From the dying seconds of the San Miguel Beermen-Barangay Ginebra San Miguel game up to the post-game scrum, Chris Ross was clearly flabbergasted.
“That’s probably one of the craziest games I’ve every played in,” quipped the nine-year pro after the Beermen fell to the Gin Kings, 96-100. “It was fun to be a part of, the crowd was into it, and definitely a playoff atmosphere.
“Just too bad we didn’t come out with a win but it was a good game.”
Despite trying to be diplomatic about what had just happened, the San Antonio, Texas-born cager was evidently confused about the last 4.5 seconds of the contest.
After chopping Ginebra’s 14-point lead down to just three with 4.5 seconds left on the clock, Sol Mercado was slapped with a foul on Chico Lanete. As Chris Ross was waiting at the top of the arc, referee number 17, identified as Noy Guevarra, handed the ball to him. As crazy as it sounds, Ross went to the stripe, muffing the free throw attempt.
“I didn’t get an explanation. I stayed in my spot I was in the whole time, and I wasn’t nowhere close to the play, and the ref walks up to me and hands me the ball, and the announcer [Noel Zarate] says, “Chris Ross at the free throw line”, so I shot the ball,” recalled Ross, who had 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and four steals in the contest.
“What else am I supposed to do, give the ball to Chico? I don’t know.”
San Miguel head coach Leo Austria then called a timeout as confusion ensued. This gave the game officials a chance to talk about the scenario. As Ross pleaded his case, the referees slapped a technical on him due to a new rule by the league if a scenario like this arises.
“Then I asked for an explanation, no explanation. They gave me a technical, it was my second tech, I don’t know why I wasn’t ejected,” added Ross, who was slapped with his first technical during the last moments of the first half. “I don’t know. Y’all’s guess is just as good as mine. I don’t know what happened. I just went with the flow. They gave me the ball, I read something, someone said that I waved Chico off at the free throw line so I could shoot the free throw… I don’t know, man.
“Honestly, it was a joke. It was really a joke.”
Confused, Ross expressed his dissatisfaction with how the officials had handled the situation.
“I was in a lose-lose situation.
“I don’t know what I was supposed to do. It’s obviously the ref’s fault, all three of them because they didn’t intervene, and they put the blame on me by giving me a technical,” rued Ross. “So I mean, that’s the only explanation I can give, I don’t know about you guys, but my fair assessment of the play was, they tried to cover it up by giving me the technical, and all I did was do what they told me to do.
“So I don’t know, if I do something different, do I get a tech? Or do I do what they tell me to do, and I still get a tech? I mean, I don’t know, it was bizzare, to say the least,” he furthered.
Still, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year did not hold back in expressing his disappointment with how the Beermen performed against the Gin Kings. Moreover, he remains confident that the defending Philippine Cup champions will bounce back.
“Like I said, take nothing from Ginebra, that was our fault that we lost that game, but we’re a veteran group and we know how to bounce back.”
