MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas head coach Vincent “Chot” Reyes stood with his players after the free-for-all during their 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier match against Australia Boomers.
Reyes pointed to Boomers forward Daniel Kickert as the culprit of the brawl who started tainting the Philippine players during warm-ups.
“Nakakita na ba kayo ng player na tinira sa warm-up while doing the round-robin layup? Hindi pa nagsisimula ang laban?” Reyes told reporters after the match Monday night. “The one thing that they have to know from this team is that we will never gonna back down.”
“We already restrained the players before the game. We already told the players, ‘Huwag niyo nang pansinin.’ But after what happened in the third quarter, it was hard to restrain them anymore,” Reyes added.
Kickert was seen hitting Gilas players Matthew Wright, Carl Bryan Cruz, Calvin Abueva, and Roger Pogoy while the Philippine team was doing warm-ups, claimed Reyes.
“I don’t know if he (Kickert) wanted to get into our [heads] or he is trying to start something by using psy-war against us, but whatever his motive is, there is no excuse for him to do what he did during the warm-up,” Reyes said.
“Kickert was hitting our players during the warm-ups, so when he decked Pogoy, that was the fifth time he did it to us. You don’t expect to do [that] to a team five times and not expect [the team] to retaliate,” he added.
The brawl was “absolutely unacceptable,” Reyes said, but critics – including some PBA players – must know what really happened before making any judgment on the Gilas players.
“The PBA players are saying that we are embarrassing but they don’t know what happened. I understand that,” Reyes said. “You have to be in our team, in our circle, to know what really happened.”
He added: “All I know is this team remains solid. We have each other’s backs. One thing I know about this team is that we’re not gonna back down.”
NO REGRETS
Some Gilas players who were ejected from the game after the brawl did not have any regrets. They are willing to do it again “to protect [their] teammates.”
“I think it was just a chippy game. The main thing that happened is he hit Pogoy after the foul, which was unnecessary. That caused the entire thing … If ever it happened to us again, we will probably do the same thing,” said Wright.
On Twitter, Terrence Romeo said, “Dun sa mga kapwa namin players na nag sasabing embarrassing kami wala kaming paki alam sa inyo. Kami mag kaka teammate sa loob kailangan namin mag tulungan.”
Jayson Castro also tweeted, “Gusto kong humingi ng sorry sa lahat ng nadissapoint sa laro kanina. Ginawa lang namin part namin as a teammate/kapatid kahit sino naman hindi hahayaaan masaktan ang kasama! Laban lang [sic]!”
Gilas reserve Troy Rike, who was photographed standing on top of Chris Goulding, said he was trying to protect the Aussie player from the attacks of his Philippine teammates.
“Just before I hear anything about this picture or my character. I was standing over him with both legs to protect him,” the Filipino-American forward tweeted. “You can check the footage, I’m actively pushing people off.”/PN
