ONE IS GREATER THAN FORTY

Yesterday night, I slept early pretending nothing has happened.

That was a heart-breaking scenario, probably one of the most painful tableaus I’ve stared at.

As much as I would like to surf the net as what I usually do, I refused.

I prepared my bed, get my favorite pillow, prayed, lied down, closed my eyes and forced myself to sleep.

This morning, as I wake up, that heaviness inside my heart remained. I went to work not wanting to hear any discussions about last night’s nightmare.

Puerto Rico defeats Gilas, 77-73 to stop their hope going into the next round.

“Grabe pre, sayang yun no?”

“Oo nga eh, lamang na ng 14 eh, nalusaw lang.”

I literally covered my ears and bowed my head on the top of the table.

“Pambihira, paano ba makaka-moved on?”

I started working and kept myself busy the whole day to at least free my mind form thinking what had happened, why not now, and who’s to blame?

The ploy actually, perfectly worked out for I almost forgot that we still have our last game against Senegal tonight.

8:15 pm, I turned on the TV and  saw a 1 point lead 11-10 for the Gilas, so I sat down on the couch and as usual, glued myself there.

I was looking around the television seeing if Gilas fans are still there, intact, supporting the team. I was looking for those face-painted guys and those fellas carrying the huge Philippine flag.

And yeah! They are still there.

See? If my heart was broken last night, how much more those people? They were there from day one - day three, witness every thrills and kills, yet they didn’t stop believing.

Fourth quarter started and the game became more exciting… Nah. Erase that. The game became more breathtaking.

Exchanges of leads, turnovers here and there and I was like, “no fourth quarter break down please”.

As usual, Pinoy’s basketball’s never been the easy one.

And having its second overtime in this FIBA World Cup tourney further elaborates that.

But what best exemplifies it was the sitting out of Andre Blatche because of fouls that put us into an All Filipino line up.

Junmar Fajardo played probably the best game of his life, anchoring the zone defense and finishing baskets on the other hand. 

While Jimmy Alapag, who was dribbling his last National Team’s game sank the most needed freethrows to pull away in the final 45 seconds.

Then, tears started to fall from my eyes specially as I saw the players jumping and shouting, crying in joy as the fans gave them the best applause and sweet screams.

After 40 years of FIBA World drought, this ONE win means a lot.

Although it could have been 4-1 considering all the other games were winnable except against Greece, still this lone win is not a lonely thing.

It’s something that we can be really proud of. Actually a zero won’t give me any reason to be ashamed of, considering our Gilas gave those giants a huge scare.

ONE is greater than FORTY.

This ONE win erased that FORTY years of hunger.

Croatia, Argentina, Greece and Puerto Rico had beaten us, and no one will remember that, years after years. 

BUT Philippines, ALMOST beating those 4 countries plus defeating SENEGAL will be remembered not only by the Filipinos, but also by every basketball fans around the world.

Thank you to all Gilas Players and Coaching Staff. One of the modern Filipino heroes of our times. You gave us again reasons to be proud of, of who we are and what we can do.