PUSONG WASAK

If not for the irreverent plays of the greenest members of the team, Gilas Pilipinas would have looked out of place in a stage reserved for the tall and mighty.

Nowhere was the heart. Nowhere was the pride. Most of all, missing was the semblance of the puso that characterized its previous participation in the biggest basketball stage. It was perhaps a blessing that we included rookies Robert Bolick and CJ Perez who dove for the loose ball and sacrificed their bodies in a game where the nationals have already been guaranteed a loss.

The World Cup is not for the faint of heart. This, our national team to the 2019 edition found out to their dismay as it started flat against Italy. The result was a disappointing 46-point loss, possibly one of the biggest routs a Philippine five have suffered internationally.

But the manner with which the massacre was set, abetted of course by the early sloppy plays that turned Philippine turnovers to Italian points, did not help any. There was simply no excuse.

Nakakahiya? Most probably, as Filipino fans, eagerly anticipating a much closer game helped no end by the hype that Italy was beatable, watched in horror as the Italians dealt the Filipinos a rude awakening in China. No less than President Duterte was watching. He was even shown on television stoic, unlike probably most Filipinos who were watching the ugly rout. The Italians played such masterful basketball against a bewildered Philippine side. They made it look like an art. Already far more superior in talent, height and heft, the Italians even outworked the Filipinos in almost all departments that it was dispiriting for even the most avid of fans to watch and finish the contest.

Against Serbia, the Gilas boys started way better than they did against the Italians. They put up a more robust defense and executed their plays much better, allowing them to lead once at 9-7 before the world ranked no. 4 team started outplaying them in all departments to trigger a similar rout. The result was another 59-point loss that relegated the Philippine five to the consolation round. After those two disappointing setbacks, it all came down to the question of whether we can still win against the lower-ranked Angola and salvage a measure of pride like their predecessors did in 2014, when it defeated Senegal for its first ever World Cup win in over four decades.

By the time you read this, the Gilas match against Angola would have been done away with and the initial group stage would have been through. But regardless of the outcome, no one, at the outset anyway, expected the Filipinos to survive the initial stage.

It’s hard lambasting a team whose members we know so well, have dedicated their time, effort and skills for the national cause. They do not deserve it. But it’s probably time to think about our priorities when it comes to sports. Basketball obviously is a game for the vertically gifted, not for the vertically challenged.

But can we afford not to have basketball in our lives? As diehard hoops fans in our midst tell it so often, basketball is life.

It’s not only a game, it’s a religion. It’s what we turn to in times of crisis and celebration. It’s a passion. Typhoons, say diehard fans, could hit us again and again, but they won’t stop Filipinos from playing the game they love. It inspires them, gives them hope and dares them to aim higher.

But then again, it’s also a source of our many heartbreaks.

Puso? Nah. Pusong wasak is more like it.

“It’s probably time to think about our priorities when it comes to sports. Basketball, obviously is a game for the vertically gifted, not for the vertically challenged.

“Regardless of the outcome, no one, at the outset anyway, expected the Filipinos to survive the initial stage.