Putting brawl in perspective

Today is the deadline that FIBA gave to both the Philippine and Australian basketball federations to submit their versions of what triggered the brawl between Gilas and the Boomers in the third window of the FIBA Asia/Pacific qualifiers for the 2019 World Cup at the Philippine Arena last July 2. The federations were requested to turn in “incident reports” with videos and narratives so FIBA is guided in deciding the sanctions to mete out.

To put things into perspective, it’s important to note that Australia plays an extremely physical brand of basketball. Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said he knew beforehand the kind of game the Boomers play. In the second window, Australia hosted the Philippines in Melbourne and hacked out an 84-68 win.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, NBA star Paul George described the Aussies “dirty” after the US came from five down at the half to win, 98-88. “It got kind of out of hand early with the physical play,” said the Oklahoma City Thunder forward, quoted by John Carney and Freya Noble of the Daily Mail Australia. “This team has a knack for being a little dirty. We’re fine playing physical, that’s our game in the NBA, but if they’re going to allow us to play that way, they got to play it both ways.”

Boomers assistant coach and former NBA center Luc Longley dismissed George’s rant and said, “tell ‘em that’s international basketball.” It was Longley who accused Reyes of instructing Gilas to “hit” the Boomers during a timeout. Obviously, the Aussies are trying to deflect the blame for instigating the rough stuff by claiming they were the victims when Gilas retaliated. Reyes explained his use of the word “hit” should be taken within the context of basketball lingo, figuratively not literally.

In 2016, the Los Angeles Times conducted a survey to zero in on the NBA’s dirtiest player and the “winner” was Australia’s Matthew Dellavedova. Mitch Lawrence of Forbes said Dellavedova “crosses the line too many times and looks to injure his opponents.” Lawrence quoted an unidentified NBA general manager as describing the Australians as “brawlers – that’s their nature.”

To be fair, Dellavedova wasn’t one of the four Boomers who were ejected for their role in the brawl. Dellavedova grew up playing rough-and-tough Aussie Rules Football, said Lawrence. “His defenders say he’s just a super-competitive player who is merely going all-out hard to make the playing field level against better athletes and more talented competitors,” continued Lawrence. “Plus they point out that Delly learned how to play the game as a kid in Australia where they teach children at an early age to use their bodies in what is a physical brand of basketball.”

The Boomer, who ignited the free-for-all, has a reputation for bullying. Daniel Kickert has been suspended as a player at St. Mary’s College in the US NCAA and in the Australian pro league NBL. Against Gilas last week, Kickert slammed a forearm on R. R. Pogoy’s throat during a dead-ball situation in what was a brazen act of thuggery. Another Australian roughhouser Chris Goulding is known as a taunter and has often resorted to out-of-the-rules tactics to unnerve opponents. Someone said it was Goulding’s constant taunts aimed at the Gilas bench that caused assistant coach Jong Uichico to snap.

Now comes an interesting comment from a reader. “If it’s true that there were racial slurs towards the Gilas players whether implicit or otherwise by the Boomers, I think this should also be given very major weight in our explanations to FIBA as racism is a no-no in international sports today and institutions and organizations go very hard on this,” said the reader. “It’s funny but Asians seem to take racism lightly. But to a Western-dominated body like FIBA, it’s something else.”

Some courtside fans overheard the Australians calling the Filipino players “monkeys” even before the contest. From the onset, it appeared that Australia was out to play mind games and unsettle Gilas with psych tactics. The Boomers knew they were on hostile soil and faced by over 20,000 Filipino fans. They pushed Gilas to the edge of boiling point, knowing the Filipinos wouldn’t back off to preserve their home pride. The Boomers looked like they got what they wanted.

It was sad that Dellavedova cut his Manila trip by a day because of the brawl. He would’ve stayed an extra day to promote his Peak signature shoes. Before the Gilas game, Dellavedova spoke candidly about his NBA career.

 “It was tough this year,” said Dellavedova.  “I had some knee things at the start then got healthy but stepped on somebody’s foot and rolled my ankle. It’s tough but that’s sport and in basketball, sometimes bad things happen. You just try to rehab and get stronger. I made it back to the playoffs. It was a close series (against Boston). We felt we could’ve won and it was a great opportunity to keep going. Unfortunately, we came up short. We were that close and Boston almost made it to the NBA Finals. It’s more motivation for next season. We’ve got a great group of players and a new coach Mike Budenholzer.

“In the NBA, you get used to change. I’ve had six coaches in the NBA in five years so it happens a lot. I hate to see a coaching change because you build up a relationship with a coach and work closely with him. But I’ve heard a lot of good things about coach Budenholzer and I’m excited to play for him. He did a good job in Atlanta. Our first round draft pick Donte DiVincenzo had a great NCAA tournament with Villanova, he plays hard and he’s tough. We’re different players who bring different things on the court. It’s not a challenge for playing time. I’m looking forward to playing with him on the court at the same time. We have big goals and it’s going to be fun with Giannis (Antetokounmpo), Khris (Middleton), Eric (Bledsoe), Malcolm (Brogdon), Jabari (Parker), Thon Maker of course and John Henson, a funny guy, I like him a lot and he’s a good player.”