It’s not learning how to say “annyeonghaseyo”. Neither a lesson on Korean geography, history and Koreanovela. By far this is the most difficult course we got to take. And we failed miserably. It was an F, or a 5 or 70% when passing should be 75—however you may want to measure it.
We just lost big time to the Koreans. Man, how can they be so impeccably great in shooting those threes? Are they nuts—banking free throws and jumpers, deliberately? And their defense is just so pesky yet fluid. Their bigs are as fast as our fastest—Jio Jalalon—that’s completely absurd!
It was such a pain watching our team getting blown out that way. But we had to. Perhaps this was the part or the chapter where we had to tackle this toughest lesson in our journey as a hoop nation. It was a perfect time we swallow all our pride—take a slice of the humble pie called defeat. Or, reality check. Maybe, a mandatory humiliation for once in our "Most Valuable Fans" kind of life.
So let’s say it was a course—a subject, a lesson you signed up for at the beginning of the semester. But a very difficult one. With the toughest and meanest professor at the helm who wouldn’t take less-than-perfect answers during recitations.
They say the “curse” is back. But let’s not believe in that fear. Let’s not live in such fear. Because “fearing” only attracts more of it. Being scared is actually losing half the battle already. In the end it is us—ourselves we need to contend with all the time. We need to get better. And better each day. We need to be a Terrence Romeo—tough as nail—and light up our scorecards in one freaking quarter when we’re at the brink of failing. We all have to bookmark this page. Perhaps our basketball stakeholders in the country are paying very close attention to this. And they must know what and how things went wrong—and how to improve and come out victorious in our next battles.
In the end, let’s stick with our team. It’s so easy to pin the blame on someone else. That’s a default in real life. But not the best foot forward. We cannot just hate the Koreans for beating us this badly. Not this country so tied up with all things Korean—from music, to fashion, and entertainment. And now basketball. Our players in fact are perhaps more talented than theirs. But basketball is a team game. And we saw how they did it with their fine fundamentals. Okay, let’s thank them for schooling us about how to play basketball—fast, streaky and unselfishly. But one thing is sure—we'll beat them next time we face off!
Laban Pilipinas. Puso!
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