Gilas and MVP must learn

Wrong, the Philippine national basketball team debacle in the Incheon Asian Games did not come to an end with its filthy last gasp against Kazakhstan on Sunday.

As it would turn out, there was still the Chinese national squad waiting in ambush on Monday.

Although no longer a feared superpower, a young China team stopped Gilas Pilipinas cold to plunge the Philippines to its poorest finish in the Asiad, as the Nationals waited to meet Mongolia in a clash of non-entities on Wednesday.

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Of course, majority of self-respecting Filipino fans had given up on Gilas after the team figured in a series of heartbreaking setbacks starting with Iran, followed by hideous losses to Qatar and Korea.

But if these fans no longer bothered to follow the Philippine-China game, it was not in dread of another heartbreaker.

The more obvious reason (for the snub) was that many Gilas diehards had lost what little respect they had for the national team after its abysmal unsportsmanlike display in the game against Kazakhstan, where coach Chot Reyes ordered a final goal scored in the opponent’s basket in a desperate bid to force an extension.

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Out in the Mandaluyong City wet market, hub of basketball and boxing diehards among poor wage-earners, Gilas followers were one in shunning the remaining schedule of the national team.

Buboy Sebreros, sports-loving son of top vegetable trader Boy Puti, singled out Chot Reyes’ dirty decision in the closing seconds against Kazakhstan as the biggest shame of all.

“Talo kung talo. It’s OK if we lose, but that was unforgivable,” he cried.

He said the move projected a cheap, silly image of Philippine basketball in the whole sports world.

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For his part, tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, benevolent benefactor of the Gilas squad, refused to touch on the incident against Kazakhstan.

MVP was however quick and firm in upholding the exploits of the national coach, now also known as Choke Reyes among countless fans.

Pangilinan did admit the road to Asian basketball supremacy has grown tough and steep (not stiff as inadvertently typed by this reporter here last time), but assured they will be pushing on harder with Reyes at the forefront.

That was great of Pangilinan, but his unflagging determination could also be classified as foolhardy based on the proven limitations of the single-gear, one-track Gilas squad.

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Shouldn’t Gilas backers and handlers also try to learn from their mistakes?

This is not to discourage, but it’s about time they also investigate why the team suffered repeated burnouts, while at the same finishing with end-game blackouts in Incheon.

Wasn’t it because the coach did not know what proper, scientific pacing was all about?

Didn’t Reyes try to pour it all out in the first half, pushing truly hard at full gear, burning out and exhausting everything, thereby ending up empty and dead in the killing closing quarter?

Without this consideration, it would be proper to accuse Pangilinan of blindly encouraging mediocrity.