Black eye

Jayson Castro launches a punch at Daniel Kickert. —SHERWIN VARDELEON

As officials and a divided public struggle to agree on a culprit of the infamous Australia-Philippines brawl during their Fiba World Cup Qualifying showdown Monday night, the country’s national federation begins to grapple with possible repercussions of the event.

Fiba, the world governing basketball body, announced that it has opened disciplinary proceedings regarding the duel, which took place in the third quarter of what was officially logged as an 89-53 Australia victory when Gilas Pilipinas did not have enough manpower to continue.

But as emotional apologies, accusations and assumptions continued flooding social media, fears that the brawl might affect the country’s hosting of the 2023 World Cup became a sobering talking point for local basketball officials.

“We’ve worked hard to win the hosting in 2023 so I hope [the incident] doesn’t affect the hosting,” said Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio during a television special aired on ESPN5 Tuesday afternoon.

The Philippines has enjoyed a special relationship with Fiba over the past years, culminating in the awarding of joint hosting rights for the 2023 World Cup along with Japan and Indonesia.

“We will continue to prepare for that,” said Panlilio. “This is a standalone incident. We’ve done a lot for Fiba. As a federation also, we’ve worked with Fiba all these years.”

In the short term, there is a lot to also worry about, especially if Fiba slaps longer suspensions on everyone ejected during the melee. Nine players were ejected from the Philippines, including naturalized player Andray Blatche, who was among the first to retaliate after teammate Roger Pogoy was decked by Australia’s Daniel Kickert.

A lengthy suspension for ejected players—a minimum two games according to Fiba rules—means Blatche and a host of key Gilas players may be ineligible for the second round of the qualifiers, and the Philippines could be without key pieces moving on. Blatche, in fact, could be irreplaceable at this point.

“It’s difficult to field naturalized players nowadays unlike before,” said SBP executive director Sonny Barrios a week ago, when discussing why the Philippines lacks a roster of naturalized players to choose from. “Before, all it took was a presidential decree. Now, it takes an act of Congress.”

An apologetic national coach Chot Reyes also appeared on the ESPN5 special, blaming Australia’s Kickert for the escalation of events.

Kickert almost got into a scuffle with Gilas players at midcourt during the pregame warmups and game officials needed to intervene to prevent things from getting out of hand then. Reyes said Kickert had been hitting Philippine players who crossed the midcourt line.

“It’s unfortunate,” Reyes said after the game of the melee that broke out with four minutes left in the fourth. “It’s absolutely unacceptable. But Kickert was hitting our players during the warmups.”

“But as unfortunate as it is, it’s something that you have to be there to know what really went down. I know a lot of Filipinos, especially a lot of PBA players are saying their piece, but they don’t know what happened. They don’t really know what went on. That’s all that we have to say.”

A video by an apparent Australia supporter circulating on social media shows Kickert pushing hard a Gilas player during the warmups. The uploader said the shove was in retaliation after another Gilas player supposedly stuck his foot out in an attempt to trip the Australian big man.

Basketball Australia CEO Anthony Moore immediately apologized for Australia’s role in the free for all.

Moore, however, slammed officials and fans against two of their players, calling their actions “unacceptable” and did not rule out the possibility of taking legal action against those involved in the melee.

Reyes may also be in hot water after a video surfaced of the timeout right before the brawl when he told his players to “hit somebody; put someone on his ass.”

“If you take offense with that statement, you don’t know basketball,” Reyes said during the TV special. “It’s like when you ask a player to set a pick. You say take his head off. It’s a basketball term, a coaching term.”

Amid the search for blame, apologies came from both sides with both national federations expressing regret over the incident. Australia’s Thon Maker, the Milwaukee standout in the NBA, also issued an apology after he was seen dishing flying kicks during the melee. Maker, like Kickert, was also ejected along with two other Australians.

Assistant coach Jong Uichico, who was caught on video punching a fallen Australian player, also issued an apology, along with Blatche, Jayson Castro and Japeth Aguilar. A defiant Terrence Romeo, on the other hand, hit back at critics who called the players’ actions “disgusting.”

Sen. Sonny Angara, also the SBP chair, chimed in, saying “it was unfortunate that things got out of hand. It could have been prevented if the referees had tightened officiating to better control the game.”

Tensions were already high before the game when Australian players ripped off the court decals during practice, which drew the ire of local officials.

Things escalated during the scuffle at midcourt before heating up in the game, when Filipino players were reportedly on the receiving end of trash talk with racial undertones from some of players of Australia, even when they were already up by a huge margin.

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