Mission accomplished in World Cup?
THE DINNER was in honor of badminton national player Gerald Sibayan, who is retiring from the Philippine team, but he received only a small fraction of media attention.
The focus was on comedienne Ai-Ai de las Alas who made an appearance right after every member of the national team had taken his place on the second floor of the restaurant in Quezon City.
De las Alas was wearing a revealing outfit and a pair of 5-inch heeled shoes that made her look very tall and attractive.
Of course, we were very surprised to see a show biz personality in what was supposed to be an exclusive affair for people in the sporting community.
“But I consider myself a member of the sporting community. In a way,” she said.
“I am the team manager of the De La Salle badminton team in the UAAP,” she added.
She was also the host of that evening’s expensive crab dinner, the 20-year-old Sibayan being a member of the De La Salle badminton team and one of her favorites.
“Gerald isn’t going anywhere, he’s just retiring from the national team because he wants to concentrate on his studies. He will still play for the La Salle badminton team though. When he gets his college diploma, Gerald plans to enroll in an aeronautic school. He wants to be a pilot someday,” the comedienne informed us.
For her part, the comedy queen, who earns millions making people laugh, said she’s planning to put up a sports foundation to help fund the needs of destitute athletes with potential.
“I’m not sure if it’s a worthy project, but I’ll think about it,” De las Alas said.
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“Mission accomplished!” broadcaster Magoo Marjon kept yelling after Gilas Pilipinas triumphed over Senegal last Thursday night, Manila time.
I’m not sure if Marjon’s partner, Quinito Henson, shouted the same, but I guess they must have been carried away by their euphoria over our first victory in the World Cup after 40 years.
Mission accomplished? Are they saying that our only goal was to win a solitary game in the Fiba World Cup?
Millions were spent, enormous sacrifices were made, the team worked very very hard to get to Seville. Only with the mission of winning one game?
In case they have forgotten, the target was to win at least two games in the first round so we could advance to the round of 16. Deemed most beatable in our group (B) composed of Croatia, Greece, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Senegal, were the last two.
We almost made it but we were one win short. We can now only look forward to the Asian Games in Incheon as Fiba secretary general Patrick Baumann tries to intercede for naturalized cager Andray Blatche, whose eligibility to play in the tournament is being questioned .
