THE Gilas Pilipinas team has been practicing since February 6 in preparation for the 24-nation Fiba Asia Cup.
The ultimate aim is to crash into the Fiba World Cup that the Philippines is hosting in 2023.
In a few days, we are supposed to face Thailand here in the first window. But last weekend, Fiba postponed the game indefinitely.
Maybe, it was in response to the coronavirus scare gripping the region? Fine.
“There are bigger things going on around the world than our game,” said Gilas interim coach Mark Dickel. “Governments are making decisions that they think are putting their citizens in the safest possible positions.”
Dickel views the postponement positively.
“If the game’s postponed, oh well, maybe we’d scale back with our practices,” Dickel said. “Maybe, one or two a week?”
He told Inquirer’s Denison Rey A. Dalupang that the postponement would give his team more chances at building cohesion.
“You get more time to really have everybody understand A, what their roles are, B, what is expected, and C, what they got to do out there...Anytime you get more days to do that, the game’s gonna look better.”
Dickel is now setting his sights on a February 23 battle against Indonesia, whose coach, Rajko Toroman, used to handle Gilas.
From Toroman the Serbian to Dickel the American.
But why this seeming penchant to get foreign coaches for our national quintets?
Whatever happened to the rule about the Filipino-First policy as regards appointing coaches for the Philippine team—and other club teams as well?
Choosing foreigners over our homegrown coaches is weird, if not unpatriotic, to say the least.
Filipinos should have the first crack at coaching the PHL Five if only because basketball is our national pastime.
Has the Yeng Guiao-led BCAP (Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines), the bulwark of coaching nationalism, been dissolved?
If yes, not fine.
Living legend Robert Jaworski is right: Colonial mentality is still very much alive?
Not fine.