He had his flaws and mistakes but all things considered, the Philippine Men’s National Basketball team’s World Cup campaign in Spain would not be fulfilling had we not gotten Andray Blatche Filipinized.
Although his penchant for playing outside the paint sometimes defies logical explanation, Andray’s presence on the court was the inspiration for the tournament’s smallest and perceived weakest team. Smallest, yes, but weakest, I beg to disagree.
Our hoops warriors are back on home soil after battling the world’s basketball superpowers. Banged up and with some of them injured, the Gilas need to recover and recuperate for another battle to take – the Asian Games basketball gold scheduled to start later this month at Inchon, South Korea.
I assume my dear readers follow the Gilas and recent developments do not favor us. With finality, the Inchon Asian Games Organizing Committee had denied Blatche participation citing provisions on an Olympic Council of Asia rule requiring naturalized players to comply a 3-year residency requirement in the country they chose to represent.
Blatche was naturalized about month prior to the World Cup.
This will give our basketball team, for the moment, an 11-man lineup since Asian Games rules only allows roster changes in cases of injuries or medical conditions. Our original Gilas import Marcus Douthit, who became a Filipino in 2011, is also iffy as a substitute since submission of replacements, as what I understood, was only up to August 31.
The IAGOC seems to be doing everything within their power and within limits of the Game’s governing rules to bar athletes from competing just so the host nation will have the advantage. The Asian Games is governed by the laws and rules of the International Olympic Committee but is not barred from setting their own set of guidelines for national teams to comply. Not even the letter from FIBA endorsing Blatche to play softened the stubborn stance of the IAGOC. The same problem is also being encountered by the national basketball teams of Jordan and Chinese Taipei.
This controversy, if we can call it that, has the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas thinking of boycotting the basketball tournament. I say don’t. Let’s us not give the Koreans the satisfaction of having things their way. With or without Blatche and Douthit, let us declare to the rest of Asia that our stint at the FIBA Worlds was no fluke. They could be envious as we only averaged a losing margin of less than seven points in our five losses compared to the Korean’s double digit margins.
Winning it all will be sweeter with an all Filipino crew and seriously, we can do it. Pilde ang maglagot. Talo ang pikon. Laban Pilipinas! Puso!
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