Australia’s Goulding recounts ordeal in fracas with Gilas
MANILA, Philippines — Chris Goulding of the Australia Boomers is just relieved that he emerged from the Monday night brawl with only “a black eye and a couple of bumps and bruises.”
Speaking in a national morning television show in Australia in what seemed as his first interview since the incident, the cager said “there hasn’t been a lot of sleep since the incident. Physically, I’m surprisingly really good. Small black eye and a couple of bumps and bruises, but that’s about it.”
Goulding was the cager who drew a charge against Gilas Pilipinas’ Roger Pogoy. That interaction led to Daniel Kickert charging into the Filipino with an unnecessary elbow to the jaw which sparked a couple of pushing and shoving from both teams, eventually leading to a brawl.
“It all probably hit me really the next day, when I’ve spoken to my family, I’ve spoken to my friends, and looked back at the vision. To be honest, at that time, I don’t wanna say I went into survival mode, but as you say, I was on the ground,” Goulding told the show’s host. "There were a lot of people on top of me, punching and kicking. So I was just really trying to tuck my head, protect my head, and sort of wait it out.”
Goulding along with his teammates Kicker, Nathan Sobey and Thon Maker were all ejected from the game. They joined nine from the Philippine team in exiting early, which paved the way for a bizarre three-on-five late in the third period.
"We got up big. And I think, the overriding thing is that they weren’t happy with that. They were a little embarrassed. They sent a player out to try and get under our skin… Hit some elbows…” Goulding said of the incident.
Shortly after detailing the melee, the 29-year-old shooting guard made time to reach out to the spectators who were able to witness the violence — especially the young ones.
“[My] main reason for speaking to you guys, and I thank you for having me on: We’ve got a million players of basketball throughout this country — from every background, every ethnicity you could imagine. We’re really an inclusive sport. And for the kids that saw that, I just wanna say that you know, that’s not the way to go about basketball. You’ve got a beautiful game,” he said.
Goulding went on to point out that his other teammates’ restraint was a big factor on the outcome of the game — which was a default after Filipino Baser Amer was the only one left to play.
“If you actually see some alternative angles of how my teammates handled themselves, they wanted to get out there, they wanted to help. They were really disciplined that they didn’t have to come on court. And in the end, that’s why we won the game,” Goulding said.
FIBA, basketball’s governing body around the world, has yet to issue its official decision on the incident.
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