Kobe Bryant got very disappointed with the officiating of the FIBA Asia finals match between Gilas Pilipinas and China on Oct. 3.
Lack of professionalism displayed by the FIBA referees and the stadium security has made the Black Mamba upset about the game.
In a report by Manilalink.com, Bryant said he watched 2015 FIBA Asia Championship tournament between China and Philippines. “It would’ve been fun to see Jordan Clarkson there,” Bryant said in an interview. Clarkson was supposedly part of Gilas Pilipinas team, but due to time restraints, the Lakers didn’t allow him to play for FIBA Asia.
The 5-time NBA World Champion answered with grin when asked with what he thought on the controversial officiating and off-court events before and during the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship, and shook his head with the footage showed to him of basketball fans taunting Gilias Pilipinas.
“I was told that the Philippine team was having issues with transportation or something similar. The fishy thing is when they only attempted to fix the net when their crew was warming up. I’m not pointing fingers, but you know there’s got to be something going on,” he said.
Referring to Jayson Castro’s moment he was called for a travel though he never moved his pivot foot before dribbling the ball, Kobe said, “I didn’t think too much about the early calls, but when they called the Filipino point guard for travelling while he was dribbling the ball, I knew something was wrong.”
Kobe Bryant hopes that Philippine national men’s basketball team enters the qualifiers and still gets in the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro. He was also impressed with the youthful squad of China and the good staff and coaching despite of the off-court antics.
Basketball fans also expressed their disappointment online, and said that the officiating of games was incompetent and home-cooked.
The 2016 Basketball Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be on August 6 to 21, 2016.