No pressure

The new roster of the Philippines men’s national basketball team to the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia, with its core coming from the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and veteran coach Yeng Guiao at the helm, knows too well the high stakes at hand.

With barely two weeks to train as a team before the Asiad opens on August 18, observers doubt that the squad could pull it off together and face powerhouse teams the likes of defending champion South Korea, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, China and Qatar - who by the way were the top six teams in the 2014 Asian Games held in Incheon, Korea.

Philippines then, it can be recalled, finished seventh.

As we all know, most of our players and coaches in the Gilas Pilipinas team were suspended by Fiba, world’s governing body of basketball, for participating in the July 2 basketball brawl during a Fiba World Cup qualifying game against the Australia Boomers in the Philippine Arena.

But we like the way Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez puts it, “The second team of Coach Yeng will be a fighting team with no pressure.”

He expressed belief in the team bannered by Elasto Painters’ Maverick Ahanmisi, Chris Tiu, Gabe Norwood, James Yap, Beau Belga and Raymond Almazan. Beefing up the squad are Magnolia’s Paul Lee, San Miguel’s Christian Standhardinger, GlobalPort’s Stanley Pringle, TNT’s Don Trollano and NLEX’s Asi Taulava along with Gilas Pilipinas cadets Kobe Paras and Ricci Rivero.

In Tuesday night’s practice at the Meralco Gym in Pasig City, all 14 players reportedly showed up although Standhardinger did not participate in drills due to San Miguel Beermen’s Game 6 against Barangay Ginebra of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals series set Wednesday evening.

The efforts are there. Their sacrifices as well to be in national team practice when they could be somewhere else with their loved ones. But the heart is most important, passion and dedication to play for flag and country.

This may not be the Philippines’ dream team, but these players’ gallant stand (and their sponsors as well) to represent us in Asia’s sports spectacle is laudable.

Hats off to Senator Sonny Angara, Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Dabawenyo Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher “Bong” Go for working behind the scenes in convincing Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), the country’s governing body of basketball, to reverse its decision of withdrawing participation in the Games.

Thank you, Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) for adjusting the schedule for the next season so the country can also participate in the next window of World Cup qualifiers.

The least we all could do is pray and cheer for all of them.