CHICAGO - Now is not the time to mince words.
Strong Group Athletics-Pilipinas just got robbed of a potential third consecutive Jones Cup title.
No thanks to a special home cooked rule that allowed host Chinese-Taipei Blue an automatic semis slot despite a lousy 1-5 won-lost record.
READ SGA 'biggest victim' of new format, Jones Cup organizers admit
SGA, meanwhile, exited with a 5-1 card, losing the golden opportunity for a legacy-setting triple crown.
No other league in the planet eliminates a team from the Final Four after it won 83.3 percent of its elimination-round games.
Sadly, injustice is commonplace in sports. an arena in human drama where crushed souls lie in eternal misery.
CLASS ACT.
What’s rare, though, is when the aggrieved party demonstrates grace in the face of uncommon grief.
And that’s where we arrive at with Frank Lao.
Instead of justifiably getting riled up, the billionaire team owner took that lonely, less-traveled pathway called the high road.
Amid the disappointment, Lao found shelter in the cherished memory of his late mother, who gifted him with this valuable life lesson.
“Huwag mong kunin ang bagay na hindi talaga para sa iyo.”
Don’t take something that’s not meant to be yours.
PEACE NOT WAR.
Maybe, just maybe, this 2026 Jones Cup championship wasn’t meant to be. Sadder still, is the manner with which it was taken away from SGA.
But the real story here is how Lao, a man of unimaginable resources, reciprocated with kindness the inequity that was leveled at his team.
Although he wears so many hats, Frank Lao is simply just this.
He is his mother’s son.
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