COMMENTARY: What's next after puso? Gilas Pilipinas run in World Cup should only be a beginning

 

When I was in college, I applied for a position as a host for a sports show on TV. In my mind, there was no chance in hell that I wasn’t going to get the job. I knew that I had trained well and I was knowledgeable about basketball terms, players, and storylines. 

 

More importantly, I knew that there was no one who wanted this job more than I did. Talking sports was a lifelong passion and dream. I knew I had the biggest heart, and that I was destined for this.

 

I went to the audition and did the best possible job I could do. I read lines with conviction, and delivered them with all my heart.

 

A few days later, I found out that someone else got the job.  I was devastated.

 

At that moment, I learned a valuable lesson that I would carry for the rest of my life: You can have all the desire, heart and determination in the world, but you need to also be the hardest worker, sacrifice for the bigger goal, and always learn from past failures

 

I bring this up because this lesson was mirrored by Gilas Pilipinas throughout the FIBA Basketball World Cup. There were countless moments when Gilas showed all the fight, grit, and tenacity that champions were made of. We saw the unconscious shooting exhibition of Jeff Chan against Croatia and Jimmy Alapag against Argentina. We marveled at the audacity of Gabe Norwood to put Luis Scola on a poster worldwide. 

 

And finally, with all the lessons learned from previous games, Gilas finally broke through and defeated Senegal in a momentous win for our country that will not be forgotten ever.

 

Gilas will celebrate this victory in Spain, and the rest of the country will be able to sleep soundly with the knowledge that we’ve broken a 36 year old curse and made an excellent account of ourselves on a world stage. I will do the same.

But deep down, there’s a nagging question that was in my head while watching Jimmy Alapag and the rest of Gilas celebrate on the court:

 

What’s next? Where do we go from this?

 

It may seem unfair to ask that right now. After all, the two months of training, practice, and sacrifice being away from their families is something that will take months to recover from. But the glimpses of Gilas on the world stage was something so intoxicating and seductive that it’s made all of us hungry for more. So I propose we begin with that one word that seemingly has summed up this entire FIBA World Cup campaign:

 

Puso. 

 

It’s a catchy word, one that evokes memories of our beloved basketball players skying over bigger opponents, blowing past international defenders and shedding tears of joy in victories that makes a nation beam with pride. 

 

We’ve seen the word ad nauseam displayed on billboards and newspaper ads, and uttered countless times on radio and television commercials. 

 

It’s been used as a hashtag to define what Gilas stands for, and it inspires us to keep believing in the fight being waged in Spain. It’s a wonderful thought, that something so simple can be used as rallying cry. Everyone says that puso is what helped Alapag and the rest of Gilas overcome their jitters in the fourth quarter and finally breakthrough to get that win.

 

But in order for Gilas to really be able to stand toe to toe with other countries, the team will need to be able to rely on more than puso. 

 

The Philippines is playing world-class basketball, that much can be seen. Our players definitely have puso. But you know who else has puso? Everyone on a team in this FIBA tournament. Every single player who’s representing their country has puso. They wouldn’t have made it this far if they didn’t have it. Dario Saric of Croatia has it. Georgios Printezis of Greece has it. Luis Scola and Marcos Mata of Argentina have it. JJ Barea of Puerto Rico has it. They have as much heart as Gilas; the problem is that they are also bigger, faster, better shooters, stronger, more experienced, and more cohesive.

 

It doesn’t matter what your size is. If you don the colors of your country, you will have the heart to run through a brick wall for a win if need be. 

 

So if this tournament is a reality check that Puso isn’t going to be enough, then what should we do next?

 

There is a famous quote from Jacob Riis that San Antonio Spurs fans are used to hearing from their legendary Head Coach Gregg Popovich: 

 

“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

 

It’s perfectly apt for Gilas as well. Everyone on the team needs to keep pounding and pounding on that sucker forever. They will feel bruises and blisters on their hands, and sometimes we will all be tempted to give up in waiting.

 

But everything has a breaking point. One day, as Gilas continues pound the rock, it will crack open like it did versus Senegal. And once it cracks, we will all witness something audacious and inspiring.   

So we need be patient with Gilas. We need to take hold of these emotions that we’re all feeling right now and channel them into something positive. 

 

It’s an amazing time to be a basketball fan in the Philippines, and all this hope and dreams for a win in the FIBA World Cup was unexpected and unprecedented. But we can’t skip steps. A baby can’t be expected to start running without first learning to crawl. In the same way, we need to understand that Gilas and the coaching staff did an excellent job in handling this kind overwhelming pressure while being on this stage for the first time. 

 

Was it perfect? Of course not. But we showed that we can compete, and it’s about damn time that we enter every tournament we participate in with the intent to not merely survive but to win.

 

One day, we will see the best shooters in the country represent our squad and rain puso from everywhere of the floor. 

 

One day, perhaps, June Mar Fajardo will be as feared as Hamed Haddadi in Asia. And with polished and unguardable post moves, he will drop step and spin move puso in the painted area.

 

One day, Coach Chot Reyes will embed his dribble-drive offense into his players’ heads, that they won’t even have to think about where to go on the floor. And when they make wide-open shots with regularity the way that Argentina did, we’ll be able to say that it’s because of puso.

 

One day, international experts and analysts won’t mention the Philippines like a pleasant little surprise. Instead, they’ll wonder why it took this superpower this long to ascend to the Mt. Olympus of basketball.

 

So continue to believe in Gilas. Be thankful that we came away with a wonderful win to end this magical week of basketball. Trust in Coach Chot Reyes and his staff to make the right moves after seeing first-hand what needs to be done to put his team in the best position to win games against imposing opponents. Remember that the tears we’ve shed as a nation won’t go to waste, because in the future the tears we shed won’t be from sadness but from joy.

 

When all is said and done, we will all look back and say that merely relying on puso wasn’t enough.

 

But it was the start of something great. — JST, GMA News/Photos courtesy of FIBA.com