Having manned the sidelines of the national team before, current NLEX Road Warriors head coach Yeng Guiao declared that he sides with Gilas Pilipinas after the now-infamous brawl they had with Australia this Monday.
“Kung magkakampihan tayo rito, biased ako. Pinoy ako, kakampi na ‘ko sa Pinoy,” the fiery Guiao said Wednesday night, after his Road Warriors lost to the Magnolia Hotshots, 89-116, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Guiao, the Powerade Team Pilipinas mentor back in 2009, said that what Gilas did on that night – the worst melee that had happened in recent memory – was just the simple reaction of a human being to a certain stimulus.
“Sa akin ‘pag hindi ka nagalit dun, hindi ka normal,” he said.
“Some people will say na [take the] high ground, what we did was embarrassing… I think mas nakakahiya kung hinayaan natin yung player natin na ginanun na lang, na wala tayong ginawa, sa sarili nating bansa,” Guiao pointed out.
“Normal reaction ‘yun, magagalit ka talaga.”
Guiao did not hold back from pinning the blame on the Australians, and he also blasted them for peeling the stickers of the event’s major sponsors off the court last Sunday, which caused a stir the day before the game itself.
“The tone was set the day before when they were ripping the decals without any permission,” he opined.
“If I coached the national team I would never do that coming into any venue and you have to respect the property of other people.”
Moreover, Guiao lashed out on Daniel Kickert. Aside from blaming him as the instigator, what made Guiao furious about Kickert was the statement the latter made – Guiao was looking for an apology, but he never heard any.
“Kickert I think started it all, and he didn’t even apologize. All he said was it’s regrettable. And all he said was it’s unfortunate. But he almost killed somebody and he did not apologize,” Guiao lamented.
“And the bad thing about this is our Gilas players are profusely apologizing for what happened, the guy who started it never apologized – he was just saying it’s regrettable and it’s unfortunate.”
Still, as much as he despises the Aussies, Guiao made it clear that the brawl is and will never be justifiable.
“I will not justify that. Mali talaga yun. I agree na mali talaga yun. Siguro nung burst of emotion, after that dapat naawat na, dapat naano na,” he said.
“Yun hindi ko maju-justify yun. But in that instant, that split second when there’s a burst of emotion, galit na ganun reaction mo, kung tao ka, flesh and blood ka and nakita mo yun, magre-react ka talaga. Kaya nga to me it’s just being human.”
