By REYNALD MAGALLON
The faces that wear the country’s color may have changed through the years but the Gilas Pilipinas’ battle cry remains the same – ‘Puso’.
National team head coach Chot Reyes said that ‘Puso’, which first became a byword during the splendid run of Gilas during the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship, remains to be the foundation of this day’s version.
“I think puso is still very much present, it is still the anchor of everything that we are doing. We always say we fight until we can’t fight anymore, for our country, with all our hearts. That is what ‘Laban Pilipinas, Puso’ is all about and that is still what the team is anchored on,” said Reyes.
Of course, the 2013 Gilas team, which back then ended the infamous Korean curse to book a return trip to the world stage after a long 36-year absence, had its charismatic leaders in Jimmy Alapag and Marc Pingris.
Their inspired run extended even in the World Cup the next year in Spain where it gave powerhouse teams like Argentina, Croatia, Greece and Puerto Rico huge scares before finally picking up its first World Cup win against Senegal.
Lacking the height to compete against taller and heftier defenders, the Filipinos gave all their heart and earned the world’s respect.
Reyes said this year’s cream of the crop players certainly give a different dynamic as compared to the 2014 World Cup team which back then had to rely on the speed of its guards in Alapag, LA Tenorio, Paul Lee and Jayson Castro.
Today’s version has no player standing below six-feet and had a frontline all over 6-foot-9 in June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, AJ Edu, and Kai Sotto. It was a luxury that the 2014 Gilas also never had which relied on undersized forwards in Pingris and Ranidel De Ocampo and naturalized player Andray Blatche.
“The values remain the same, obviously different players, different techniques, different strategies, different skill sets so that’s the big difference,” said Reyes.
“Just in the case of our naturalized player before we had a seven-footer in Andray Blatche and now it’s not the same now, that’s the big difference,” he said.
The advantage of the old version of Gilas though was it had a full tournament together prior to the World Cup which developed the team’s camaraderie and cohesion.
“I think the previous team has the benefit of the 2013 experience behind them and when we had to go through the qualifying process of 2013 to get to 2014 I think that was very important,” said Reyes.
Nonetheless, despite the differences, Reyes believed both squads are just the same Gilas team — ready and willing to fight for the nation even if at a great disadvantage.
“I guess we make up in style, in size. Lots of difference but the values, the passion that we hold here, we hope remains the same,” he added.
