Almost a year since one of the darkest moments in Philippine sports history, a new team from Australia will compete in the country.
NBL club team Adelaide 36ers will figure in two tune-ups with Gilas Pilipinas – the final stage in the national team’s preparations for the upcoming 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.
And the 36ers are doing this as a sign of goodwill to help out the Philippine Men’s National Basketball Team.
“We’re here for them more than they are for us.
“We’re here to try to help them get better. We expect them to be passionate and play great basketball. We’ll try to get out there and work on some things ourselves,” said Adelaide head coach Joey Wright, a good friend of TNT Katropa consultant Mark Dickel.
Last July 2, Gilas and the Boomers figured in a full-on, bench-clearing brawl that saw a total of 15 players and officials suspended and millions of pesos in fines.
This time around, Adelaide wants to show Australia that the Philippines is a safe place to play in.
“One thing I wanted to tell our fans, actually, I did a video speech about it. Filipinos have been playing basketball here for 40 years. They’ve been playing great basketball, high passionate basketball and I didn’t want one incident to be held in their head,” Wright shared.
“So we wanted to come back here and play and show people that was just one incident, and we can come back here and play and we’ll be okay.”
Gilas head coach Yeng Guiao – who succeeded Chot Reyes after the brawl – is just grateful to have Adelaide help them out, since the team had struggled to find tune-ups for the global meet.
“Yun nga, nagpapasalamat kami kasi naiintindihan nila yun situation namin.
“Mahirap maghanap ng quality team na makaka-practice, lalo na naghahabol kami ng oras. Kung siguro may sapat tayong oras, baka kamukha nung ibang teams. Naglalaban-laban sila sa abroad, no? Tayo, ang nagawa lang natin, yung Spain. Sila, after ng isang lugar, meron agad silang pinupuntuhang ibang tournament,” expressed Guiao.
As they say, time heals all wounds.
