Gilas Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao. Photo fiba.basketball
FOSHAN, China—Yeng Guiao admits that the quality of basketball in Europe compared to the Asian level still has a big gap.
But that doesn’t mean that Gilas Pilipinas doesn’t belong playing in the Fiba World Cup.
“Quality is relative,” the firebrand coach told a handful of reporters who broke Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic’s comments that practically said that the Filipinos don’t belong here. “Yes, there’s a gap between Asian and European basketball, and that’s why we’re here (to close that gap).
READ: Serbian coach thinks Gilas Pilipinas not worthy playing top Euro teams
“If it’s European quality or American quality, we’re really far from that,” Guiao said before starting practice with the Nationals to prepare them for the 3:30 p.m. match Wednesday. “That’s the reason you have zones, qualifiers for different parts of the world.”
“What I know is that we passed the quality test for Asia, that’s why we’re here,” he went on. “And if he has a problem with that, he can take that up with Fiba.”
Guiao believes that the only way for teams of inferior quality to improve is to play in tournaments as big as this, which Serbia also did for years before being able to come up with this team that is one of the favorites to win it all here.
READ: Guiao: Serbia simply ‘too big, too good’ for Gilas
“It doesn’t mean that if you are beaten by a big team (like Serbia), that doesn’t mean that that is the quality you be based on,” Guiao said.
But the gap between Serbia and the Philippines is much narrower than what a 59-point blowout on Monday suggest.
“Yes, I can believe that,” he said. “This has been the best team that they have put together in a long time, and like I said, one that can win it all.”
“But like I said, the reason why we’re here in the World Cup is that we passed the quality in our zone,” he said, before trekking back to the Foshan International Sports and Cultural Arena floor to supervise half-court offensive drills.