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.
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.
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.
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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