Kudos for gallant Gilas five

Whether the Smart Gilas national team returns home with a bronze medal from the Fiba Asia Men’s Championship or not, our basketball-crazy nation will embrace them with all the pride we can muster for a gallant performance against seemingly overwhelming odds.
Even prior to the start of the tournament, it was clear that there was, at the very least, a low-level conspiracy to upset the Philippines by playing mind games on the issue of the eligibility of Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz, two players whose defensive prowess was essential if our cause was to get anywhere.
Regrettably, it was Lebanon which raised the eligibility issue, supported by the Lebanese deputy secretary general of Fiba Asia, Hagop Khajarian. He even dared ignore the specific instructions from Fiba secretary general Patrick Baumann that the two Fil-Ams, regarded as natural-born Filipinos under the provisions of the Philippine Constitution, were eligible to play.
The gentleman responsible for arguing the case was businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan, whose faith in the SBP development program and the quest for international glory for the Philippines has never wavered.
To us the most satisfying aspect of this entire crusade has been the unending public support for Smart Gilas. Somehow, even the skeptics and the non-believers suddenly realized that it was incumbent on them to support Smart Gilas because this was our national team.
If our people, particularly the young, supported the Azkals football team with a hitherto unseen frenzy in a comparatively low-level tournament what more when Smart Gilas battled the mighty in Asia and finished in the top four for the first time in decades.
Smart Gilas was the product of a well thought-out commitment to build a team that would help restore our nation’s rightful place in the international arena and in so doing regain the respect we had earned for decades  but lost in a horrendous downspin of utter incompetence.
Pangilinan’s passion and commitment infected the team.
All of its members, including the entire coaching staff, the assistants and the management and officials of SBP such as former PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios and his predecessor as  PBA commissioner and SBP executive director, Noli Eala, and even former Fiba Asia secretary general Moying Martelino did more than their share out of a sincere desire to help, because this was our national team.
To us, two individuals deserve our gratitude and respect—coach Rajko Toroman and naturalized player Marcos Douthit.
Toroman, who coached the Iran team that first won the championship and stunned the mighty Chinese, was a believer of the finest order. He worked with a limited field of players to choose from because of certain unfortunate differences within the PBA but harnessed what was available to maximum effect. We fervently hope that in the future this narrow-mindedness within the PBA will be a thing of the past.
Douthit, who hasn’t one drop of Filipino blood, played like his life depended on the outcome. He pushed himself beyond the pain and the tiredness and battled every moment of every game with a heart that reminded us so much of the courage of the Filipino. Douthit is one of us and he deserves a special hug from a grateful nation.