BOO to BASKETBALL BASHERS!

The glorious memory of Jordan Clarkson’s magical four minutes against bullyboy China will stay fresh in our minds for decades.

- ALFRED A. YUSON

It’s the usual problem with SocMed. It gives everyone and his brother, as our legendary sportscaster Joe Cantada used to quip, the courage of ignorance in hastily joining the bandwagon of mob histrionics, and condemning scapegoats too precipitately. Hair-trigger denunciations usually come from jeprox fans with a surface understanding of basketball’s complex matrix, as well as the inveterate critics of our undiminished passion for the game.

I think Pinoys who actually understand basketball would agree with my observation that while the losses were stinging, Gilas Pilipinas actually shone with its commendable fighting spirit besides improved team defense, tactics and skills. It’s just that many other countries have improved faster, especially the African teams. Natural athleticism equips them well for basketball.

But despite our continuing disadvantage in size, strength, and long-range accuracy (a seasonal occurrence, given the exit of the likes of Allan Caidic, and recently, Jimmy Alapag, Jason Castro, Paul Lee and Terence Romeo), we put up a good fight against the first three teams in our FIBA group, and actually led them all at some point — before running out of steam.

Bad breaks and questionable calls, particularly the consecutive offensive fouls that abbreviated Jordan Clarkson’s first-game stint, prevented what might have been a stirring finish against the Dominican Republic. We had a chance against Angola, too.