General Admission
Learn to live with our limits
By Al S. Mendoza
STOP whining, please?
We were not only expected to lose.
We were bound to lose.
As Jesus A. Garcia Jr., the biking legend, said on the eve of the tournament, “How could we win against behemoths?”
It’s a tired refrain. We can never win in global basketball.
It’s a tired refrain: Basketball is the giant’s domain.
It’s a tired refrain: We can only win in the SEA Games.
Why only in the SEA Games?
Because players there are of our size and shape: Not very, very tall, not very, very hefty.
In the Fiba-Asia, which was formerly the ABC (Asian Basketball Championship), only the tallest and the heftiest rule-but, of course!
Iran had 7-footers and 6-foot-6s as guards and so, it easily retained its title.
China had skyscrapers, too. But, suspiciously, those skyscrapers played below par against Iran in the finals.
I have this sneaky feeling those Chinese stars pulled off their punches.
Reason? They play in the NBA, where the big bucks are.
One injury could end a career.
The Fiba-Asia wasn’t worth winning.
Look at Yao Ming. He injured his foot in the NBA Western Conference playoffs. He would be lucky if he could rejoin the Houston Rockets in the next NBA season.
Basketball is all business now.
Even here. The PBA has become a money magnet that no one’s sure anymore if all PBA players play their best when tapped for overseas assignments.
We aren’t that big and so, we are not cut out for the Fiba-Asia anymore, where even countries lumped before as the Arab bloc are now tossed into the Asian region.
Thus, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan, countries with shapes and sizes the likes of Caucasians, are now the main title contenders.
We won the ABC (Fiba-Asia before) in 1973 because Iran, Jordan and Lebanon and even China weren’t around yet then.
We won the ABC (Fiba-Asia before) again in 1986 because Iran, Jordan and Lebanon weren’t around yet then.
Oh, yes, China has finally rejoined the ABC in 1986. But then, it was just merely limbering up. Its real might was still muffled.
Nineteen eighty-six was our so-called last hurrah in Asian basketball as we never won again.
Our best finish thus far was second in the 1990 Asian Games, with Robert Jaworski piloting the squad behind champion China.
For us to regain Asia’s basketball crown has become an impossible dream bordering on illusion, if not lunacy.
So, stop whining.
The ultimate aim in the Fiba-Asia was a Top 3 finish.
That was shooting for the moon.
We placed eighth in Tianjin, China, and that’s it. That should be it.
Just to make it to the Top 8 among nearly 16 teams hoping to make the Magic 8 was worth the gold medal already.
It’s like seeing Nani Braganza, if not Victor Agbayani, topple Guv Spines in 2010.
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