FIBA World Cup fever is over
IT is over.
The 2023 FIBA World Cup, with the Philippines as major co- host, is over, and for the record, there are so many topics one can talk about including off- court happenings, Including the unexpected final results.
Truth is I got it right for the USA vs Canada match up, except that it happened outside the finals as the two North American teams loaded with NBA talents faced each other for the bronze. And again, the Americans bowed down for the 3rd time after previous losses to Lithuania and Germany.
I think the Americans were able to bring their best team, of coaches, that is, led by Steve Kerr and Fil-Am Erik Spoelstra, with former Norther Consolidated team gunner Chip Engelland on the side.
Chip, bless him, found the time to visit his old teammate Samboy Lim who has been in a come for a long time now.
Their players, well, 3 to 4 years from now, many of them will be big stars in the NBA, unfortunately, they will be remembered for their disastrous performance this year.
Of course come the Olympic Games in Paris, the superstars are expected to sign up and recover again lost glory.
And if the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown, plus a few from this year’s team like Anthony Edwards, to mention some, that kind of talent can beat the European teams, not a given but a probability.
Now let us go our own Gilas team, we finished 24th winning our last game against China but losing to the Dominican Republic, Angola, Italy, and South Sudan.
We finished behind two Asian teams, Lebanon, 23rd and Japan, 19th, the latter was the surprise and honestly, we would have a tough time beating that squad.
The Monday quarterbacks have had their field day analyzing what is wrong with Philippine basketball.
But one thing that stuck in my mind was a statement from 1972 Munich Olympian Francis Arnaiz about our performance.
He said when they played in 1972, they were hoping they could beat a team or two, but they never had any illusion of going beyond that, for me, that is the ultimate reality of Philippine basketball, unfortunately.
I have always said focus of our basketball leaders should shift to more realistic goals, champion in the SEA Games, and podium finish in the Asian Games, beyond that, what can we hope for?
Chot Reyes has stepped aside for Tim Cone for the Asian Games in China later this month. But we will also be missing the likes of Jordan Clarkson, Rhenz Abando, Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos
Fact is, only Junemar Fajardo, Scottie Thomson, and Japeth Aguilar are the carry overs, but of course we have enough talents to form a competitive team, unfortunately without the benefit of playing together for long.
Sounds familiar huh?
The likes of Stanley Pringle, Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, and naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame, are all expected to be in the final line up, hopefully the POC can succeed in changing the line up previously submitted.
Fortunately, China’s interest in basketball seems to have waned but then as hosts, they will be pressured to win.
Also, Japan will send a younger team with only three hold overs from its World Cup team. South Korea , together with the Middle East powers like Lebanon , Iran, and Jordan will be out there too.
In our group is Jordan together with Bahrain and Thailand, we should easily get to the next round, but from thereon, the going gets tougher.
We will also see our women’s team competing in the Asian Games for the very first time, invited because of its recent showing in the FIBA women’s where we placed 6th I think.
I just hope the team gets more support for its Asian Games campaign.
Good luck Philippines.
