By Les Tan/Red Sports. Video by Ian Chew/Red Sports.
You know how when you go to someone’s house, you put on your best behaviour? But if it’s your own place, you do what you like. You put your feet up, dig your nose. Whatever.
When the Singapore Slingers were introduced last Wednesday night, the booing started in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. When the Ginebra Kings were introduced, most of the crowd went crazy.
And this is supposed to be our house.
But, hey, you can’t blame the Filipinos. They support the team they love and they have every right to. They know who they, and they know where they come from.
Do we?
If we don’t support our own boys – and there are seven Singaporeans on the 12-man Slingers roster – nobody else will. And whether or not you like Pathman, Wei Long, Wei Jian, Michael Wong, Steven Khoo, Wai Sian or Desmond Oh is besides the point. Because one day, that player could be YOU.
For all the complaints we Singaporeans make about foreign talents (both in sports and outside sports), when it comes down to it, we don’t collectively step up in enough fan numbers to support Singaporean athletes at actual games. Oh, the bitter irony.
The national netball team played to fairly empty stands at Toa Payoh Sports Hall last year in the 2008 Nations Cup. When the 2009 Netball Super League was on at Jurong West Sports Complex, the stands were filled mostly with friends and parents.
The last near-full house for the Singapore national football team at the National Stadium was in December 2008 while the S.League attendances are poor.
The support at the Asian Youth Games for our local athletes at some of the venues? Embarrassing. You shudder to think about the Youth Olympic Games.
Everyone wants to be supported, but no one wants to do the supporting. It doesn’t work that way.
If we are going to ever have a sports industry in which more Singaporeans can take pride of place as elite athletes, coaches, trainers, physiotherapists, administrators, writers and photographers, then we have to come out and be counted.
The lifeblood of a thriving sports industry is not simply government money. If it is, you and I should ask serious questions because there are other important priorities in health, education and defence. Our government can only build infrastructure and put administrative systems in place but they cannot afford to and should not subsidise sports from cradle to grave.
The lifeblood of a thriving sports industry is commercial sponsors.
Gaping, empty stands suggest to commercial sponsors one simple thing – most Singaporeans don’t care. And if you don’t care, they don’t care. And if they don’t care, they don’t spend.
And what do sports sponsors spend on? They spend big money on the properties like English Premier League and the Formula One grand prix because they assume we care more for foreign talents.
And whatever we say about foreign talents, it’s what we actually do that is more telling.
For example, do you know how much money people on this island are willing to blow on the English Premier League just in subscription fees alone to line the pockets of foreign talents?
$75 million to $105 million.
Every year.
For the last three years.
An estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people subscribe to the Sports Group Package on StarHub cable at $25 per month.
So last Wednesday night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the Filipino fans made it THEIR house because there just weren’t enough of us Singaporeans there.
We were outnumbered.
In our own house.
No surprise then when Mark Caguioa of the Ginebra Kings duly obliged and decided he could get away with his punch on Kyle Jeffers of the Slingers. Just check out how he struts around after his punch on Jeffers in the video while the crowd cheered him on. I doubt a Slinger would be able to get away with that in Philippines. The Filipinos would be insulted, and so they should.
This is our house, people.
Claim it.
Or lose it.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZavNb8d1aM
You can also see pictures of the hit here: Caguioa of Ginebra Kings punches Slinger Jeffers
I totally agree. I find it ridiculous that we lost out in terms of the number of supporters when it was OUR home ground. It must suck A LOT to be the one playing on court ._.
If Samboy Lim or Allan Caidic is still playing and signs up with the Singapore SLingers,
I think every Filipino in Singapore will root for the SLingers against the Patriots.
Some Filipinos are being hypocritical when they don’t want half-breeds.
Even Benjie Paras (2 time PBA MVP) have spoken against the Fil-AMericans. But his father’s surname is Johnson(?). I think he has Australian blood. See the irony.
What Filipinos don’t want are the the off-court attitude of these foreign-bred players.
There’s no such thing as pure-Filipino. One study has it that states more than 50 percent of Filipinos have chinese blood. That’s like 45 million.
PBA Team Alaska cloberred SMART GILAS 74-67.
All of these are preseason games. But I think SMART GILAS can win 4 of 8 games against PBA teams. I think Slingers can also win 4 of 8 games against PBA Teams in real competition.
