On Monday, Gilas Pilipinas crashed out of the 20th Asian Games after absorbing a 105-61 thrashing from continental rival China. The whole campaign was a debacle, and Tim Cone afterwards made what was essentially a cop-out by throwing the PBA players who comprised the national team under the bus.
In a nutshell, he said the Philippines didn’t bring its best players to Aichi-Nagoya.
“It’s a reminder for us that if we don’t or can’t bring our best players to these international events, we won’t excel,” Cone said after China’s shellacking. “We brought some really good players, but we didn’t bring our best players.”
In a vacuum, Tim Cone is right. That all-PBA Gilas Asiad squad wasn’t made up of the country’s best and brightest—a distinction that right now belongs to the core of the Gilas Pilipinas team trying to qualify for the FIBA World Cup next year. Five of them would be Kai Sotto, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos, and AJ Edu, who helped the Philippines escape Jordan and beat Iran in the fourth window of the Asian qualifiers at the SM Mall of Asia Arena back in August.
Other players on that team—June Mar Fajardo, CJay Perez, Juan Gomez de Liaño, and Scottie Thompson—were left out of the Gilas Asiad roster, even though they could have had enough rest between the qualifiers and the Asian Games.
Tim Cone Conveniently Leaves Out His Role
Tim Cone doubled down on his excuse and explained why Gilas Asiad couldn’t send a better team to Japan and why it didn’t even field a naturalized reinforcement—of which Bahrain, which beat the Philippines to start the Asian Games, had four.
“It would have been nice to have Kai [Sotto] and AJ [Edu], and Q [Quentin Millora-Brown], and Mike Philips, and Dwight [Ramos], and KQ [Kevin Quiambao], and Carl [Tamayo], and the likes. But they weren’t permitted from their mother teams,” Cone said. “We would have liked Justin [Brownlee] and Bennie [Boatwright] or even Jordan Clarkson, but none were available, and it’s not an easy process to naturalize players like it is in other countries. Even June Mar [Fajardo] would have made an impact.”
Again, that’s a valid point. But whose fault was it anyway?
Tim Cone and Company Dropped the Ball
Cone, the winningest coach in the PBA and current Gilas Pilipinas mentor, certainly deserves blame—and so do the big wigs at the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), including Program Director Al Chua. They should have known well beforehand that it is standard practice in global leagues that players are loaned back to their national teams only for FIBA competition, not for regional competitions beyond the federation’s purview.
If Cone and company really wanted Quiambao and others for the Asian Games, they could have reached out to the KBL and Japan B.League and asked for a one-time exception. Maybe the leagues don’t acquiesce, or maybe they do and allow one or two to play. Having Edu and Quiambao would have at least made a difference, especially against Bahrain.
There’s also the matter of naturalized players. Cone says none were available, but Malick Diouf was literally a call away. He recently signed with the Abra Weavers for the EASL campaign, and there’s no reason to believe Abra management wouldn’t have let the Senegalese-born big man play for the country. Diouf might not be on the level of Brownlee, Boatwright, or Kouame, but at 6-foot-11 he could have offered size, defense, and rebounding—three things sorely lacking for Gilas Asiad.
So, what did Tim Cone do? He waited for his man, his safety blanket, Justin Brownlee. He waited…. and waited… and waited. JB didn’t walk through that door, and Robert Bolick and his merry band of PBA teammates were left to fend off on their own.
Bad Optics for Tim Cone, SBP, and PBA
To a man, Tim Cone looked like someone offering excuses rather than owning up to his and his cohorts’ shortcomings. Because that’s where this debacle boils down to: Cone, the SBP, and the PBA dropped the ball. They had neither the foresight nor the vision to prepare for this title defense. They formed the Asiad team three weeks before the Asian Games, for crying out loud.
This lack of preparation, creativity, and foresight showed in Aichi-Nagoya. And the result wasn’t just a failed title defense—it was a national embarrassment.
Cone should have thought of that, too, before he threw the players under the bus.
