ORGANIZERS of the Dubai International Basketball Championships were eerily silent as Strong Group Athletics-Philippines made good its threat to boycott the battle for third place against UAE's national team on Sunday.
The Al Nasr Gym was near-empty and organizers made no mention of SGA's no-show even in the tournament's livestream coverage in the hours leading up to the final between Beirut and Tunisia's national team.
Beirut won the championship after an 80-72 win over Tunisia, whose semifinal victory over SGA was thrown into controversy owing to some calls especially in the endgame which the Philippine side rued were unfair.
READ SGA mulls boycotting Dubai third-place game: 'Sama talaga ng tawagan'
While some Filipino fans hoped up until the last minute that SGA would show up, team manager Jacob Lao said they had ‘no regret doing it.’
“Like we said, we want to have change. And we feel filing a protest won’t be enough. Wala ring mangyayari. Gusto naming maging fair ang tournament for all participants. Yun lang naman ang message namin,” said Lao.
“Ang daming Filipino teams na ang sumasali dito, like now, we have SGA and Zamboanga Valientes, so para hindi na maulit - not just sa mga Pinoy teams but sa iba pang sasali in the future, we wanted to make a statement.
"Hindi kami sore losers. Gusto lang namin na maging patas [ang laban],” he added.
The SGA Facebook page posted a spliced video of what they claim were crucial miscalls, including the no call on clear contact on a three-point attempt by Rhenz Abando which could have tied the game at 66 and forced an overtime.
“Nakakalungkot lang. But we hope magbunga yung ginawa namin. Sana may mga pagbabago next year and in the coming years. Hope maging wake-up call ito,” Lao said.
“Sana nga magising yung mga organizers kasi ang ganda na ng liga nila. Inaabangan na ng mga Pilipino tapos makakatay lang pala mga team natin,” he added.
For now, no word has been released by Dubai organizers regarding the status of SGA in future tournaments.
But Lao isn’t perturbed.
“Okay lang. Basta kami we’re hoping na whatever sacrifices we made today will make the league and the Dubai games better," he said. "'Yun lang naman yun. Sana next time, neutral referees ang humawak para di naku kwestyon ang credibility."
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