By REYNALD MAGALLON
“We want Dwight” chants echoed around the Mall of Asia Arena as the clamor for Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone to field Dwight Ramos against Hong Kong grew as the contest progressed.
However, it all fell to deaf ears as Cone refused to heed the call with the national team taking a more cautious approach for Ramos, who the veteran mentor revealed to have suffered a calf strain.
Well, he was injured,” said Cone after Gilas’ 93-54 win over Hong Kong.
“I remember there was a fan in the front row along the basket and I told him he was injured and I can’t play him, and he still kept saying, ‘We want Dwight. We want Dwight’,” Cone recalled smiling.
With Gilas expected to come away with a victory, anyway, Cone felt it would be best for Ramos to just take a rest. The veteran mentor, though, acknowledged what the fans’ want and stressed that he, himself, would like to see him play just like everyone else in the venue.
“I’m like all the girls. I love Dwight. I just love him for different reasons,” said Cone.
I love him for his basketball mind and his talent. He’s got an incredible basketball mind. The girls like him for his looks. I can’t like him for his looks, but I love him for his brain and basketball brain. So I, more than anybody, want to put him on the floor. I guarantee you that,” he added.
Cone said Ramos hurt his calf during the latter part of the game against New Zealand and had it not been for the injury, he surely will play his usual minutes with the team.
“I wasn’t holding him out for any other reason other than he pulled his calf muscle in the late stages of the New Zealand game,” said Cone.
“He tried to practice yesterday, he tried to do our shoot around today and we weren’t sure until he came into the game and tried to warm up and see how it was but he was still feeling pain,” added the veteran mentor.
Ramos’ absence was hardly felt though as Scottie Thompson and Chris Newsome shared the playmaking duties while CJ Perez also provided quality minutes off the bench.
Perez had 10 points while Newsome and Thompson wound up with nine and eight respectively.
It also opened up minutes for young guys like Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao with the two finishing with 16 and eight points respectively.
