Flying V guns for sweep of prelims
A powerhouse team intends to boost its title credentials while a decorated champion fights for dear life as the 2017 PBA D-League Foundation Cup elimination round draws to a close today at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig City.
Streaking Flying V, already assured of an outright semifinals berth, aims to complete a 10-game sweep of the preliminary round at 5 p.m. against a dangerous Batangas side seeking to add momentum ahead of the playoffs.
The Thunder, built around former collegiate he Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) should just stop whining. It can’t seem to let go of the government’s decision to drop the hosting of the Southeast Asian Games in 2019. Peping Cojuangco still wants those games here, badly.
Yet the POC, where he is president, has said nothing convincing to upend the government on this one. It hasn’t laid out the merits of hosting the games. Its chief argument has been that, dropping a commitment — which Peping made on his own, by the way — would make the country lose face with its neighbors, and that would make it an embarrassment for all Filipinos.
If you ask me, what is embarrassing is the Philippines placing 7th among 11 countries in the SEA Games overall medal race. That was in 2013. In 2015, it was sixth overall but won fewer gold medals than in 2013. Neither did it fare better at the Asian Games where, in 2016, the country won just one gold medal.
That is not the country losing face, that is the country getting a slap in the face. Yet the POC has never addressed this kind of face disfigurement with the zeal and determination it now exhibits in pushing to host the Games.
I don’t think any of the SEAG countries told Brunei that it would embarrass its king when that very rich country announced last year it was no longer honoring its commitment to host the Games. And nobody remembers Laos being excoriated by any of the ten other member nations when that very poor country backed out years ago from hosting the Games.
Our own POC, meantime, seems to think nothing of the scenario that could play out on Philippine soil by 2019. With (possibly) the terrorist problem still unchecked by then, with (clearly) the longest-running armed communist party in Asia now ousted from peace talks, and with (clearly) thousands of foreigners converging in the country for the event, can the 2019 Southeast Asian Games be secured?
I always wondered what it is in the hosting of the SEA Games that could animate an official like Jose Cojuangco Jr. into being this determined. If his newfound energy and resolve could only have been channeled into helping the country improve its standing in the international sports arena all these 12 years that he has been at the helm.
But, no, our country has been the worst in stars bannered by La Salle ace Jeron Teng, are looking to become just the fourth team in league history to achieve the feat which NLEX (2012 and 2014 Foundation Cups) and Cagayan Valley (2015 Aspirants’ Cup) both attained in style.
That’s the least of Flying V coach Eric Altamirano’s concerns.
“We still have a lot of things to work on. Hindi ibig sabihin na pasok na kami sa semis is that we will not give our best. That mentality will help us especially when we get into the playoffs,” he said.