Story by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports. Pictures by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.
Filipino fans invaded the court immediately after the match to get closer to their national players for autographs and pictures. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, September 23, 2009 – The Singapore Slingers narrowly missed out on a second win last night in their pre-season Challenge Series, going down 67-70 to Smart Gilas Pilipinas, the Filipino national development team.
It was a heart-stopping match, with the Slingers leading most of the way until half-time before the Smart Gilas team came back with an explosive run in the third period and hung on to their lead till the final seconds. The two teams were evenly matched on court, but the sixth man for the Smart Gilas Pilipinas made their presence felt more convincingly.
Even though the game was held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, it felt as if the Slingers were playing in front of an away crowd. Filipinos thronged the stands on both the East and West sides, cheering vociferously for their team.
Each time Smart Gilas had to run back to defend or push forward to attack, the Filipinos would rally behind their team, shouting "Defence" or rising up on their feet when CJ Giles made his suave dunks.
The Slingers had the advantage of home soil and pre-recorded cheer signals were played regularly to urge the crowd to cheer along. However, these attempts were to little avail and the Slingers supporters were barely heard. To make things worse, the Filipinos cheered even louder for the Smart Gilas towards the end of the game, drowning out the feeble attempts of the home fans.
Where were the Singaporeans? Small groups of local supporters were scattered all over the stadium, overwhelmed by the outward display of passion from the away crowd.
"It's interesting, there are more Filipinos," said a surprised Jabez Su, who was a part of Singapore's Asian Youth Games FIBA 33 Basketball boys team. He was among the minority of Singaporeans present.
Basketball players from Anglican High were also present to catch the exhilarating game. Ting Yi, 16, exclaimed: "We support them! Even though they lost, it's the experience (for the Slingers) that counts." The Slingers had been to their school to conduct a clinic, which prompted the girls to come down for the game even though the O Level examinations are round the corner.
The Slingers are not alone in getting such a lukewarm reception from Singaporeans, even though they are the only professional basketball team here. The S. League, long neglected even by the local mainstream media, sees small paying crowds numbering only in the hundreds, while there were also few fans for Singapore athletes at the recent Asian Youth Games 2009, reflecting little support for the local youth athletes. It seems that we are more concerned with glamour leagues overseas such as the English Premier League and the American National Basketball Association.
Without the support from the home ground, it is hardly surprising that many potential athletes do not get the recognition and much-needed encouragement to take on a sport seriously. (How many full-time athletes can you name?)
Professional basketball is beginning to shape up here with the Slingers. What we lack now is the substantial fan following and coverage for the players.
Perhaps it would be unfair to expect youths and working adults to come down to rally behind our Slingers on a weekday night, or perhaps $8 for a ticket is too much in credit-crunching times. To that, we say: the majority of the games for the upcoming ASEAN Basketball League will be held on Sunday afternoons at 4pm, and given the quality of play we have seen, $8 for the cheapest ticket is a steal.
It will definitely be heart-warming to have more voices and attendance when the League tips off on Sunday, 11 October for the Slingers.
At the end of the game against the Philippines, the Slingers warmed down at one end of the court as they watched the Filipino fans invade the court to take pictures with their national team. Chatting with Michael Wong, Wong Wei Long and Steven Khoo, they all said it felt like they were playing away.
The Slingers next pre-season game will be against the Barangay Ginebra Kings from Philippines next Wednesday, September 30 at 8pm.
Will you make this a true home game for the Slingers?
Filipino supporters jumping to their feet to celebrate the win at the final buzzer. (Photo 2 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
A minority group of Singapore students cheered on the Slingers… (Photo 3 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
… while the Red Sports crew also got behind the Slingers. (Photo 4 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Red Crew Yvonne Yap (left) caught up with national youth ballers Jabez Su (centre) and Russel Low after the game. (Photo 5 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Some Slinger fans also got the chance to chat with ASEAN import Marcus Ng. The great thing for baller fans is that you can come onto the court to say hi to the players and take pics. (Photo 6 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
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On 30 September, I attended the Slingers vs. Ginebra Kings game. It was the third Slingers game I have attended where the Slingers played a team from the Philippines. Once again the Slingers fans were outnumbered 5:1 in their home stadium by the Filipino fans and out-vocalized 10:1. I commend the Filipino people for their sense of national pride and their enthusiastic support for their own home teams. Slingers fans and Singaporeans in general could learn a lot from the Filipinos with respect to how to go out and support the local team. I hope the Slingers fan base will continue to grow and the Slingers fans can truly become the ‘6th Man’ that their team need and deserve. To the Slingers fans, I say, vocalize, vocalize, vocalize. It does matter to your team to know they are supported by the fans.
