The Australia Boomers took the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers’ slogan “This is My House” quite literally.
Members of the Australian Men’s National Basketball Team were caught on tape ripping the stickers of team sponsors PLDT, SMART, and Chooks-to-Go off the parquet floor of the Philippine Arena, Sunday.
The Boomers held their first practice at the 55,000-seater arena Sunday afternoon. But before their started their practice, the team began their session by removing each of the stickers of Gilas’ sponsors.
Aussie team ripping our/Fiba logos on the court of Phil Arena w/o asking permission. We will not back down. Those stickers go in. Regardless. pic.twitter.com/LMwyiBNtG4
— Manny V. Pangilinan (@iamMVP) July 1, 2018
This caused team patron Manny V. Pangilinan, the chairman of PLDT/SMART, and Chot Reyes, head coach of Gilas, to voice their outrage over what happened.
“Aussie team ripping our/Fiba logos on the court of Phil Arena w/o asking permission. We will not back down. Those stickers go in. Regardless,” Pangilinan Tweeted.
“Madulas daw, e that’s FIBA approved. Besides,we’ve played in other venues w similar decals. Secondly, IF, & that’s a big IF, it did indeed make the floor slippery, they had no right to just rip the decals and deface OUR floor. There were SBP/FIBA officials in venue #basicdecency,” Tweeted Reyes.
