Pinoy Resbak State of Mind

Love the passion, but stick to basketball.
(Photo courtesy of PBA InterAKTV)

So there you are, standing at one end of the basketball court in a game that's already been decided if everything goes the way it's been going early. You see your hard-working import, being pulled to the ground by a no-name upstart who rubs it in by using all the little dirty tricks in the book to get leverage and stand over your fallen comrade.

You see one of your guys rush in to make the save. You then see the opposing team's snot-nosed punk, a guy who reminds you of yourself, and instinctively know that shit's about to go down.

Then you see red.

...

It's been a tough game so far, your team's down big early and the other team's not being shy to let you know about it. They're the better team. They're one of the three "mother" teams in the corporate umbrella. Your team is a highlight reel joke at best. Dazzling plays, electrifying aerial acrobatics and sweet shooting. But no substance. No fight. What? No fight? On a team that you're playing in? F that.


Your star guard just made a shot that you can hopefully rally on, your fellow greenhorn is busy duking it out with arguably one of the better PBA imports this season. They hit the floor. Your guy stands tall and lets the mighty import know about it. They don't like it. But you do. It's that young generation swag. It's about fighting for every inch and staking your claim to the PBA land.

One of them comes rushing in. You back your boy up. Then another comes in and takes a swing at you.

So you man up.

....

The events that transpired between enforcers Kelly Nabong of Global Port Batang Pier and Marc Pingris of the San Mig Coffee Mixers are unfortunate. They were caught in the heat of the moment, in not wanting to see their teammates (and themselves) one-upped by the opposing team and were simply living up to their reputations as the token resbak of their squads.

If a fight were to ever break out (which it did), you don't expect "faces" James Yap and Gary David to come storming in and triggering an all out melee (or in Yap's case, creeping from behind to deliver a blindside kick before running away full throttle).  No, they have their homeboys for that. It's inexcusable, what Pingris did by throwing the first punch. There's no room for Nabong going all-out in his retaliation by trying to deliver a dangerous high knee to the face (had it connected, we're talking about a serious concussion here).

But that's what they do. That's what we do in our own farm leagues. We have superstar teammates hogging the limelight and making amazing plays, while we settle down low and just do the dirty work and what not. We don't make faces or flop or whatever flimsy act there is these days (unlike our lovable guards who look at the refs at every slap or push), we just "do."

And Pingris and Nabong simply did what they do best.

Had Nabong (and Hayes) not stood his ground he'd be a joke of an enforcer and probably lose his place as Global Port's resident muscle (with Alex Crisano now out). Had Pingris not done what he did, had he simply chosen to stay far from the action, it would simply be against what got him to Gilas Pilipinas in the first place.

If you thought Pingris was brought into the Gilas fold to simply crash the boards and play defense-- you're about as naive as can be.

Are suspensions in order?

Of course. We can't have the PBA going UFC on us. We love action, competition, but not when it's simply meant to hurt and not as a means to compete. These are basketball players, and as macho as we illustrate them to be, we'd rather see them make great basketball plays than taking wild haymakers and Triple H high knees.

Pingris needs to receive the brunt of the sanctions, followed by Nabong for engaging. There's Marqus Blakely, Joe DeVance and Marvin Hayes too.

Say what you want, but we wouldn't mind having either Pingris or Nabong on our team.