It's Time to Move On

By Jan Angelo Bermas

China may have won at the recent FIBA Asia Championships, however, a lot of people don’t seem convinced that they deserved it. Filipinos and other fans of Gilas Pilipinas have turned to social media to express their disappointment in the game.

A particularly angered Rye Dela Cruz shared on twitter his open letter to China regarding the recent game:

Dear China,

Congratulations on winning the FIBA Asia Championship. Your carefully strategized dirty tactics worked to perfection. Which tactics you ask? Let me point some of them out for you.

·        >  2 days ago, you moved the Philippines vs. Japan game to a later time. The later a game starts, the later of course it ends. This reduced the amount of rest time our players had before heading to the Philippines vs. China game.

·        >  You delayed the Gilas’ electric bus that would take them from their hotel to the stadium. Less warm up time for our Filipino cagers!

·          > Tickets were not given to some of the assistant coaches of the Philippines.

·        >  The officials were so in favor of you that Gilas players might have thought they were in a MasterChef finale instead of the FIBA Asia Championships. The officiating, especially in the early parts of the game, were the most outrageous calls and non-calls I’ve ever seen in my entire life of watching pro basketball tournaments.

These things mixed with the fact that Gilas were playing on the opposition’s home court were certainly factors that lessened their preparation before the match and altered the team’s mentality coming into the game.

The rants visible on social media complaining about the match that it was “cooked” were testament on how the setup to the finals of the competition were considered one of the worst in professional basketball history.

Filipino volleyball star Gretchen Ho generated a lot of buzz by questioning the game's officiating:

Dear @FIBA, I thought this was a world-class tournament? Why don't you have world-class officiating? Please explain. #FIBAAsia2015

The Philippines may lament the calls and the unusual antics that happened before the match but they can’t deny that China deserved to win though. They were really off their game and the Gilas’ main man Jayson Castro who finished with 8 points was testament to their off-par performance.

That combined with the hostile crowd from the hosts fuelled China into claiming gold at the FIBA Asia Championship, showing their dominance and flexing their muscles at the weary and winded Filipino warriors who seem to have never gave up until the final buzzer.

It's impossible to doubt Gilas Pilipinas' desire to capture the championship. They fought hard every step of the way to reach the necessary level starting with the Toyota Four Nations Cup in August. Though they came up a bit short in this event, they provided reason for optimism moving forward.