Basketball
Ginebra fans slam Talk ‘N Text loss online
PBA/Nuki Sabio
Talk ‘N Text’s loss to the Petron Blaze Boosters on Friday meant the end of the season for crowd favorites Barangay Ginebra, and Gin King fans were unhappy with the Tropang Texters’ effort.
Already assured of a berth in the 2011 PBA Governors’ Cup finals, the normally mean Talk ‘N Text machine played a listless game against Petron Blaze, losing badly, 98-83.
A Petron Blaze loss and a Ginebra win would have tied the Gin Kings with Alaska, with the crowd darlings advancing to the championship round owing to their superior quotient. The situation put Ginebra fans in the awkward position of having to cheer for Talk ‘N Text, which beat their favorite team in the Commissioners’ Cup finals.
Instead, the Tropang Texters loss eliminated Ginebra from contention for the second finals seat, as they wouldn’t advance despite the result of their game against Rain or Shine, which followed the Talk ‘N Text-Petron Blaze match.
Quick reaction
Fans online quickly showed their displeasure over the perceived lackadaisical effort of the Tropang Texters.
Television host Bianca Gonzales, a Ginebra fan, had a philosophical take on things.
“Where is the honor in winning if you know you didn’t go up against the best, and if you didn’t give your best?” she wrote on her Twitter account.
“The fans know that this winning team is a good team, but are smart enough to know that this losing team doesn’t play this bad,” she added, alluding to the Talk ‘N Text-Petron Blaze game.
Talk ‘N Text assistant coach Josh Reyes, son of Tropang Texters head coach Chot, apologized for the team’s effort.
“We apologize for that game,” the younger Reyes wrote on Twitter. “I guess we were not ready. We’ve never been in a situation like this and it showed.
“Petron fought for their lives while we were, maybe subconsciously, looking at preparing for the finals. That’s all there is to it.”
Uichico takes blame
Jong Uichico and his Gin Kings could only watch in horror as they saw a Tropang Texters team that played as if their batteries were drained.
But Uichico would rather blame his team’s setbacks, particularly the one against Petron, where they blew a 28-point lead and lost the match.
“We could only blame ourselves for this. Had we won some of them, we don’t need to go in this situation and we would have been playing for the finals,” said Uichico.
“You have to live with the kind of format in this tournament. It’s a trial and error and if the PBA sees that this kind of format won’t be effective, then they will change it.”
Hot on the Texters
Still, the experience is quite strange for the multi-titled coach.
“This is something new in my coaching career, you have a chance to get to the championship, and then all of a sudden you’re not there. If we did win some of the games that we’ve lost, we could have made it. There’s something lacking. We did what we had to do, which is try to win games, but we came up short,” added Uichico.
While Uichico didn’t put the blame on Talk N Text for losing its game against Petron, the Tropang Texters couldn’t escape Ginebra fans’ bashing.
“[I've been a] PBA fan for more than fifteen years, but this game I witnessed earlier is such a big disappointment,” Gin Kings fan Charmie Grace Santos wrote on Twitter.
“At lumaban ang Ginebra hanggang sa huli eh TNT halatang halata ginawa nila,” added Twitter user Ara Joyce.
Bad format
But the biggest criticism seemed to be reserved for the conference format, which didn’t call for a playoff game in case of a tie for a finals berth.
“Nakakawalang gana na manood knowing that the team I’m rooting for doesn’t have a chance anymore to make the finals,” wrote Taimis May in the MyPBA.com forum.
“Dapat kasi kapag nag-tie, knockout game hindi yung quotient pa. Sana next Governors’ Cup hindi na ganito format nakakasuya.”
User Torchie82 of Pinoy Exchange, meanwhile, wrote: “This is ridiculous, both Rain or Shine and Barangay Ginebra playing to win not for their on benefit.”
The second game saw the Elasto Painters and the Gin Kings play in a game that was no-bearing for both of them, but was extremely important for the Alaska Aces and the Boosters. A Ginebra win meant Petron Blaze would go to the championship round, while a Rain or Shine victory meant Alaska would advance.
“Stupid format. I hope this is the last time we will see that format,” added user krdskrm of PinoyExchange.com.
No Caguioa BPC?
With Ginebra out of contention, Mark Caguioa’s chances of winning the Best Player of the Conference award might be affected as well.
According to PBA head of stats Fidel Mangonon III, those chances will depend on whether he still ends up in the top five of the statistical rankings.
“His chance is if he can end up in the top five, then he will be an automatic candidate,” explained Mangonon. Apart from statistics, media and player votes are also taken into consideration for the award.
