THE SADDEST part of the Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team’s tragic voyage is that fans, young and old alike, were never prepared for the heartbreak.
In fact, despite a so-so (1-4) output in the recent Fiba World Cup in Spain, Gilas Pilipinas journeyed to the Incheon Asian Games bearing great expectations for it to figure in the gold medal contest.
There were still faint hopes for a stronger showing as Gilas set out to take on host Korea on Saturday, following harrowing losses to Iran and Qatar.
* * *
Sorry, the truth is that the national basketball team, still basking in overwhelming adulation, already appeared overdue for ouster following its fall against Iran on Thursday.
How it managed to hang on and stay precariously in the race was the result of contrasting factors, topped by claims to superiority that were predictably blown to bits in the crashing loss to the unheralded Qataris on Friday.
Coach Chot Reyes, often ready to own up to faults, refused to take the blame after the Qatar game, and instead singled out naturalized reinforcement Marcus Douthit, for allegedly quitting.
* * *
There was, indeed, one sickening point after a missed Gilas triple in the closing minute when Douthit froze like a statue and refused to battle for the ball that sailed directly over his head. He cozily preferred to be boxed out.
Reyes, by the way, later claimed Douthit was not the lone Philippine team member who did not do his chore against Qatar.
OK, Reyes would not own up, but what became very clear in that loss to Qatar was the Philippine coach’s now patented inability to close a game properly.
* * *
If Gilas sputtered in the clutches against Iran, the celebrated Filipino Gilas team overdid itself in doing practically everything wrong on both sides against Qatar, thereby allowing a 19-0 blast by the opponent for a monumental fold-up built around 18 turnovers.
Against Korea, Gilas erected a 16-point lead in the third quarter on impeccable outside shooting, saw this diminish to just one point in the third, before being outplayed and stunned in the crucial closing seconds.
As expected, experts and plain fans had their respective views on what caused the debacle.
* * *
What would stand out though were two factors:
Gilas Pilipinas was both poorly trained and poorly coached, compared to the teams it had faced in Incheon, except maybe for India.
Supremely motivated, indeed, and maybe full of heart, too.
But Gilas Pilipinas, hollow in many areas like maturity and cohesiveness, definitely lacked the proper solid defensive hardware required in exacting international battles.
* * *
(NEVER AGAIN: Said a top Filipino sports editor from Batangas, veteran of international coverages: “I’ve validated my suspicion. Chot Reyes doesn’t know how to finish games with the lead. From the World Cup to the Asian Games, all he knows is to produce heartaches.” Explained Joseph Dumuk of Bauang, La Union: “Leading by seven in the latter half of the fourth quarter and eventually losing to Iran reminded me of some of the Philippine losses in the Fiba World Cup. When will our basketball honchos accept that Team Chemistry cannot be attained in just a few weeks and Heart is not enough to win games.”)