The basketball federation of Australia expressed its sincere and humble apology after their players and staff peeled off the stickers on the parquet floor of the Philippine Arena.
The apology was made moments prior to Gilas Pilipinas’ tiff against the Australia Boomers, Monday evening.
“Basketball Australia unreservedly apologizes for the removal of decals from the court at the Philippine Arena to the Australian Boomers versus Philippines FIBA World Cup qualifier tonight,” read the statement of Mark Bradtke, a representative to Australia Basketball.
Sunday afternoon, at around 2:45pm, the Boomers ripped the FIBA-approved decals of sponsors SMART, Chooks-to-Go, and PLDT during their practice session. The team cited that the stickers were slippery when stepped on.
The team expressed that they did this in good faith and not to be disrespectful to the hosts.
“While our concerns over player safety were pure, our actions are not representative of what we expect from representatives of an Australian national team,” the statement furthered.
“No disrespect was intended and the team has since apologized for the error in judgment to Philippines Basketball, the fans, and FIBA.”
With this, the representatives and players of the Australian Men’s National Basketball Team requested that the press raise no further inquiries from the members of the press regarding the matter.
The decals have been placed back to the hardcourt of the venue prior to the game.
