You saw it on your respective social media feeds, the Gilas Pilipinas team got involved in a brawl with Australia’s national team and it did not look good. From the game’s perspective, it ejected 13 players in total—nine from the Philippines and four from Australia (leaving only three Gilas members to finish the game.) From the perspective of several netizens, it showed lack in class, sportsmanship, and probably maturity.
Coach Chot Reyes blamed Daniel Kickert from Australia for starting the fight during the third quarter of the game. “It’s unfortunate. We didn’t want that to happen. It’s absolutely unacceptable, but the reality is, Kickert was hitting our players during the warmups. He hit Carl Bryan Cruz, he hit Matthew Wright, he hit Pogoy and he hit Calvin Abueva during the warmups.”
Terrence Romeo defended the brawl by saying that it’s because they leave no one behind. He even said that if people thought it was embarrassing then they should just be an Australian citizen—not classy, if you ask me.
Dun sa mga kapwa namin players na nag sasabing embarassing kami wala kaming paki alam sa inyo . Kami mag kaka teammate sa loob kailangan namin mag tulungan. Hindi namin pwede pabayaan yung isat isa. Kung embarassing kami sa mata niyo bat di kayo mag convert ng australian.
— Terrence Romeo (@tbvromeo) July 2, 2018
Kahit anong sabihin niyo nag lalaro kami para sa isat isa para sa kapwa natin pilipino higit sa lahat para sa bayan. Hindi niyo alam ang sacrifice namin Kung para sainyo mali tulungan namin yung kakampi namin sinasaktan problema niyo na yun basta kami walang iwanan tapos!!!
— Terrence Romeo (@tbvromeo) July 2, 2018
Their other coach, Jong Uichico, who also got involved in a fight apologized hours later. He admits to allowing his emotions get the best of him, like how a protective father is to his sons.
Tonight, my emotions got the better of me like a father who cares about his sons. That does not excuse my actions and I apologize to everyone as in hindsight I should have not gotten involved. This is a painful but maybe necessary lesson for me.
— Jong Uichico (@coachjong) July 2, 2018
The Australian national team was also quick to apologize for the brawl and said that they did not mean to disrespect the players and the game.
But amidst the apologies, team Gilas is still getting a lot of flak—most especially because the they took a selfie minutes after the brawl as if there’s something to celebrate. The photo posted by Marc Pingris has since been deleted.
Class https://t.co/GaNYwSJFzF
— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) July 2, 2018
From whatever angle, the brawl was simply a show of machismo. They needed to make their power and dominance known on the court, despite losing. The embarrassing part was that they couldn’t maintain decorum and had to engage on national television and even the world. And oh, there are multiple photos and videos that show this behavior too and worse, can be replayed over and over.
What did you think of the brawl and its turnout? Let us know.
[Inquirer and ABS-CBN News]
Photo courtesy of Tristan Tamayo for Inquirer
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