With a 1-3 win-loss card in the ongoing William Jones Cup, Team Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao said in the aftermath of the Filipinos’ ego-deflating 85-87 defeat to Japan that “they were merely learning from their opponents in tournament”.
The “learning experience”, which I have heard for quite a long time (as far as I remember, since I started cheering for the first all-pro national team in the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing) has been an old and antique excuse I believe.
Since the first international debacle by the PBA’s all-pro team, then led by Allan Caidic, Benjie Paras, Ramon Fernandez, among others, some coaches and officials from the RP teams of different batches have used the words “learning experience” each time they come from another unsuccessful campaign.
Maybe it’s just a matter of pride that our basketball officials couldn’t really admit losing to their opposing Asian counterpart and just accept all the blame for “failing to really prepare the team for the tournament”.
I think Filipino basketball officials, be it coaches or those serving in the national office, can learn a thing or two from the Americans.
When the Americans (led by NBA stars and coached by veteran mentor George Karl) lost shamefully in the 2002 World Basketball Championships right before their home floor in Indianapolis, USA, USA Basketball began drawing up long-term plans to regain their stranglehold in the sport.
American officials didn’t say, “Well, we’re just learning from the World Championships.” Instead, what they did was to prepare for the future.
Their very best wasn’t enough in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and the 2006 World Championships again, but by last year’s Beijing Olympics, the team, already prepared and trained under the no non-sense Coach Mike Krywszeski, finally brought back the honor to Team USA after beating Spain in a heart-stopping endgame in the gold medal round.
Well, though Jones Cup isn’t as prestigious and as important compared to the FIBA Asia Men’s basketball championship scheduled next month in Tianjin, China, I firmly believe that the national team we send should always be the well-prepared and well-trained.
However, since 19 years ago, when our national basketball officials first tapped the services of the so-called “best professional players from the land”, we have yet to win a single major international basketball tournament.
In fact, that 1990 batch, coached by Robert Jaworski, Sr., had the highest accomplishment thus far after bringing home a silver medal.
Still, that silver medal achievement included a 65-point massacre at the hands of host China during the middle round, before narrowing the gap in a 76-90 championship loss to the Chinese.
Oh well, I really believe that as long as our local officials will keep sending ill-trained professional players, the chase for the Olympic gold might still be a long wait.
What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.
Photo Source: http://www.fiba.com