Playing blame game

Now the bashing begins. The Philippines’ failure to make it to the semifinals of the basketball tournament at the Asian Games in Incheon has triggered an angry wave of dismay because of frustrated expectations.

Somehow, Pinoy fans were led or possibly, misled to believe that with Gilas’ strong showing at the FIBA World Cup in Spain, claiming a medal in Incheon would be like taking candy from a baby. As it turned out, the way to the Asian Games semifinals was no walk in the park.

Let’s face it. Gilas overachieved in Spain mainly because of Andray Blatche who led the entire World Cup in rebounding. Blatche brought out the best in his teammates that even as he watched from the bench with five fouls, Gilas was able to beat Senegal in overtime. In Incheon, Blatche was nowhere around, declared ineligible by the organizers due to an eligibility rule that was promulgated in 2010 and enforced for the first time this year.

Without Blatche, Gilas lost a major part of its offense and defense. Marcus Douthit tried to do his part but is clearly not close to Blatche’s caliber. Douthit is 34 and Blatche 28. Douthit never played in the NBA while Blatche has spent nine years in the majors. At the FIBA Asia Championships here last year, Douthit ruled himself out of the finals after hurting his leg. The pain was severe but the leg wasn’t fractured or close to being broken. He didn’t play in the game that could’ve brought the Philippines back on the Asian throne.

At the Asian Games, Douthit was missing in action against Qatar and incurred the ire of his teammates for quitting. He was benched for disciplinary reasons in the South Korea game which was winnable until the haunting fourth period meltdown. Douthit was reinstated for the last push against Kazakshtan. The Philippines won, 67-65, but couldn’t advance to the semifinals because of an inferior quotient.

The win over Kazakhstan had a bizarre ending as Gilas deliberately scored on the opponent’s basket to create an overtime situation and the Kazakhs deliberately missed free throws without concealing intentions. Gilas’ ploy was to get the opportunity to build the required 11-point quotient cushion in five minutes of extension but with Kazakhstan down by two, the Filipinos tried to even the count. The referees, however, ruled out the basket. FIBA rules disallow a deliberate own basket for good reason – imagine the havoc on legitimate game betting if allowed. That trick should not have been attempted. Better to lose with dignity than try to find a loophole in the rules to salvage a losing cause. The desperation move backfired as it was in poor taste. At the same time, can you blame Gilas for trying it? The word was Gilas asked the referees if it could be done before the attempt and got the go-signal from two of the three arbiters. Maybe, the referees didn’t realize what they had approved until it happened and they quickly reversed themselves.

Aside from Blatche, Gilas lost Jayson Castro from the Spain lineup. His spot was taken over by Jared Dillinger. From Spain, Gilas never played a practice game to prepare for Incheon because there just wasn’t enough time. The players needed their rest. When the Philippines played Kazakhstan last Sunday, Marc Pingris was out of the rotation because of a calf strain. He would’ve been useless hobbling on the court. Jimmy Alapag endured pain from a pulled hamstring and played his guts out but couldn’t do it alone.

Gilas coach Chot Reyes has assumed responsibility for the Incheon debacle. That’s how it is in basketball. Players win games, coaches lose games. Reyes has never been afraid to put his job on the line – that’s called the hazards of the trade.

In the course of a tournament, Reyes will resort to tactics to motivate his players to overachieve. He’s done it so many times before in the PBA. He’ll go to media to put a player under the gun, hoping to fire him up for a comeback. But in the end, Reyes won’t blame anyone on his team for a setback except himself. That’s called manning up.

The PBA’s winningest coach Tim Cone has gone on record to express his support for Reyes. “I just want to say from the heart, I truly believe in Chot and the (Gilas) program,” said Cone in his Twitter account. “He’s the right guy and the program will bring us to the next level.”

Former Rep. Eddie Gullas, a keen basketball observer who owns the University of the Visayas, said he’s proud of Reyes and Gilas. You can’t discount the fact that Reyes brought incredible joy to millions of Filipinos for leading Gilas to the silver medal at the FIBA Asia Championships last year. And it was Reyes who piloted Gilas to an impressive showing at the FIBA World Cup in Spain. Surely, those achievements can’t be swept under the rug because of Gilas’ unfortunate fate in Incheon.

Rafael (Paing) Hechanova, captain of the Philippine squad that took the gold medal in basketball at the Asian Games in 1954, echoed the sentiments of Cone and Gullas. In a letter, he said: “I extend my congratulations to Coach Chot Reyes and the players. They have shown as before that Filipinos know how to play world-class basketball and are one of the best in the world. May I make a special mention of Coach Chot who has instilled in his players, the passion and the will to believe in themselves despite the physical constraints.

“I have noted that the players of other countries shoot with a higher trajectory and thereby, minimizing the chances of being blocked which really should be done by our players who are comparatively shorter. I have also noted that most of the teams screen and move to the basket without contact in the offense and therefore in the defense, we should perfect our understanding of when and when not to switch. This, of course, is part of training drills.”

Hechanova also played on the Philippine team that won the first Asian Games gold medal in basketball in New Delhi in 1951 and on the squad that took ninth place of 24 at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.