Fallout from Qatar loss

AFTER Gilas Pilipinas lost  to unheralded Qatar last Friday at the 17th Asian Games, many Filipinos envisioned  the loss  as a signal  of the eventual  exit of  the Philippine  team from  medal contention.

If we had  lost   to a  team  which everyone  expected  us  to beat, many dread the result when  we  face  host South Korea.  As it turned out, the Filipinos lost again.

“Gilas looked tired,” Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) vice chair Ricky Vargas, who is  supposed  to fly to Incheon early next week, texted. It was  easy  to perceive   that  he was  very disappointed  and  depressed, although  he  wasn’t    saying it.

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The loss could only  be blamed on one person,  I told Vargas, who waited  intently  for  the   next  line. I told him Moying Martelino  is  to  be blamed.

It  was  supposed  to be a joke.  Back  in 1989, Martelino was pirated by  the Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF)   from  the then Basketball Association  of  the Philippines (now SBP) so  he  could  help organize the association  internally   and   raise  the  stature of   the Arab country   in  the Asian basketball map.

I told  Ricky it was Martelino who  taught   the Qataris  how  to play basketball and   now  they’re beating us  in our  own  game.

Of course I was  only  trying to console  him  with  my  corny joke. I know  he  was  trying  hard  to analyze   what   went  wrong,  considering   that  perhaps  even  the Qataris  didn’t  expect  to  beat us.  Gilas Pilipinas    was  heavily   favored   to  win and  this   was   confirmed by a Doha-based   colleague.

“I  didn’t give  the Gilas-Qatar match much   thought, because I was  sure the Filipinos  would  win,”  my colleague  said.

“To start   with,   the Greek coach is  new. He  was hired only  last April  and  only  had  the  chance to get  to know  his players and  practice  with  them  in  earnest last July. The Qatar   national  team  practically  only  had a month  to prepare for   the Asian Games.”

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And who is Boney Watson, the  naturalized American  who wreaked  havoc  on Gilas?  How come  we never   saw  him   before? Was his eligibility  not questioned  by  the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA)?

My colleague   said  “every  naturalized player  is   questioned by the OCA. Remember, even a player  from the host  country  was   disqualified. Contrary  to  what  most  of  us  think, we  were  not  being  discriminated against   when Andray Blatche  was  disqualified.”

We have not seen Watson  play,    he  said,  because he plays  mostly in  Gulf competitions.

“The QBF was choosing  between him and Jeffrey Hayes   for the Fiba Asia  in  Manila  last  year, but  the officials  decided on  Hayes. Watson  has  been residing in Qatar  for seven years  now, and he’s  not  exactly young. He’s in his  mid-30s,” said  our   source.

Just as  Vargas and our countrymen   feared,  the loss  to Qatar  seemed to have  sparked  our fall. As in  most  of  our games  even  in the Fiba World Cup, we almost  made it against  South Korea   yesterday even if we played All-Filipino,  but again,  we    collapsed  in  the dying  minutes.    It’s  not   very clear in my  mind   if Gilas  still has  a  chance—no  matter  how small—to advance  to  the  next phase of  the  competition.

My colleague  said we should not be  surprised if  the more fortunate  Qataris make it.