With the heartbreaks over, it's time for Gilas to chart a course to the Olympics

With a series of heartbreaks in the FIBA World Cup in Spain and the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea over, it’s time for Gilas Pilipinas to mend fences and chart a course to the Olympic Games qualifiers next year in China.

While Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes said his future is up to management, the premier benefactor of Gilas Pilipinas and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Manny Pangilinan has no plans of making any radical changes in terms of the coaching staff.

When all hell broke loose on social media after Gilas Pilipinas lost to Qatar and then dropped another heartbreaker to South Korea in which Reyes benched naturalized player Marcus Douthit for disciplinary reasons and came under scathing attacks by armchair critics, Pangilinan stood by Reyes.

He told Yahoo Philippines “Chot was right in benching Douthit” who suddenly and inexplicably switched off in the second half of the Qatar game, allowing the Qatari big men to run the American  ragged inside the paint.

It turns out that even during the halftime break, Douthit was watching music videos in the dugout, indicating that his focus was simply elsewhere.

In fact, Yahoo Philippines learned that the locals confronted Douthit after the game, resulting in frayed nerves.

But after an apparent heart-to-heart talk Reyes said Douthit was “okay” and he started him at center for the crucial game against Kazakhstan which the Philippines had to win by 11 points or more.

Douthit played like a man on a mission to erase whatever stigma was attached to his performance against Qatar and finished with 18 points and several boards besides playing solid defense.

Reyes was effectively forced to use Douthit after big man June Mar Fajardo banged his knee in the South Korean game and was hardly capable of playing.

The coach’s troubles were compounded by the fact that big man Marc Pingris had to sit out the Kazakhstan game while captain courageous Jimmy Alapag had a sprained calf and Ranidel de Ocampo and Paul Lee were also bothered by nagging injuries.

What many of the critics who resorted to sometimes foul language and bashed Reyes as though he was solely responsible for our losses failed to realize that Gilas Pilipinas who had practiced for only 45 days for a tough grind in Spain and South Korea , while teams like Iran, Korea, Qatar and China had been together for almost four years, building up to the Incheon Games.

After an energy-sapping performance in the FIBA World Cup where two heartbreaking losses deprived the Philippines of qualifying for the knockout phase in a performance that won praise and universal recognition, Reyes was suddenly confronted with the reality that a rule adopted by the Olympic Council of Asia in 1986 required a naturalized player to serve a three-year residency period which Andray Blatche obviously couldn’t comply with.

Despite impassioned pleas and a firm ruling by FIBA secretary general and International Olympic Committee director Patrick Baumann that Blatche was eligible to play under the rules of the governing body for basketball, the Olympic Council of Asia and the Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee refused to budge which meant that as Reyes pointed out “after training with Blatche for 45 days we had to work with Marcus for six days.”

Obviously Douthit was in some kind of shape but as Reyes pointed out he was “not in game shape” and that was evident in Incheon.

What critics also failed to realize was that point guard Jayson Castro was out with an injury and his absence was a major blow to Philippine hopes.

Some of the bashers of Chot Reyes had suggested that PBA grand-slam winning coach Tim Cone should replace Reyes who at one time in his PBA  career was the assistant of Tim.

But the class of Cone quickly surfaced in a series of tweets, one of which commended Chot for giving the Koreans such a hard time and losing by only two points while playing all-Filipino.

Cone said in his twitter message  “Playing All-Filipino & almost beating Korea at their home-court was really, really tough. I know the pressures of coaching the Asian Games.”

Cone coached the star-studded Centennial Team to the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and had to settle for the bronze medal.

In another twitter message Cone called on everybody to support Chot and the Gilas Pilipinas team – “It’s on us as a nation to stay firmly behind them. Stay strong guys!! PUSO!!!!

 Although Gilas Pilipinas dropped both its games to Qatar and South Korea, a win by a margin of 11 points over Kazakhstan would have earned us a place in the semi finals especially since South Korea was almost certain to beat Qatar enabling Gilas Pilipinas to sneak in via the quotient system.

Tim was confident it could be done.  His comforting message, “I’m still so proud of Chot and the guys. Keep your heads up! Eleven points – we can do this. Then let the cards fall where they may.”

And regrettably the cards fell all over our national team which raced to leads as big as 18 points but reprising their previous losses, fell apart in the end-game and although we ultimately won 67-65 as Coach Reyes painfully acknowledged “we won but we really lost.”

Out of contention for a medal, the Philippines was scheduled to play China in a battle for fifth place on Monday.

In a message that should cut short what could be an endless, debilitating debate, Cone wrote “I just want to say from the heart, I truly believe in Chot and the program. He’s the right guy and the program will bring us to the next level.”

