A couple of quarters are pointing fingers at Gilas Pilipinas, saying that the team management goofed in joining the pocket tournament in Estonia, and that the 0-3 win- loss of Gilas was “shameful.”
These were the same quarters who steadfastly defended the former Gilas players who begged off from the team for the FIBA Asian Championships. The SBP is even being blamed already if Jordan Clarkson would refuse to play for Gilas.
Oh common!
I personally had no expectation from Team Gilas on that Estonia trip. How many practice sessions did they have before leaving? With a new coach, new players, a new playbook, not even the best professionals in the world would be able to come up with a hat trick.
I already wrote that the greatest basketball association in the world, with theoretically hundreds of world class players, have already started their preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Despite the odds, which Team Gilas was very much aware of, the team had to go to Estonia anyway.
One, the team desperately needed practice games (yes sir, the three games against Estonia, Iceland and the Netherlands were looked at as opportune practice games, which Gilas could never have, if they sat on their butts in Manila.)
Gilas also had to bond as a team. Their short trip, and the three games hopefully did this for the team. The coaching staff also had to see in real time situations how the members of the team would fit and react to the system of Coach Baldwin.
Finally, Team Gilas had to go because it had made the commitment to be in Estonia.
Reneging on our word would not have been good for our reputation in the basketball world. I bet Team Gilas would give a better account of itself at the Jones Cup, and hopefully, once the FIBA Tournament comes along in three weeks, we would already have a team worthy of our support and pride.
If you will ask me, the real culprit in all these are the PBA, their member teams and some of the owners.
Knowing the FIBA Asia schedule, the PBA relented very little in adjusting the conference schedule, but not by much. The time for preparation would have been enough if the Gilas who played in the worlds was intact, including the coaching staff.
Then from the start, the teams had warned that they would only allow one player from their active roster to join the pool. This is probably the reason why Jeff Chan was not invited because Gabe Norwood is the better all –around player, and Paul Lee excused himself from the pool.
It would be a good subject for a study for SWS or Pulse Asia to find out how much in the ratings of the Filipino basketball fans would the PBA suffer because of pulling back down Philippine basketball from the lofty perch it has gained after the credible performance of Team Gilas in the 2014 FIBA Championship.
PBA President Sonny Barrios has floated once more the need for a long term plan for the Philippine National Team. This is not difficult to do if the SBP and the PBA are sincerely willing to work with each other. And they do not have to reinvent the wheel.
Almost all countries that are serious about their basketball have this kind of plan in their structure.
We still emulate the formula that the USBA and the NBA had years ago when all it had to do was to gather the best professional players (the original Dream Team was organized in this manner) and leave everything to the 12 greatest players in the world.
Those who could still remember the Barcelona Olympics, not once did Coach Chuck Daly stand up to cajole his players or give them encouragement. If I remember right, he did not call a single time out all throughout the tournament.
Yet the Dream Team won by an average of 43 points.
The USBA suffered extreme shock when they lost in Seoul and placed only third in a World Championship, even with the NBA big names in the line-up.
Since then the USBA has left nothing to chance.
They have kept the same management and coaching staff, with Coach Mike Krzyzewski at the helm. The core of the team has remained from tournament to tournament, with the best American player Carmelo Anthony when it comes to international tournaments, is in for his second inclusion in the USA Olympic team (or is it his third?)
In our case, the SBP nor the PBA, do not seem to have any clout over the member teams. This is a natural consequence of the brutal fact that the PBA is actually at the mercy of conglomerates which owns two or more teams in the association.
If one of these factions says goodbye to the PBA, it is the reasonable fear of the people who earn their living out of the income of the PBA tournaments, that the association would not be able to withstand such loss.
Well if this state of affairs is okay with us, then let us stop looking outside our 12 mile limit for basketball fame. Let us just look at our professional league as entertainment short of a circus, and be happy to our hearts content when the clowns, masking themselves as basketball professionals, come marching in.
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