A team’s staff should have the cooler heads when things get heated on the floor.
But that was not the case on Monday evening during the all-out, bench-clearing brawl that occurred between Gilas Pilipinas and the Australian Boomers.
When Chris Goulding was mugged by Gilas players, including Allein Maliksi, one of coach Chot Reyes’ assistant coaches joined in the melee – Gilas Cadets mentor Jong Uichico.
Numerous videos and photos surfaced online showing Uichico landing multiple punches on the fallen Goulding.
Uichico, a multi-titled PBA champion coach, admitted to his fault hours after the fracas, deeply apologizing through social media platform Twitter.
“Tonight, my emotions got the better of me like a father who cares about his sons. That does not excuse my actions and I apologize to everyone as in hindsight I should have not gotten involved,” he tweeted.
“This is a painful but maybe [a] necessary lesson for me.”
During the bench-clearing skirmish, multiple bench players from Gilas either passed through the audience section to hit Goulding or stepped on the floor to figure in a fistfight with Aussie players Nathan Sobey, Matthew Dellavedova, and Daniel Kickert.
On the other hand, Boomers assistant coach Luc Longley had the presence of mind to stop his players from entering the court.
Nine players were ejected from the Gilas side, while only four for the Boomers.
