Team Pilipinas, yes; Gilas, no
EDDIE G. ALINEA
This was the consensus among members of the national basketball team currently preparing for the second window of the 2019 FIBA Asian qualifiers which opens four days from now in Tehran, Iran where coach Yeng Guiao’s boys will meet head-on with their counterparts from the host country.
The Filipinos face next, in a close door encounter, Qatar in Manila, The invitation only showdown here is part of the punishment FIBA meted out on the local ruling body for basketball as result of the brawl that occurred between the Philippines and Australia in the early round of the qualifying series last May.
The consensus as to the moniker the team will use is an offshoot of a memo issued by team captain Asi Taulava to his teammates to inform them and all and sundry that the nationals should be known as ‘Team Pilipinas’ and not anymore ‘Gilas,’ the nickname all PH teams were known from many years back since the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas became the sport’s governing body here.
“Don’t call this group Gilas Pilipinas,” Taulava declared in his memo as quoted by spin.ph.
The 45-year-old slotman issued the announcement on Thursday in an effort as to distinguished between this Yeng Guiao-coached Philippine team to the previous national teams.
“First of all, I wanna correct that. This is coach Yeng’s time. Under coach Yeng’s time, we want to be known as Team Pilipinas,” Taulava emphasized. Taulava said that moving on from the “Gilas” brand is integral as Philippine basketball looks ahead to its future, starting in the second round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.
One of the team’s biggies at 6’9” also said that it’s time to change the image of Philippine basketball adding that it’s time, too, “to do away with those moniker names and things like that.”
For Taulava, Guiao has become the biggest catalyst for the change in the national team, as he cited perfect attendance of all candidates in all practice sessions held last week for the official composition of the team and the players’ willingness to play for flag and country.
“Everybody that came into this group, it’s because coach Yeng asked. Coach Yeng wants to do something special. We want to help him and do whatever we can do to qualify for the next round,” he said.
“As far as everything else, we want to play for coach Yeng. As you can see, complete attendance again for the third straight day,” the veteran center added.
Taulava reminisced that the first time he experienced this was when he played for Guiao in his debut as member of the Nationals in 2002 when all those invited to tryout attended all sessions. “It’s been so long, but this is great for Philippine basketball. One man that can unite all the big bodies in the PBA—the board, the SBP, and that’s coach Yeng.”
Taulava, likewise advised everybody that before calling the team any other name: “Remember, we’re Team Pilipinas!”
Using monikers related to the products team sponsors want to project is not new in Philippine sports. Too much commercialism in sports is the reason why many blame for the decline in the Filipino athletes’ performance in global competitions.
Next only in basketball but in many sports, too. Not too long ago, for example, the Philippine women’s volleyball squad that competed in the Asian championship carried the name of biscuit brand in their official competition uniform.
No sign whatsoever of what country the girls were representing. Television coverage, most of the time, is focused on the girls’ outfit rather than the plays, which, in the first place were sleepers. This same kind of outfits were used by the Nationals while roaming around Jakarta and Palembang when not playing during the last Asian Games as if it was their official social attire. This time around though, there was a small Philippine flag embedded on the left breast of the outfit.
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