J. Albert Gamboa is one of the millions of basketball-crazed Filipinos who thought a win should have been in the cards last Friday. The World Cup was being treated to a spectacular inaugural as only the Philippines can deliver, and victory for the National Team stood to be a fitting prize for the well-prepared organizers and hosts. Instead, he and the 38,114 others who trekked to the traffic-challenged Philippine Arena in Santa Maria, Bulacan, wound up with disappointment etched on their faces.
Perhaps Gamboa, a soft-spoken financial executive and BusinessWorld columnist by day, would not have been as saddened by the outcome had the Philippines not kept pace with the Dominican Republic for much of the set-to. The latter was clearly superior, but the former had heart — and, lest its impact be undervalued, the record crowd on its side. And for a while there, it appeared that an upset was for the taking. For all the predictability of the style of play Jordan Clarkson and Company were brandishing, sheer will and resolve propelled the cause of the blue, red, and yellow Gamboa was seated relatively close to the court, and he could see the effort the Philippines showed. Even those taking in the action from the comfort of their homes felt head coach Chot Reyes and his charges deserved a favorable denouement. As William Munny noted in Unforgiven, however, “deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” And while hindsight does provide a scathing perspective on how things could have been much different, there can be no glossing over the final score. A loss is a loss. There are no moral triumphs.
In the aftermath, Gamboa chanced upon former National Team mentor Tab Baldwin. He took the opportunity to ask the bench tactician about the contest. The freshness of the wounds notwithstanding, the response was level-headed and extremely kind. That said, between praises were lamentations on the absence of a Plan B once Clarkson fouled out with still three and a half minutes left on the game clock. Indeed, the Dominican Republic pulled away from there, with the Philippine struggling to find a modicum of rhythm on offense in the absence of its principal playmaker.
To be sure, there is no one quick fix to the myriad concerns of the country’s basketball program — none of which, it must be said, can be heaped on longtime benefactor Manuel Pangilinan. It’s certainly hard to expect the Philippines to be competitive against higher-ranked opponents when there is little to no continuity to its roster, when its players are more used to Philippine Basketball Association rules, when it is a team of outstanding cogs instead of an outstanding team, period. Still, like Gamboa, all and sundry will not stop rooting for flag and country, confident that decision makers are, at the very least, on track to make things right.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
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