Basketbrawl, or why football is a better sport

CRAZY things happened on Monday. A mayor was shot dead during a flag ceremony in Tanauan. A staff of an Armm assemblyman was ambushed in Davao. A lawyer and his wife was shot in their house in Cebu. And an international basketball tournament between our Gilas and Australian team ended with a brawl.

But everyone is talking about the brawl. That’s how crazy we are with sports. It is our unifier, especially sports ending with the letter ‘B’. Basketball and boxing, we just saw a good mix of that. Pacquiao is now inspired to find a spot on Gilas, now that his political career is going nowhere.

Sports unified us, look at how Pinoys defended the Gilas team. It’s our home court! Walang bastusan! This is how we play! Digong, you just found yourself a good team to deploy to Scarborough Shoal to defend fisherfolk from Chinese Marines. And they come with superman punches and lightning speed. Scarborough Shoal.

Best offensive defense comes from Terence Romeo, who twitted: “If you want to jeer us, better to convert to Australian.” DDS said we just converted religion, one conversion at a time please.

The mix of basketbrawl brings back memories of the Crispa-Toyota rivalry where brawls, elbows and knees are always part of the game. It went so far one time that players from both teams were thrown to jail for one night. And that was at the time of Martial Law.

Sports can also divide us. People also saw what happened as an embarrassment. This is an international game, friendship and sportsmanship matters. We also have to add “puso” which is the Gilas team. What they displayed last night was “kumo”.

Sports is supposed to inspire and teach kids sportsmanship, and patriotism. But nowadays, things are getting ugly, and I don’t mean basketball.

It seems everyone is “triggered” and not the Triggerman Caidic style. We have a president who shoots curses from the mouth which becomes law, and people go crazy either defending or bashing his words.

My friends sigh that the social media world has become toxic. Our country also has become a landmine of explosions from tambays to Lumad schools to demolitions to contractual workers in the losing end. Unlike Gilas players, people can’t maul the police or their bosses for ruining their day. There’s a thing called dignity. Nowadays, fighting and cursing is cool. And so is tak-

ing a selfie like what the Gilas did after their “achievement”. Jusko.

While on the other side of the world, millions are cheering a beautiful sport called football, or soccer, in the World Cup. In its third week, there is no news of rumble, only tough physical and graceful play amidst a wave fans that don’t jeer each other to death. The beauty is in the sport.

Heck, football even caused a ceasefire in Africa. Perhaps we really belong to a different planet. God, we need a super-kick out of here.