Winning (and losing) with dignity

Under fire: Gilas head coach Chot Reyes
(Photo courtesy of InterAKTV)

The public outrage on Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes, for his failure to lead Gilas Pilipinas to a medal finish in the recently concluded 2014 Asian Games, is indeed unfair, yet also well-deserved.

Defenders of the five-time PBA Coach of the Year awardee are quick to point out how "well" his team did in the also recently concluded 2014 FIBA World Cup (considering we finished with a 1 win, 4 losses record), citing that there's little the fashion-forward coach could do given the fact that the tools at his disposal-- his players, are either hurt or exhausted. However, the two other Asian teams that went to Spain with Gilas (Iran and Korea) fielded an even more intact line-up while we added new reinforcements: Marcus Douthit and Jarred Dillinger.

The offensive and defensive sets, one cannot argue that Gilas ran and stuck to the game plan to a "T." Did they tire themselves out of games in the first 3 and a half quarters much like they did in Spain? Probably. Did the team let opponents come storming back in by playing a deliberate, fast paced, game of runs offense that often found Coach Chot Reyes not calling for a timeout and instead having his players weather the proverbial storm?


But the biggest fault that Coach Chot ever asked our team to do, his original idea or not, was to allow our players to shoot in our own basket in the game versus Kazakstan because we needed to send the game to over time-- because we couldn't protect a double digit lead that was needed to advance to the next round.

It's almost like telling your wife, because you're so God damn broke, to prostitute herself if it means having enough money to buy milk for your baby.

Because you couldn't find the means to provide. Because you weren't able to save any money. Because you let the weight of the world come crashing down on you (which it will always do to a person in any and every life time) hard while being unprepared.

It was meant well, and for the best of intentions, but the methods, the morality of it all?

Chino Trinidad, long time sports analyst and aficionado went on a public tirade about it which fell on deaf ears primarily because he's always been the "class clown" of his commentary batch (his "Hot Stuff" buddy Anthony Suntay being the golden boy).

Then, the PBA's 4x Most Valuable Player and 1973 Asian Games gold medal winner Ramon Fernandez came out and spoke his mind.

This one, from the man who dominated the league for years as it's legit Iron Man (to this day I still question Alvin Patrimonio's 4th PBA MVP award, which was given him during the height of the MBA which had Fernandez as its league commissioner). He went on to the media to profess his disgust concerning Chot Reyes. He said a few other things that, to us, was a bit uncalled for and was a personal, character attack.

But he did say that shooting in your own basket, because you couldn't get the job done, was a disgrace to the sport and to proud players like him who've worn national colors.

Because simply put, it was.

If it were in a commercial league, we'd have no qualms about it. Do what you have to do.

But a player wearing PILIPINAS on his chest, shooting in his own basket, is almost like sending a Filipino soldier to war in some country and returning to camp and open firing at his own comrades because hey, we can't win against the opposition.

Sometimes, we just need to learn to win (and lose) with dignity. We were ahead in that game by 2 in the dying moments. We needed to win by 11. Time was running out. Instead of just coming to terms with reality like a man, we tempted fate.

Throw away the "what ifs." Do you honestly believe that we could've salvaged an 11 point lead/ victory the way our team was playing and being coached in the 4th quarter? That's when Kazakstan made their mighty run. An extra five minutes could've been a lot worse for our side. It's a little too immature to blindly believe that we could've won by 11 had the controversial basket been accepted and the game sent to over time.

Big picture.

What is the big picture here, really?

The Olympics they say.

That if we keep doing well in world wide events, we'll be able to earn the respect of our neighbours.

Really? When we can't even win at home?

If your line of reasoning on how to earn respect globally is to simply-- not lose by 20 points versus the basketball powerhouses, friend, you need help.

Losing by less than 10 to the Euros will earn respect? Losing by 2 to Asian countries and ending up below the top 5 in our own region is okay?

Chot Reyes is a great man and a visionary, one mistake shouldn't define his body of work. It's controversial, it's disappointing, but let's all look forward and learn from our mistakes.

Hopefully, we won't see any of our national teams shooting at our own basket any time soon.