(Eagle News) — The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas on Thursday, July 19, said it accepts the decision of Fiba to sanction it, and suspend 10 Gilas players and two coaches over the Philippines-Australia brawl in a World Cup qualifier on July 2.
Al Panlilio, SBP President, said Fiba was “quite fair” in its decision, even as he said they would ” clarify some facts.
“And maybe if we do that we can mitigate some things in the decision, hopefully,” he said.
Even then, Panlilio said the sanctions “could have been worse,” noting that the “focus on the sanctions” were the Asian Cup Qualifier Games.
He said the SBP was now in discussion with the PBA to determine who would make up the pool of players for those games, which are slated in August.
“We also need to decide who will coach the Iran game,” he said, noting that Coach Chot Reyes had been suspended for one game by Fiba.
“This may be a bump on the road but we wanna..make sure we do better. I was telling the players they’re the ones who will help us get back,” Panlilio said.
Ordered suspended by Fiba were players Japeth Aguilar and Matthew Wright (1 game each); Terence Romeo, Jayson Castro William, Andray Blatche and Jeth Rosario (3 games each); Roger Pogoy, Carl Cruz and Jio Jalalon (5 games each); and Calvin Abueva (6 games).
Apart from Reyes, who was also ordered to pay a fine of CHF 10,000 (P534,834) for “inciting unsportsmanlike behavior,” Assistant Coach Jong Uichico was also suspended for three games.
In the Australian side, Fiba suspended Boomers Chris Goulding (1 game), and Daniel Kickert (five games) for “unsportsmanlike behavior and inciting unsportsmanlike behavior”; and Thon Maker (three games) for “unsportsmanlike behavior.”
The basketball federations of both countries were also ordered to pay a fine–Basketball Australia CHF 100,000 (P5,349,200) for the “unsportsmanlike behavior of its players and for abusing and/or tampering of equipment, after having removed floor stickers from the court on the eve of the game,” and SBP CHF 250,000 (P13,373,002) for “the unsportsmanlike behavior of its delegation members and of its public, as well as for insufficient organization of the game.”