Isn’t Gilas good for your heart?

MANY Pinoy basketball fanatics have started to ask: After the agony and ecstacy, where to Gilas Pilipinas?

There were also overzealous female fans who claimed they could no longer bear the killer uncertainty, as defined by the hysterical windup in the Gilas Pilipinas Fiba World Cup matches.

Like these two housewives living in the same apartment compound close to the Pasig River.

Housewife No. 1: I made it a point to skip the game against Senegal, ’di ko na kaya.

Housewife No. 2: I just listened to the game broadcast, after putting off the TV video.

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There’s no doubt the same postgame exchange was being repeated in countless communities in our beloved country—where the game of basketball is treated like religion—the morning after the Philippine team beat tall Senegal.

At least, there have been no reports of fanatics collapsing or suffering an attack while the Gilas team agonized in losing its first four games—against Croatia, Greece, Argentina, Puerto Rico—before nailing its first win in the World Cup in nearly 40 years with that two-point overtime ordeal against Senegal.

Before everything else, here’s a thanksgiving salute to the national team, its coaching staff and its main benefactor, the generous tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, for that miraculous windup that confirmed the worthiness of the Philippine national team to be on basketball’s global centerstage again.

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Anyway, of the two housewives earlier quoted, the first one complained she suffered chest spasms in the Gilas game against Croatia, which went to overtime after a certified Filipino gunner missed an open shot from the right flank.

She said she suffered the same nervous uneasiness in the gallant losing stand against mighty Argentina.

It was, however, after the Gilas downfall against Puerto Rico that she quit and cried enough is enough.

She could no longer bear the agony.

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No, this young housewife who cares deeply for Philippine basketball, knows there’s no escaping the endgame ordeal in big games involving her national team.

At the same time though, she agreed to join other fans in saying Gilas can’t just rest on its achievement, because there will be bigger global basketball wars to wage out there.

They can’t post a waiver before games saying “Gilas games may be hazardous to your health.”

At the same time though, many knowledgeable devotees continue to wonder why, this deep and far, the Philippine national team, despite a display of boundless fighting spirit, has remained stuck in its utterly predictable, stone-aged “dribble-and-shoot” style of play.

The record 15 turnovers against Argentina also showed something seriously wrong with the Gilas team structure, mainly in the area of limited, one-sided footwork.