CHICAGO - Having been around sports his entire life, Frank Lao has had his fair share of sweeping lows.
Sunday night in Dubai, in the heat of that blistering desert, Lao took a gut punch.
"Napakasakit," the billionaire owner of Strong Group Athletics (SGA) told me a day after he processed his team's buzzer-beating defeat at the hands of Al Riyadi in the finals of the 33rd Dubai International Basketball Championship.
"I'm proud of my players, They played hard despite a tight schedule of eight games in 10 days. They never gave up when we were down 19 points against the tough defending champions," Lao added.
Led by Dwight Howard, Strong Group paraded an all-star team that was loaded with three other former NBA players - McKenzie Moore, Andray Blatche and Andre Roberson - plus Jordan Heading, Kevin Quiambao and Justine Baltazar among others.
Al Riyadi, meanwhile, had been competing in the Lebanese league for years. The Club Beirut version that showed up in Dubai derived much of its firepower from veterans Wael Arakji, Karim Zeinoun and sharp-shooting American Gabriel Harries.
It was the classic match-up between talent and system.
Fast start
Playing with demonstrable cohesion at the jump, Al Riyadi built a 57-38 advantage at the 6:17 mark of the opening quarter. The Lebanese side ended up hitting 27 of their 47 field goals, a good 48 percent rate that made up for their 6-of-27 clip from 3.
Arakji, the 2022 Fiba Asia Cup MVP, was as good as advertised. The 29-year old point guard connected on 8 of 11 shots to finish with 16 points and three assists, including the one to Ismail Abdelmoneim who drilled the game-winning 3.
Strong Group, on the other hand, had bursts of chemistry issues that saw it commit four of its 11 turnovers in the opening quarter. Al Riyadi took advantage of SGA's early lapses and used it as a foundation to a quick 22-12 start.
And it didn't help that the 3-point shooting which had carried Strong Group to a 7-0 record heading into the Finals, abandoned them, missing 18 of 25 attempts from long distance.
After trailing 46-32 at the half, the gritty Strong Group side mustered a 33-15 run to eventually take a 65-61 lead on a Roberson 3 with still 8:25 left in the final quarter.
To its credit, Al Riyadi drew from experience, a deep well that has produced 30 basketball championships overall, to parry SGA's last charge.
"We will be back next year and we will put together our team much earlier so there will be more preparation time," Lao announced.
In a social media post on X, Howard revealed that "we came together for two weeks, only had a few practices and fought all the way to the championship!"
SGA will return to Dubai next year
It's sad that they fell short of the title but Lao is heartened by the thought that Filipinos embraced his team throughout the duration of the pocket tournament.
During the course of the games, Pinoys flooded the Al Nasr Gym, many waving flags and wearing flag-themed clothing and hats. They also spent their hard-earned money on tickets which cost at least 85 UAE dirham or roughly P1,304 Philippine pesos.
Strong Group was also a hit on social media. These are the number of viewers that watched the finale between SGA and Al Riyadi across multiple platforms:
180k on the Lakas Pinoy channel on Facebook, 128,036 on the YouTube channel of SPIN.ph colleague Snow Badua, 30k on Max Sports FB page, and 16k on Dubai Sports Live.
"Gusto kong magpasalamat sa lahat ng ating mga kababayan na sumuporta sa amin. Kahit madaling araw na yung ibang games namin sobrang dami pa rin ang nanood. We are sorry we didn't bring home the championship trophy," Lao said.
Apologies are not necessary.
For 10 days, Strong Group Athletics gave Filipino hoops fans in Dubai and around the world, a wonderful treat.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