In a conversation with Yahoo Philippines after the Kazakhstan game, Reyes paid tribute to the incomparable Jimmy Alapag who, like a true captain didn’t abandon his team’s ship and “played on one leg.”

He also mentioned that the game against South Korea “took out a lot from us” and admitted that “we faded away” against Kazakhstan.

Reyes said “the target is next year” in the qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when Blatche will be eligible to play since it’s a tournament governed  by FIBA rules.

The FIBA Asia Championship will be held in China in September with the winner qualifying for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil while the silver and bronze medalists will go under the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
 
SBP President Pangilinan told Yahoo Philippines that he had received a message from PBA Commissioner Chito Salud suggesting that they “sit down and talk” about the future of the Gilas program and its tie-up with the Philippine Basketball Association.

There are several suggestions Pangilinan would like to put forward, one of which is playing PBA games according to FIBA rules so that players chosen for the national team won’t commit the same mistakes they are prone to commit under FIBA rules.

Among the more prominent violations are traveling, offensive fouls and reach-in infractions which are given leeway in the PBA as well as unsportsmanlike fouls which result in two free throws and ball possession in FIBA tournaments.

Pangilinan and indeed Reyes as coach would like to see “to what extent the coach would be  given a free hand in the selection of players” for the Gilas Pilipinas pool.

The last time around Reyes wanted seven-footer Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra and swingman Marcio Lassiter in the roster but both players declined.

Slaughter claimed he needed to improve his game before joining the national team which posed the obvious question – what better way to improve than playing at a level much higher than the PBA?

For his part Lassiter said he was concerned about his injuries which was an obvious indication he wanted to protect his pro career.

LA Tenorio, the point guard of Barangay Ginebra, showed his genuine desire to represent the country by having a clause in his contract which stated that if he was called up for the national team his PBA ballclub had to release him.

We gather  this is why Alaska traded LA to Ginebra which, in fairness to the Ginebra management, they accepted the condition.

Alaska, particularly former chairman Fred Uytengsu has shown a lack of willingness to release his players to the Gilas pool. Center Sonny Thoss begged off claiming that he was going to China to get treatment for an injury.

Pangilinan and basketball fans who are behind the Gilas Pilipinas program want the call-up to the national pool treated as “a call for national duty” and that anyone who refuses should be sanctioned.

Whether PBA teams will buy this concept remains to be seen but it would surely demonstrate that both teams and individual players are not paying lip-service to the cause of the national team.

In this regard Rain Or Shine has been a tremendous example of response to the call of national team duty. Team owners Terry Que and Raymond Yu as well as coach Yeng Guiao have wholeheartedly supported the cause of the national team, releasing Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, Paul Lee and Beau Belga to the pool while Talk N’ Text of Pangilinan set the example by allowing Jimmy Alapag, Jayson Castro, and Ranidel De Ocampo to join Gilas Pilipinas while Ginebra released Japeth Aguilar and LA Tenorio and Meralco lent Gary David and Jared Dillinger.

Looking at the Asian Games in hindsight, Pangilinan believes that we should have had a larger pool and only use the core of the World Cup squad reinforced by other players in the pool for the Asian Games so the fatigue factor, the mental focus and players being away from their families for extended periods wouldn’t take a toll on them.

Obviously, a longer training period is necessary to prepare a team for major international tournaments and the PBA and the SBP must get together and work on a mutually acceptable format to ensure that the requirements of the national team would be met without sacrificing the demands of the PBA teams.

In a message he addressed to coach Chot Reyes, a copy of which he forwarded to Yahoo Philippines, Mr. Pangilinan, the consummate gentleman-sportsman, said:

“Chot, please send to each and all of you my deep personal gratitude for what the Gilas team has accomplished – in Manila last year and in Spain and Korea this year.

"It has been quite a journey with its peaks and valleys; the road has been long and tough, the climb steep and the obstacles formidable even from the get go.

“We may have fallen short of all we desired to gift to our people after years of desolation, but all of you persevered and gave your best to the country and improved our standing in world basketball. For now we cannot ask for more. Indeed sports is a veritable roller coaster and we’ve seen that cycle of ups and downs as short as it was between Spain and Korea.

“We report our results in Korea with ‘heads bowed in sadness but not in shame.’ That said, we take pride and satisfaction in all that Gilas have reached thus far.

“The Asian Games are now done; it is time to look ahead and plan for the FBA Asia competition next year in China, the winner of which qualifies for the 2016 Brazil Olympics. We must stay focused on our goal, and neither despair nor get deterred by the letdown in the Asian Games which is comparatively less meaningful than the Olympics.”

In conclusion Mr. Pangilinan said, “In the meantime, it is time to bring the team home so that they can restore normalcy to their lives with their loved ones. Safe journey.”

Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.