Battling Rajko

PH’s Marcio Lassiter shoots the ball in the game againts Myanmar in the Basketball tournament of the SEA Games in MOA Arena. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Rajko Toroman did wonders for the Gilas Pilipinas program during his time as the head coach a decade ago.

That’s why his former national team players expect nothing less when the Philippines clashes with Toroman’s Indonesia in the knockout semifinals of the 30th Southeast Asian Games men’s basketball competition on Monday night.

“Definitely [we expect] a prepared team. I know coach Rajko’s really big on the details and with coach Rajko at the helm, you can always expect a tough team,” said Greg Slaughter after posting a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in the Philippines’ 136-67 rout of Myanmar to stay unbeaten on Sunday night.

“He’s been there and went into the Olympics and he’s seen every level of basketball.”

Marcio Lassiter, who also played and blossomed under Toroman’s guidance, owes a part of his growth as a player to the decorated Serbian mentor.

Friendship on hold

Lassiter, though, won’t let his respect and admiration for Toroman get in the way of Gilas’ ultimate goal of extending the country’s gold medal reign.
“I played a lot with him. We learned a lot and he helped me develop as a player and at the same time, we know what’s at stake. We’re definitely not gonna play any friendship or anything like that,” said Lassiter, who hit five triples against Myanmar. “We’re definitely gonna play as hard as we can to get to the final round.”Philippine team coach Tim Cone also commended Toroman for his invaluable contributions to the country’s basketball program.

“Well, we all know who the coach is over there. We all know him, and we know how great he’s been with the original Gilas team, with the Mark Barrocas, Marcio Lassiters of that team,” Cone said.

“He grew that team, and he was really the, kind of the founder of the Gilas program. So, he’s contributed a lot to where this program has gotten to right now, and then he coached in the PBA. We all know how good he is, and we know how disciplined his teams are, they play with great discipline, usually very good shooting teams.”

Gilas drew Indonesia in the semis after dominating its group by an average winning margin of 54 points.
The Indonesians were supposed to bring in Lester Prosper to boost their squad but the former PBA import failed to get his naturalization papers in time for the regional meet.

Without Prosper, Indonesia settled for the second spot in Group B after Thailand went undefeated and drew Vietnam in the other bracket.
“He’s a good friend of mine, and it’s always difficult to coach against your good friend, but he has something he has to do, and we have something we have to do,” Cone said.

“We’re gonna go out and show our wares out on Monday. We’re not gonna hold anything back. We’re gonna go after him, because we know and we respect him so much,” he added. “We know anything can happen against them. Certainly we’ll be the favored team, but we’re used to that at this point so we’ll go out and get them.”