Photo from Fiba.com
FOSHAN, China—Kiefer Ravena is trying to not let some obvious witch hunting bother him, but admits losing sleep over how he and his Gilas Pilipinas brothers were waylaid by Italy Saturday night at the start of the Fiba World Cup.
“Most of us are really disappointed in ourselves, we hardly had any sleep,” Ravena told a handful of scribes after practice late Sunday night. “If you play like that, who can (get sleep)? Kung yung mga hindi nga naglaro (fans) hindi nakatulog, paano pa kaya kami?”
The Filipinos lost their World Cup debut by 46 points to the talented, hulking Italians and almost everyone—counting naturalized center Andray Blatche—are owning up for playing with very little heart and letting the country down.
Ravena believes that it was a wake-up call of sorts. And that it was the worst that they could possibly play.
“As you know, we played so badly against Italy,” he said. “So I don’t think we can go lower than that.”
Ravena is speaking with a lot of positivism ever since coming here. This, despite being tested for drugs for a second straight time Sunday.
“Like I said, I don’t take it personally,” he said. “It’s part of the tournament, I guess. (Although) I was a little surprised, my name being there (selected at random) again.”
Being picked consecutive times also did not escape the attention of coach Yeng Guiao, who immediately came to his point guard’s defense.
He even borrowed comedian Jimmy Santos’ famous line in doing so.
“If they (Fiba) want, they can even test him three times a day,” he said in Filipino after practice Sunday. “We’re not hiding anything, so I don’t have a problem with that.”