Basketball battlezone
About a month back, we reported that the Philippines lost its bid to host the 2013 FIBA Asia Men's Basketball Championship. Despite all the preparation of the Philippine delegation that went to Tokyo to present before the FIBA Executive Board, all went for naught as the hosting of the said tournament was awarded to Lebanon. You may recall that the award to Lebanon came with a note that, if Lebanon for some reason would not be ready in time, then the Philippines would be tapped as a replacement host.
The Gilas Pilipinas team was in Tokyo at that time, competing in the FIBA Asia Cup was being held. Gilas placed fourth in the tournament, after having won the Jones Cup just weeks before. The team was supposed to play at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup in Lebanon (13 to 21 October), but a mix-up as to which team could represent the Philippines resulted in our country missing out in this year's edition of that tournament.
Apparently, Gilas thought it could represent the country, but organizers, led by FIBA Asia Secretary-General Hagop Kajirian informed Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) Executive Director Sonny Barrios that the San Miguel Beermen of the Asean Basketball League (ABL) should be the team to represent the Philippines. As for the reasons, we do not know. Unfortunately, the Beermen had already dismantled their lineup to retool and prepare for the next ABL season; thus, the Philippines was not able to send a team.
The tournament in Beirut went on as scheduled in the past week and half. All went well up to the bronze medal match played last Saturday, where Team Duhok of Iraq defeated Belent Asgabat of Turkmenistan. Duhok achieved a historic third place finish in the process.
The gold medal match, however, has not been played. Some unrest in the Lebanese capital, including an explosion in the Ashrafieh district resulting in the death of a military official, prompted the hosts to postpone the championship between home squad Al Riyadi Beirut and Mahram of Iran. The unrest is supposedly related to the civil war ongoing in Syria, the effects of which have crossed borders into Jordan and Lebanon. The final game is set to be played next week in Beirut, if the situation normalizes, or in Dubai.
Lebanese publication The Daily Star reported that the Iran team has in the meantime left Lebanon, but not before the head of its basketball federation, Mahmoud Masshoon, complained to FIBA Asia about the insults hurled by the Lebanese crowd at the Iranian National Anthem during an earlier game. Mashhoon threatened a boycott of future FIBA Asia tournaments unless the complaint was addressed.
Mashhoon further suggested that FIBA Asia reconsider its decision to award the hosting of the 2013 FIBA Asia Men's Basketball Championship to Lebanon, citing the importance of the tournament, a World Basketball Championship qualifier, and the security issues in the named host country.
Thus, the possibility that what we previously described as a consuelo de bobo, the Philippines' hosting of the 2013 FIBA Asia Men's Basketball Championship, has increased. Surely, if the current situation does not improve in Lebanon, and the security of the participants in the all-important tournament may perhaps be compromised, it would be wise for FIBA Asia not to hold it there. This would mean awarding the hosting to the "second-placer", the Philippines.
We have not heard of how the SBP will react to this development. Is the willingness to host still there, if ever? There should not be a problem since it has only been a little over a month since the Philippine delegation that went to Tokyo informed FIBA Asia that our country was very much ready to host the tournament, the biggest one in the region.
While many were of the opinion that we should reject the hosting if ever it was belatedly awarded to our country, it would perhaps be wiser to just accept it graciously and host the tournament properly, showing the governing body that indeed we are ready and capable of the colossal task. Of course, all this is speculation for now and we will have to wait and see how things develop.
For now, the 2013 FIBA Asia Champions Cup is not yet over. Al Riyadi Beirut and Mahram will still play for the gold, hopefully soon. We wish for the situation in Lebanon to improve. Let the battles go on in the hardcourt, and not on the streets.
You can follow Charlie Cuna on Twitter @Charlie C.
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.
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