When silver shines like gold

By Al S. Mendoza

 

IT was not gold.  But the silver shone like gold.

Such was the drama and sensation of epic proportions recorded in the recent 27th Asia Fiba Cup that, all too suddenly, we are proud to be called Filipino again.

We placed second to Iran after we dropped an 85-71 loss to the towering Iranians in the battle for gold.

Call it a quaint twist of fate but that defeat, for once, didn’t hurt at all.

No cussing and cursing.

Not even a tinge of bitterness.

That’s because even before we fought Iran, we’ve already captured the main goal:  Grab a much-coveted slot to the 2014 World Cup in Spain.

And that came after Gilas Pilipinas mightily swamped archrival South Korea 86-79 in the semifinals via the last-ditch heroics of Jason Castro, Marc Pingris, Jimmy Alapag, Ranidel de Ocampo and Gabe Norwood.

The Fab Five punctured the hoops just when it was needed most, with blazing go-ahead triples uncorked by Alapag and de Ocampo and with a crucial enemy shot blocked by Norwood—all coming in the 120 seconds of the game.

While that victory snapped our string of heartbreaking setbacks to South Korea, it ensured our return to the World Cup since 1974 in Puerto Rico, and in Manila in 1978 due to a slot reserved for us as host.

We got to 1974 Puerto Rico because we topped the 1973 Asia Cup, beating also South Korea in the finals in a dramatic win fashioned by the likes of Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Bogs Adornado, Tembong Melencio, Rosalio Martirez, Abet Guidaben and Atoy Co, with the late Tito Eduque as head coach.

This year, on paper, we weren’t supposed to win even one of three slots staked in the tournament.

Pundits predicted that those precious slots were pawned already to Iran, China and South Korea in that order.

Not surprising.

Iran was the back-to-back champ in 2007 and 2009, China the defending champ and South Korea the perennial tormentor of the Philippines.

We were fourth in the last staging of the event in 2011, after South Korea defeated us 69-68 in Wuhan, China.

In 2002 in the Busan Asian Games, we lost to South Korea on a buzzer-beating three that cost us a bitter one-point loss and a chance to fight for the gold medal against China.

But despite the tallest of odds, we pulled through and from fourth and being the ousted team in 2011, we finished second ahead of Korea.

Sadly, China placed fifth, even bowing to fourth-place Chinese Taipei to aggravate China’s shameful finish in the 15-nation meet.

Yes, our silver finish would easily become the sports story of the year, but it should be emphasized here that it happened with the big help of Marcus Douthit, the 6-foot-10 naturalized Filipino from the US.

As I keep saying, if we could have two more of Douthit’s stature added to the team, who knows, we might yet finish decently in sunny Spain next year.

What do you think?

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