Villain of the Year: The South Korean national basketball teams

It’s really difficult to brand any one individual or team as a villain. Certainly, South Korea held no malicious intent when it rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to overtake the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team with 47 seconds to go in the third place game of the FIBA Asia Championships last September. Surely, all the team wanted was the same thing our team did – a medal finish and a berth in the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Games. There is no doubt they held no ill will toward us and that they just wanted to perform as best as they could.

There was no malice either when South Koreans youth team eliminated Energen Pilipinas in the semifinals of the FIBA Asia Under-16 Championships, which would have given the Philippine team a spot in the FIBA World Under-17 Championships next year. Like the Pinoy teens, the South Korean kids were just doing their best.

But forget all that, it’s okay to dislike the South Korean national team.

No, they aren’t dirty, excessively physical players. They don’t celebrate in your face or rub it in when you’re down. No, they don’t hold hour-long TV specials just to announce which beach they’re taking their talents to this season.

There is, objectively, no reason to hate on the South Koreans.

But sports fandom is rarely about being objective. The most loyal fans cheer for their adopted teams through thick and thin. It doesn’t matter if they’re actually good. The only thing that matters is whether or not they’re wearing the jersey of the team that you love, regardless of wins or losses.

And it is especially true when talking about national teams. We cheer for the Philippine teams whether or not we actually like the players on the team. We’re almost compelled to like them just because they have PILIPINAS spelled across their chests.

The national team has a way of bringing us together, famously exemplified by former teammates-turned-rivals Robert Jaworski and Mon Fernandez burying the hatchet for the national team in the 1990 Asian Games. Jaworski, appointed to helm the team, chose Fernandez to be his team captain despite a bitter breakup after their partnership in Toyota.

SMART-Gilas inherited a Sisyphean struggle from years of heartbroken national teams that similarly failed to qualify for the world level. And much like the mythical Sisyphus before them, it actually seemed as if SMART-Gilas, in the dying seconds of the third place game, had finally rolled its own figurative boulder all the way up to the top of the hill.

Check out the other nominees for Villain of the Year

But here we are, right back where we started.

We can’t be blamed for disliking the South Korean team just as Sisyphus can’t be blamed for hating that damned rock he’ll have to push for the rest of eternity. They don’t mean us any harm, but that doesn’t mean we have to like them.

So, South Korea, please don’t take this personally. In fact, it’s a compliment to be identified as a villain, because it means you accomplished something we wish that we had in your stead.

Congratulations on being named Villain of the Year. You should feel honored.

Jerks.

source by Mikkel Bolante, InterAKTV · image by AFP file photo

Posted in: Basketball, Gilas, samahang basketbol ng pilipinas, smart