The Philippines most beloved sport, basketball, but do basketball loves us in return?
Photo from PBA.com.ph
Let's face fact. The honest fact. We're not a team nation, if not a divided one. Simply because many refuses to cooperate. Not only it is evident with the horde of unruly mob gathering outside the House of Representative to protest the State of the Nation Address of president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo this afternoon, it also reflects on how our Team Pilipinas basketball team fare poorly in the recent 31st Jones Cup in Taiwan where the RP team, fielded by millionaire athletes from the PBA, where they only managed to score two wins against six loses. Two of those wins comes from lowly Taiwan team B and Kazakhstan who also finished at the bottom of the final standings. We are defeated by nations from Korea, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Taiwan A and Iran. Last night, we are "massacred" by the Iranian team, for good measure, by twenty five points. Iran lead as much as 37 points. We are outplayed, out hustled, and more importantly, we are outsmart. Being out muscled never hurts. There are law of nature that will stay no matter how hard we try to defy them. But being out smart, where we have complete control of its power and possibilities to make a difference, is something more embarrassing than being physically bullied.
“We had no solution to their height advantage, we just couldn’t match up with their size,” said national coach Yeng Guiao.
I have to respectfully disagree Mr. Guiao. We are totaly outsmarted by the Iranian team. Their total assists doubled that of the RP had produced. In other words, they played smart. They did not resort to bullying, at least this time to gain victories against us.
Another thing, you couldn't put players on a team that is jealous of one another's individual success that is plaguing the PBA in recent years. So how could you expect to see them perform beyond their usual capabilities as an athlete to represent the country?
The more I see our RP team in international scene, the more I love chess in our country.
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5 comments:
I wonder how much was spent for the training of our basketball team for the jones cup and the china games next month? And how much was spent for training our vietnam zonalist?
chess is really the underdog, not only in our country but also in usa and other parts of the world.
but like the small mustard seed, it is bound to grow when planted on a good soil and nurtured. and this blog of yours et al is a way of nurturing the seed.
It's going to be a long tedious task sir Rolly...
With all the failures and money the government and the private sector have wasted for international basketball, RP should have bid adieu to bball a long time ago.
But it wouldn't be the case even if our RP Team suffers total annihilation on the basketball court tournament in and tournament out simply because (foolish?) Filipinos' interest in the sport wouldn't fade. And with the funding being sourced more from private sponsors rather than our corruption-stricken and cash-strapped NSA's, companies would obviously put their money and advertise on where people are interested.
We just can't do anything if much much more Filipinos are still much much more interested in seeing their bball pa-superstar idols getting beat by 30+ points, rather than watch a GM compatriot rule an international chess meet.
(Sadly), most people still want to be like LeBron or Kobe than be like Topalov or Anand. Since dreams are free, perhaps they just want to have something well, more lively. Just ignore the international scoreboard though.
It may not be that easy. The transition and everything. I too is an avid basketball follower all my life. But it's the rude awakening we recently witness that basketball will bring us nowhere. Billiard and chess are the future sports of our country.
Hi D.T., I was reserving comment until the actual tournament. Given the limited parameters of the PBA (natl players not practicing full time), this team can only reach so much.
So far, big wins vs Japan and Taipei. In the loss vs Korea, our shooters' guns were muffled.
Hoping it continues to be hot like the game vs Taipei today.
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