THE brawl that erupted in the Fiba-sanctioned game between Gilas Pilipinas and the Australia Boomers at the Philippine Arena last Monday was like a big stone thrown into a pond. The water has continued to ripple. And I am not even talking about the sanctions that Fiba Asia is still deciding on. Some thoughts:
That groufie. I first read about this from a report on the reaction to the incident by Andrew Bogut. Bogut, the veteran National Basketball Association (NBA) center who got a ring while playing for the Golden State Warriors is, of course, Australian. He described the groufie involving some Gilas players (with March Pingris holding the phone) and taken on the court after the brawl as “disgusting.”
“Blokes taking a team selfie after all that. Down 31. Yep. They really just took a team selfie,” Bogut posted on Twitter.
I thought the groufie was taken before the brawl until I read somewhere Pingris apologizing for it.
“I sincerely apologize to everyone who were affected by the selfie that I took during the break of the Gilas Pilipinas vs. Australia game. While I honestly meant no disrespect to anyone, I realized that the timing was inappropriate,” Pingris posted on Instagram. Note the key word: “inappropriate.”
Luc Longley’s claim. Remember him? He once played alongside the great Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls and is currently a member of the Boomers coaching staff. During the brawl, he was seen trying to break up a melee involving several Gilas players and a downed Australian player Chris Goulding. Back in Australia, Longley fired away at Gilas Pilipinas and its coach, Chot Reyes.
“I believe their coach incited them to come out and ‘thug’ us,” he said, referring to Reyes, who had blamed Boomers player Daniel Kickert as the instigator of the brawl and whose acts even during the warm-ups already fired up the Gilas players. I also read a report about an Australian commentator claiming that Reyes was actually heard instructing the players to “hit” the Australians. Reyes had still to answer the accusations when I wrote this article.
‘Monkey’ trash talk. Did some Boomers really call Gilas players “monkeys”? This was supposedly among the many provocations that helped ignite the brawl. A screen shot of a supposed tweet by Boomers’ Chris Goulding initially seemed to confirm this. “Philippino Monkeys!!! Trash crowd. Trash Federation. Trash country. #Disgraceful,” was the supposed tweet. But Goulding’s basketball team in Australia denied this.
But there was also this supposed Tweet from veteran coach Louie Alas: “I heard on several occasions the Aussies call Gilas players monkeys. Wow, that’s a big no-no!” I mean, I think Fiba Asia should look deeply into this claim because doing that is objectionable and could have riled up the players early on.
Apologies. At least Daniel Kickert, who Reyes said was the instigator of the brawl, has apologized. He was the one who threw an elbow to the neck of Gilas player RR Pogoy, sparking the brawl.“It’s a regrettable situation, I was put in a situation where I made an action which is regrettable and unfortunate,” he said.
Apologies also came from some Gilas players and coaching staff, and from Basketball Australia.