There was one thing that troubled me though. Before the tip-off, all the fans stood together as one for a minute’s silence to pay respect for the victims of the several recent natural disasters in our region, including and specifically mentioned, those in the Philippines. The announcer then introduced the Ginebra Kings to a wild ovation and I then realized that I was sitting alone in virtually a whole section of Kings fans. So be it. Then when the Slingers were introduced, there was a low-level but distinct booing from the Filipino fans around me. Perhaps they felt it was all good-natured fun, but given the solemnity and sense of unity shown by the Singapore fans in the minute of silence just transpired, it struck me as very wrong. And there were further incidents of booing the Slingers throughout the game. To the Filipino fans, I say, come and cheer and support your team, of course. But save the booing for blown calls and truly bad sportsmanship. Don’t boo the home team just for showing up to play. Singapore is your home, too.
See you all again on Sunday.
Well, you can spot the Red Sports crew – we’re all in Red : ) So if you don’t want to be too lonely, wear red and sit in the South stand seats. Our Red Sports box in in the south section as well.
We’ll come by and say hi. : )
We all can do our part. For us at Red Sports, our part is to write about them and take their pics.
I hope some of you can do your part by coming down to cheer for them.
They won’t get a lot of fans overnight. Nobody does. They’ll have to earn every single fan but hey, win or lose, they are still the Singapore Slingers, they represent our city in the ABL and 7 on that team are fellow Singaporeans.
So even if we lose on court, let’s not have foreigners saying we lose in the stands as well.
Yes, this is an issue of national pride. Why are Singaporeans looking down on our own players and the team? Only when we support can they improve. And they have worked hard enough to deserve the support from the nation. We need to stand by our hometeam this wednesday and keep our pride. Ginebra fans are not going outcheer us.
South stand, fellow Slingers supporters! Here we come!
EVERYONE should be going to support the Slingers, there’s no excuse now, there has never been so many born and bred locals in the team. It’s time to end this ‘bo-chap’ attitude. We have some really decent ballers and they deserve our support. Being outcheered by the away team in our own home ground says a lot about our pride. Everyone has work or school including myself but 2-3 hours once a week won’t hurt, it’s not like we study 24/7. Remember Jack Neo’s quote about “Singapore fishes never open their mouths”? It’s time to change that mentality!
i think aspiring bballers should all go and support sg slingers cos apprntly it is the only pro-team in sg.every young baller hu wanna earn a living gtta start supporting the slingers bcos some of em r gnna grow up 2 b a slinger 1 day.when it is ur turn to turn up for the slingers a decade later,will u want to have no supporters?no right?so yea aspiring ballers.treat your seniors just like how u will wanna b treated in e future.and gd job russell and jabez for making the effot to watch them play.
great pic of dawn! unrestrained joy!
@Jan, *blush*….
Look at how committed Dawn is in photo 4! GO DAWN!
@slingerssssrox Thanks for the correction – might have misheard it that night!
Basketball players from Anglican High were also present to catch the exhilarating game. Ling Yi, 16, exclaimed: “We support them! Even though they lost, it’s the experience (for the Slingers) that counts.â€
it’s Ting Yi i think! dere is no Ling yi in ahs
Anyway les, isn’t he red sports box in the north?
lol, I almost didn’t see this article, put it on headline :D.
Good idea les
“I’ll be there!†for 4 Oct Game.
Yes, I am suggesting that Slinger fans sit together in the South block of seats behind the basket. I think it would be a lot of fun to sit together and shout as a block.
So why don’t you guys wear red, and buy tickets in the south section?
Let’s sit together.
If you’re interested, just put your (nick)name down in this comments section and say “I’ll be there!” and let’s get a crowd together.
“I’ll be there!”
I think Singaporeans are too shy to cheer, and probably we are scattered all over the place. I don’t think we are necessarily smaller in number. Let’s sit together next time. We can definitely outcheer the Pinoy crowd.