A lot of people have already spoke about this incident, and if you are
already fed up with all the talks about that free-for-all that happened in the
Philippine Arena, well I am not ashamed to feed you some more unsolicited
opinion about this indescribable moment in history of sports.
Why? Because I was there. Unobstructed front row seat in that game. I
was a volunteer stadium announcer for that game handling the marketing
announcements, and seated beside my mentor Noel Zarate the entire time,
including the one when he was announcing 13 ejections on that sequence. That
was a record for him in his history of court announcing.
I had no idea that the broadcast TV cameras had a good shot of the
table officials while the disqualifying fouls were handed out as the
videoboards on the venue made no display of what is being broadcasted on TV in
order to avoid escalating the tension on the floor. So here were comments and
messages coming in to me left and right asking what happened. All I can say
that time was “AUS won by default…” and that was it. At that moment, I was
still asking myself, “What the hell happened?”
After a 48-hour mildly interrupted hibernation, and after reading every
side of the story… I finally watched the replay of the entire game. I usually
watch the games I call immediately as soon as they made available on the internet,
but this one was different. I wasn’t ready to watch it when I got home. The
image of seeing a five-on-three basketball game and ended prematurely is pretty
disturbing to me.
A good whole day sleep was able to make me recover physically,
mentally, and emotionally. I got to watch it, and now I’m ready to tell my side
of the story about it. Get ready.
FOR ME, it all started when Japan defeated Australia.
You are ranked 10 in the world in FIBA. You were a point away from
winning a bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics. For the longest time, you were
kicking New Zealand’s ass back in the Oceania zone. You dominated the Asia zone
on your arrival during the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup. You were lording it over the first
two windows of the qualifiers and wanted to show more dominance by bringing it
two NBA players.
And you lost to Japan?
Credit to the Japanese as well; they sure had surprises for the Boomers
under their sleeves by the name of Nick Fazekas and Rui Hachimura. But for a
team like the Australians to suffer that loss to a team who they thought they
can outclass, for sure their egos were really trampled, crushed, and split into
pieces.
And they had to take this trip to the Philippines for one more game. A
game were I assume they are preparing more than the Japanese game. For Matthew
Dellavedova and Thon Maker, they are used to this kind of basketball life; you
lose on the road, move on to the next game and stop thinking about it. That is
their NBA life. But for the others, we’re not quite sure.
So you come to the Philippines with that crushed ego, needing to regain
that sense of superiority somehow someway. So where do they turn to get that
feeling and show that dominant side they lost back in Tokyo?
The floor decals.
I was present in the venue with the SBP officials the day before the
game holding a dry run in preparation for tomorrow’s game. Yes, we hold a
rehearsal for a game… sounds weird, but it is true. The protocols, the timing,
the broadcast, the flow of the game, the entertainment; those things are all
rehearsed on that day, so when the actual game comes and we broadcast it to the
whole world, it would be very pleasing to watch. Local players posed as Gilas
and the Boomers playing on the same floor where the actual players will play,
including those now famous decals. Zero players slipped on those floor decals
on that two quarters of play. We had to stop the dry run to give way to the
scheduled practice of the Boomers. Things got pretty ridiculous from then on.
They wanted everyone to leave the floor, including the local organizing
committee (which I am included) as they invoked that it was a closed-door
practice and we understood that, and we obliged. Before we left, they spotted
the camera set up at the top of the baskets, and asked them to be removed. I
don’t know what their reason was but whatever it is it was pretty stupid.
Perhaps some time constraints, the Australians agreed to have the lenses be
covered. And we went off the floor and had more basketball conversations in the
rooms.
When everyone was allowed to enter the floor again and the Boomers made
themselves available to the media, one thing was obviously missing on the floor…
the decals. When the Australian players left the floor, here I saw the SBP
officials present pretty much disgusted with what the Boomers did… they had
those floor decals removed with no permission whatsoever. Sought for
explanation on the reason, the Australians said that it was “slippery”. Whatever
shoe they’re wearing, I guess they have to throw it away because they were the
only ones who complained about it. Inspecting the floor after that removed
decal, it is now more prone to injury because it is sticky. And it caused
permanent damage to the floor. One SBP official said to me that the Australians
made a threat of not playing in the game if the decals were returned the next
day. Our collective initial response was, “e di good! Panalo tayo!” One thing
though, the SBP officials present on the venue asked the media and everyone
else not to release the story about the decals until further approval.
Well, the big bosses of SBP were the ones who revealed that fiasco
several hours later. And sure enough, big bosses over at the Australian
basketball federation apologized as well. Doesn’t matter what kind of move that
apology was, but to me it was a sign that the team really felt that TKO against
Japan and they are venting their frustration upon everything that they see here
in the Philippines. I was expecting an Australian win in this game, but kept
the thought that if that low probability that Gilas will win that match, tatawanan ko talaga Australia… because
of what they did.
And then comes the day… July 2, 2018. Game day.
---
Stay tuned for Part Two.
