Gilas Pilipinas and New Zealand at center court after their Fiba OQT game Wednesday night. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Qualifying for the Olympics was always going to be a longshot for Gilas Pilipinas, but the manner at which the Filipinos exited in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament Tuesday night hurt even more for Marc Pingris, one of the emotional leaders of the team.
All those long hours in practice, the time away from the family for the training camp in Europe and the games consumed Pingris.
While he remains open to the idea of playing for the national team again, this was perhaps Pingris’ last shot at glory with the national team.
He was part of the squad that qualified for the Fiba World Cup in 2014 via the Fiba Asia Championship in 2013. That campaign in 2013 ended with Pingris at centercourt shedding tears of joy after the semifinal win against South Korea.
Tuesday night’s game ended in grief for Gilas.
“It just hurts,” the 34-year-old Pingris said in Filipino as he fought back tears, after Gilas’ 80-89 loss to New Zealand that doomed the country’s bid of making a return to basketball in the Olympics.
Hopes were high for Gilas to topple the Tall Blacks after a solid performance against France Tuesday night. The hosts came within two points in the fourth quarter only to falter in the end of a 84-93 defeat against a French team that featured NBA players Tony Parker and Boris Diaw.
The game against New Zealand almost had the same script with Gilas getting off to a decent start, before the Tall Blacks slowly seized control as the Filipino offense stalled.
Pingris also pointed out that New Zealand had the luxury of scouting Gilas last Tuesday night in the game against France.
But more than anything, Pingris felt it was the Tall Blacks who came out hungrier for the win.
“We didn’t come out with 100 percent,” said Pingris. “We thought we can beat them. This is a big lesson to the team. They were hungrier than us and it showed in the game. They were diving for loose balls.”
Pingris hopes the next version of the Gilas five will pick up the painful lessons from the loss to the Tall Blacks.
“Alam naman natin kaya nating lumaban basta ilagay lang ang puso sa paglalaro sana,” said Pingris.
“Hindi lang talent sa talent, hindi tayo mananalo dun. Sana samahan natin ng puso talaga yun naman ang puhunan sa paglalaro eh hindi talent. Hardwork at puso.”
