![\"Jason](\"http:\/\/66.147.244.209\/~canadiu3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/140518vgpc119ia91vv3rc.jpg\")
<\/a>The Prognosis<\/h6>\n
Two key players of Gilas Pilipinas were not able to contribute full-force during Sunday\u2019s game. Marc Pingris was nursing an injured leg, but still managed to play the game mostly relying on his good leg and warrior-like determination. Meanwhile, center Marcus Douthit is injured, leaving the rest of the Gilas Team fending off seven-foot-two center Hamed Haddadi the best way they know how. But without a legit center, Gilas\u2019 defense ultimately crumbled under Iran\u2019s towering assault.<\/p>\n Hamed Haddadi, Iran\u2019s 28-year-old center, was the juggernaut that pummelled through the Philippine teams\u2019 defense — hauling 29 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 blocks at the end of the game.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Gilas top-scorer and point guard Jason Castro managed 18 points, and joined Haddadi in the FIBA-Asia Men\u2019s Mythical Five. The other three members of the Mythical Five are Korean shooting guard Kim Min Goo, Chinese Taipei\u2019s forward Lin Chih-Chieh, and Haddadi\u2019s teammate power forward Oshin Sahakian.<\/p>\n As the Filipino heroes of the hardcourt rested their tired bodies and tried their best to look at the bright side (that of qualifying to the World Cup series, besting fierce rival Korea in the semis), a storm was brewing outside the court and on the screens in thousands of spectators\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n Social media is now the medium of choice for protesters and haters and advocates. What was once taken to the streets is now taken online. The hands that once wielded banners and tarps and signs fighting to be heard now hold tablets and mobile phones.<\/p>\n After Sunday night\u2019s game, many Filipinos took the loss too hard. Several Gilas supporters started bashing FIBA Asia Most Valuable Player Hamed Haddadi, Iranian center and former Phoenix Suns center, on his Facebook timeline.<\/p>\n The racial comments were in Filipino (Tagalog), mainly about Haddadi\u2019s (or the Iranian people in general) characteristics that have very little influence on his performance as a basketball player. Fans flocked to Haddadi\u2019s Facebook timeline to throw racial slurs and nasty comments about the player and not the game. In the end, Haddadi did not offer any statement about such derogatory slights against himself, his team, or his people.<\/p>\n Just two months ago, after a \u2018friendly\u2019 football match between the Philippine Azkals and Hong Kong team, HK locals deliberately threw debris and racial slurs against the Azkals and their supporters after the game. The untoward events happened after the HK team suffered a 1-0 loss against the Azkals. About a week after the match, the Philippine Football Association has asked Federacion Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to investigate the events that transpired during and after the said match. FIlipino supporters also filed a formal complaint to the proper authorities, citing that several HK locals assaulted them with water bottles, obscenities, and disrespectful gestures.<\/p>\n The Gilas Pilipinas team is certainly heartbroken over the loss, but not totally defeated. In fact, as if hit by the nostalgia bug, Marc Pingris recalls huddling with his teammates for the last time and yelling \u201cPuso<\/em>!\u201d (Heart!) right before heading into battle.<\/p>\n More than the loss, the teammates shared that they will miss working with each other on the hardcourt. After 11 days of hardwork, perseverance, dedication, and faith in one another — a silver medal hangs around each player\u2019s neck, together with a sure ticket to the FIBA World Cup in Spain next year.<\/p>\n \u201cKung ako ang tatanungin mo, ayaw ko pa matapos yung pagsasama namin kasi kakaiba yung samahan na binuo namin lalung-lalo na nung ipinaglaban natin itong bansa natin at itong watawat natin<\/em> (If you ask me, I wouldn\u2019t want this bond to end just yet because we formed something special, especially when we were fighting for flag and country),\u201d said forward Ranidel de Ocampo in an interview with Inquirer Sports. \u201cSana tumatak na kami sa isip at puso ng mga Pilipino na sa isang sandali sa 2013, nakilala tayo sa buong Asia at nakapasok tayo sa world basketball<\/em> (I hope that it will be etched in the minds and hearts of every Filipino that for one moment in 2013, we were known in all of Asia and we made it to world basketball),\u201d De Ocampo hoped.<\/p>\n More than the glory, it is evident that the Gilas Pilipinas players treated the games as a life-changing privilege to serve under one banner: the Philippine flag.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re part of history,\u201d said Gilas guard LA Tenorio. \u201cThis team is very special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PASAY CITY — The crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena arrived with a bang and went home with heavy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports","mauthors-ching-dee","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a>The Aftermath<\/h6>\n
Putting the \u201cman\u201d in \u201csportsman\u201d<\/h6>\n
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