WHY feel sorry?
It was not the players’ fault but the inability of the officials to sort out their problems. It took them years to resolve it and then form a team which is less than a year old.
Congratulations to all the players for giving a good fight!
– N S Rivera, Cerritos, California (via e-mail)
August 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Maybe its time for the Philippines to develop athletes in other sports besides basketball. As a Football or soccer fanatic (depends on what country you are in), it saddens me that our governement focuses more on basketball and boxing. We are way behind in football quality compared to our ASEAN neighbors, most especially Thailand and Malaysia. We even don’t have a decent football stadium nor a football league. Rizal memorial? Give me a break. Ultra, if the stampede wasn’t a proof enough, I don’t know what is.
August 8th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Don’t say sorry. I blame our so called “sports officials”, politicians and sports pundits in whole fisaco. You went up against teams who are playing together for years. Despite the group stage loss, a 5-2 slate isn’t bad. Not bad for a team who’s been playing together in a short period of time and unaware of FIBA rules.
Maybe the PBA should be playing FIBA rules instead of an NBA copycat. Come to think of it, the NBA players themselves didn’t win in the past Olympics and the FIBA World Cup. Basketball after all is a teamsport, its not a game of fancy dribbling or slam dunks.
Just an advice. Next time don’t only work on your game and teamwork. Learn to play with very big HEARTS.
August 8th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
YES, I AGREE …THAT’S THE FAULT OF HIGHER OFFICIALS…LACK OF TIME AND EXPOSURE TO OPPONENTS WITH DIFFERENT NATIONALITY…PLAYING WITH FILIPINO ( IN OUR OWN COUNTRY )OPPONENT IS DIFFERENT IN PLAYING WITH OTHER NATIONALITY AND CARRYING THE HOPES OF MILLION SOF FILIPINO IS NOT EASY…IT CANT BE DONE WITH JUST A COUPLE OF MONTHS PREPARATION…CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PLAYERS AND COACHES…
August 8th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
We’ve lost because of ref officiating (IRAN GAME). If that was T was not been called, we might have won that game….
Good Job to our RP 5 players.
August 8th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
The Philippine squad needs to be congratulated for the efforts they have put in. And it shows that they are of a different class because they said sorry for a failure that is not of their own doing. Win or lose I am behind the squad, just as long as they show that they are in it to win it.
The problems of Philippine basketball looks deeper than player & manager issues. I think the whole basketball culture in our country is quickly receding into oblivion. We can pretty much say “Those were the days” when the Philippines ruled Asia in basketball.
But I’m not too worried about it. If the decline of basketball means the upsurge of football, then I’m quite happy for it to happen. Afterall, we really don’t have the height to play basketball to the fullest.