Are you guys excited?
You bet
your ass, I am. So fucking excited.
But with
reservations.
There are
four numbers and a couple of names that somehow holds the excitement back and
tell me the reality of the situation we are in.
3. 5. 16.
17.
Our housemates
in Seville's respective rankings in the FIBA Men's Division. Argentina is in
three, Greece in five, Croatia in 16, then Puerto Rico in 17.
We are
ranked at 34.
Senegal
is ranked at 41. But they got Gorgui Dieng and Hamady N'Diaye. Two seasoned NBA
players.
Hamady is
currently a D-League player whilr Dieng is signed with the Minnesota
Timberwolves. I really have no idea how these two play. But all I know is that
on my The Association NBA 2K14 game mode using the Houston Rockets, Dieng
always gets Dwight Howard on foul trouble for whatever reason. Maybe it's my
Xbox 360's way to tell me "Enough playing and go to sleep!" That
premise is enough to assume that Dieng will piss the Gilas guys come in the
preliminaries.
On paper,
it's not that hard... it's INCREDIBLY HARD.
But what am I really saying?
Sports5
has played an exclusive, comprehensive, and detailed coverage of the Gilas
training in Spain for people to see. Everything! From Ranidel's haller pose to
Marcus's ice bucket challenge to their fun times at the travel. Of course the
way they train too. People see them enjoy. People see them do drills. People
see them execute plays. People see them play.
And
people see their ass get kicked... to the tune of seven to 50 points.
And the
hating starts to come in...
Though in
my observation the amount of hating significantly reduced since the Asian
championships. But still it's brain itching to see even really few people say
something bad about the diskarte or the hard work our guys are putting in there.
Bakit daw sinama pa si ganito kasi ganyan na sya. Bakit daw hindi sinaman si
ganyan. Bakit kasi ganyan ang ginawa kesyo hindi daw tatalab yan sa laban.
Jesus Christ forgive me, but when I see tweets or comments hating on our guys I
wanna call them like that, like that, and like that!
---
I support
this awesome national team in anyway that I can. Last year during the Asian
Championships, I lined up at SM San Lazaro to buy a ticket for the
quarterfinals game against Kazakhstan. I wanted to buy the ticket to that day
because majority of us were sure that we are going to beat them, so I can go
home from MOA Arena happy.
I lined
up at 10 A.M., just as the mall opened. But the line for the tickets were
crazy. Damn, did those people in front of me camped inside SM? Is that even
permitted? How in the world this line got so crazy in a matter of... seconds???
To cut
the long story short, I was able to buy an upper box seat for the last day -
the finals. First question on my mind that time was "Will we win against
Korea?" Assuming that we lose the semifinals against Korea, the second
thought was "The other semfinalists are Iran and China. Can we beat them
for the final spot at the World Cup?" Two devastating questions while I
hold that ticket for the last day. My original plan was to go home happy on a
Friday night with a win over Kazakhstan. It turned out to be a worst case
scenario in the making of going home down, sad and heartbroken once again.
Friday.
Quarterfinals day. The unthinkable happened. Chinese Taipei defeated China in
the quarters. Whoa! It meant the possibility of facing Chinese Taipei for the
final spot in the World Cup. My last day ticket just transformed from a curse
to a cure. Even if I saw Gary David singlehandedly torched Kazakhstan and thinking
to myself that I was supposed to be there, okey lang.
Saturday.
Semifinals day. Another unthinkable happened. Just as I braced myself from a
heartbreak since seeing Marcus go down hurt, Gilas just blocked South Korea's
way into thr finals. I cried. James Velasquez obviously cried. My ticket is now
turned into a gift. Win or lose the next day, I will see Gilas march their way
to the World Cup. I will walk inside the MOA Arena happy that Sunday. I will
walk outside of the MOA Arena happy that Sunday.
Sunday.
Finals day. Before I walk in, I took a picture with the ever so cute TrishRoque. As I walk out, I became a living proof to the urban legends of RobertJaworski, a man who is so willing to give each and everyone in the crowd a
picture and a personal message.
Oh, yes.
Gilas lost to Iran... but that's okay. We got what we wanted... the Worlds.
---
The thing
is I could have easily turned into a basher at some point thanks to those
doubts I had while I was lining up to buy me a ticket. I could have blamed
anyone in there including people not really involved in the team. Perhaps with
the help of a little bit of expectation control, and tons and tons of faith, it
got me through those three final days in the Asian championships. I didn't
really care if Hamed Haddadi uber bullied June Mar Fajardo that game or Gabe
Norwood did a piss poor job of defending Nikka Bahrami. I was there not as a
Philippine Basketball critic but a Filipino supporting our fellow Filipinos
fighting for the same flag we have. Why shoot our allies?
---
It's not
really a different journey, the mountain to climb just got higher and maybe for
now, unreachable. But hey, it's still an experience reaching the Everest base
camp even though some teams can reach the peak. Who knows, we might reach the
peak soon.
Thinking
about it, we almost got there! We finished third in the 1954 World
Championships, still the best finish an Asian country had in the history of
entire basketball. If Iran or China or South Korea is so powerful, why can't they
even come close to what we had?
Of course
time has changed. 1978 was the time we had our last appearance. We were
supposed to show up in 1986 but People Power blasted that shot. The game got a
lot faster, stronger, and a little more complex.
But the two ultimate
wisdom of the game is still the same. The score starts at 0-0, and bilog ang
bola.
Look what we have
done despite the setbacks.
We might have found
the Rafe Bartholomew of Spain.
We made South Korea
and China piss their pants, and decided the ineligibility of Andray Blatche.
Even the worst of
loss has it's brightside. Ukraine defeated us by 50. Ukraine is ranked at 45,
11 spots lower than us. Sometimes the rankings are quite a joke.
Yes the battle will
be incredibly hard. But we can be sure that those 16 brave men plus their
coaches will fight their heart out so we can be called once again
"basketball world superpower".
And all we have to do
is to pray for them and to have faith in them.
Who knows...
Senegal might be as
soft as a tissue, and might crumble into a Ranidel or Pingris screen.
The Croatians might
have a collective dream of being kicked in the head by their own Mirko CroCop.
Greece's falling
economy might affect their game ultimately.
Every Argentinian
player get lonely because Manu Ginobili is not around. Baka mawalan ng gana
maglaro.
Renaldo Balkman might
strangle J.J. Barea.
And voila! 5-0 Gilas!
#LabanPilipinas #PUSO
---
Okay, for people who
somehow cares about my predictions...
High chance of
beating: Senegal
Some chance of
beating: Puerto Rico
Chance of Renaldo
Balkman strangling somebody: High
Strongest team in the
group: Greece
Realistic
achievement: Round of 16
Potential opponent if
we reach Round of 16: Spain
Chance of beating
Spain: No chance in hell (Sana mag-apoy ang kamay mo Gary...)
Will we be the
highest placer among the Asian participants: Yes
---
follow me: @sportscastengr
