Douthit rues absence of Williams, Dillinger

DIGOS, Davao Del Sur—Marcus Douthit believes that Kelly Williams and Jared Dillinger are irreplaceable components of the Gilas-Pilipinas squad, but injuries to both Talk ‘N Text stalwarts have not diminished his belief in the National team.

“Every time I step on the (basketball) floor for the Philippines, I think we can pull it off,” Douthit said yesterday. “I have never had a doubt in my mind that we can’t (win). If we start to doubt ourselves, we don’t give ourselves a real opportunity to win the game.

“If you think that way (negatively), you already lost even before you step on the basketball floor.”

Douthit said that Williams and Dillinger are very unique players in the PBA, and that there’s no way that they can be replaced in the pool by just taking two players from outside the original 17-man pool from which Chot Reyes will select from.

“The thing about this team is that nobody plays similar,” Douthit said. “Everybody brings different things and that makes the coach’s job a little bit harder because now, certain things that they  do, we don’t have.”

Williams has taken an indefinite leave from Talk ‘N Text because of his blood disease, while Dillinger has been declared out for the rest of the year after damaging his pelvic bone in a vehicular accident two weeks ago.

“Everybody is a bit similar, like Ping (Marc Pingris) and Japeth (Aguilar),” Douthit continued. “Ping has the energy that Kelly has. Ping got the fight that Kelly has, but Ping is not as tall and as big as Kelly.

“Now Japeth, he’s as tall as Kelly, but he doesn’t have the fight,” he said. “Arwind (Santos) is shorter than Kelly, but he has the fight.”