Lost in China 4: Bashing Time

Guangzhou, China – The Gilas Pilipinas vs. Angola game was obviously the national team’s best game thus far, an overtime loss, 81-84. And what do the over a thousand “expert” analysts do? Bash, bash and bash pa more. I feel sorry for the Gilas Pilipinas players. Here they are doing their best and all they get from home is bashing. Let’s face it. While it’s true that their performance in this year’s FIBA World Cup hasn’t been the best, do they deserve all the bashing that they’re getting? Another important note is that making it to the FIBA World Cup is already a feat by itself. Winning a game or two at the tournament is already a bonus.

So why the bashing? It might help take a look at these bashers. There are two basic types of bashers. The first are those who bash with the intention of gaining attention for themselves more than anything else. By doing so, they become experts in the game and get on a high when other fellow bashers ride along and fill the comments section with even more bashing. The other type of basher isn’t what I’ll literally call a “basher.” They are those who provide reviews, analysis, and constructive criticism, with the goal of making sure that basketball’s stakeholders get a better picture of what’s taking place as we prepare for the future international events involving the national team.

Let’s stick to issues basketball “experts.” Once you start throwing personal attacks and criticism at certain personalities, that’s foul and below the belt. If you want to go on bashing, here is a “big picture” look that I’d like to present. Make no mistake about it, the basketball family will have to do a lot of thinking for the future of Gilas Pilipinas and I’m sure they will. But while we’re here, did you bashers see the other countries that also didn’t make it to the next around? Did you also bash these teams? So far, the teams that have been knocked out are China, Ivory Coast, Angola, Nigeria, Korea, Tunisia, Iran, Japan, Montenegro, Germany, Jordan, Canada and Senegal. If you look at this lot, this is strong group and some are teams that we can’t beat even with our A-game on. The biggest heart-breaker has to be host China’s stumbling out. Canada, Germany and Korea are also strong teams. The only team from our region that is in the second round is Australia. New Zealand is hanging on for dear life and needs to beat Greece and Giannis Antetokoumnpo tonight. That’s how strong the competition is in the FIBA World Cup.

And it isn’t over just yet. Gilas will play in the consolation round that will determine the rankings between 17th to 32nd. They are grouped with Angola, Iran and Tunisia, and will carry over their 0-3 record from the first round. Let’s keep supporting and praying for Gilas Pilipinas. Walang iwanan, di ba? Or are we the type of fans who abandon the team when the chips are down? Laban Pilipinas. Para sa bayan. Puso!