche (L) vies with Argentina’s forward Luis Scola during the 2014 FIBA World basketball championships group B match Argentina vs Philippines at the Palacio Municipal de Deportes in Sevilla on September 1, 2014. AFP
SEVILLE, Spain—He didn’t mince words in airing his dislike for Gilas Pilipinas a couple of days back, but after seeing the gallant Filipinos take Argentina to the limit, Greece coach Folios Katsikaris has become a fan.
And most of all, Katsikaris was glad that his wards heeded his words when they played the Philippines.
“I have some friends in the Philippines who told me that basketball back there is like a religion,” the 47-year-old coach said. “They told me that it was going to be very, very tough when we play Gilas.”
Katsikaris said that no one believed him while they were viewing tapes of Philippine games before coming here, and that the consensus of his players was that the Filipinos would be easy preys because they lack the size.
“It’s a good thing that they listened to me, ultimately,” Katsikaris said. “It took me a long time to convince them. Had they not believed me, we would have been the one (who lost).”
The Greeks, the fifth-ranked team in the globe, survived a physical game with the Filipinos, 82-70, on Sunday (Monday in Manila) with Katsikaris later branding his foes as “dangerous in playing the game.”
The next day, he saw the Filipinos drop a close one to world No. 3 Argentina, 85-81.
“I was very, very happy that we stayed focused because of what we saw with the Argentina game the next day, I was happy we won,” Katsikaris said.
Coach Julio Lamas of Argentina may have had the tougher time convincing his players of how tough the Filipinos are despite their size, for after that heart-pounding nipping of Gilas on Monday, the Argentine mentor said one thing that Katsikaris was spared from saying: “They made us look like fools.”