I doubt GILAS cn beat San Miguel Beermen if San Miguel has Danny Ildefonso (2-time PBA MVP), Chris Calaguio and their best player Danny Seigle. Even if GILAS has Fajardo, AL-hussaini. Not now. but in the future.
@BGKLoyalist Like you clearly shown in your post, your claims are peppered with doubts, how do you know he is not proud of his country? I still see Al chat with many of his Filippino expatriates after games. Even when Wei Jian said Singapore was the “best country in the world” on the 91.3 show, Al was jokingly giving him and the DJ that “are you sure?” look. You mentioned “probably”, “maybe”, maybe times yet you claim that it is a FACT specifically for Al, you seem to be contradicting yourself, gentleman. I won’t say my claim or your claim is right, but making a statement/conclusion like that when something is still doubtful can be rather immature.
I don’t think the slingers can defeat the powerade team at this stage. The powerade team that lost to Gilas had no practices and some of its players were injured. While the gilas team that defeated the slingers didn’t have some of the players that were already present in the trashing of powerade in the charity game. The slingers right now for me are at the level of the top pba teams but not yet near the level of national teams such as powerade and gilas.
well i may be too much emotional saying that Al is a traitor to my country… but many filipino have put their faces back at their true citizenship specially if they are that famous in other countries… or they see that they are more great in a different country so its not my fault if i call Al a “traitor” or what since there is a supporting FACT… and those filipino in singapore are not included in what i call “traitors” since they work for their families here to be fed and put to school for better future… but i wonder if Al is like that… is he still proud of what is his citizenship? just what i said above, its doubtful. he’s famous there so probably no..
@pogi. Thanks for respecting the Slingers team! I do think however that the Slingers would beat the Powerade RP team as they only lost to Smart Gilas by 3 points, while the Powerade RP team was thrashed by smart gilas 90 plus to 60 plus. I do think that our local players are not that lousy and with 4 imports, i would be enough to beat the Powerade team. However, without the 4 imports, it may be hard to say.
@BGKLoyalist..I have to step in say: Please don’t ever call Al Vergara a traitor. Because if you would have say that, probably every other Filipino who went to the game are traitors, in ur definition, because you all are working in Singapore and residing here just like how Al is playing for the Slingers.
Basketball is a passion just like football.During my freshman days at a Philippine University, I was a chosen for the Varsity basketball team and my teammate could have been one of the 25 greats in the PBA. I turned down the offer to play cause I was the eldest in the family who depended on me to finish my studies and chose to concentrate on my studies just most Singaporeans would do.
I am happy with my career now with grown up kids but the thought of what could have been if I chose to play then still lingers on. For young Singaporeans, stir up your passion for sports if you have the chance while young because you will never have a second chance. Working Life careers are there for the long term.
@Les
Heheh.. Gilas is actually a project that is being endorsed by SMART Communications(a subsidiary of PLDT). Its an acronym for Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students, a multi sectoral project by SMART. It is also a wordplay which means “Skills” in tagalog.
SMART is the main sponsor of the national team. The SMART Gilas Developmental team is a 3 year program by the local NSA to build a national team that will play for all future FIBA-sanction tournaments under the guidance of former Iran NT team coach Toroman. The NT will no longer rely on the PBA for players, but will chose from collegiate ranks. I guess you saw them play and you can observe that their system is a lot different compared to the PBA teams.
As for your other question, they are hesitant in exercising this right because there have been a number of cases of foreign blood players whose Filipino citizenship had been in questioned. Meaning they are not really half-breeds but a pure foreign national pretending to have Filipino lineage. There have been won games that were forfeited in the past because of this. But aside from that, there are also teams who would prefer to give the opportunity to local players first before hiring mixed blood. Or cases wherein the player is really not that good and just all hype.
Just to let you know there have been a lot of cases of half breeds who tried out of the PBA only to be rejected. Either they were not that good or their citizenship is in question
@pogi: Thanks for enlightening me, Pogi. That was certainly very helpful. I’ll remember it’s “Smart, skillful Filipinos” and not “Smart, crazy Filipinos” ; )
Interesting that the NSA outsourced to a private sector company but frankly, that’s the way to go because most NSAs, as say in Singapore, cannot make it. They do not have the manpower, skill or budget to pull it off.
I appreciate the athletic ability of your NT development team. They played different from the PBA team. They were strong and athletic and played clean, good ball without the strutting. Liked their style.
Sorry to hear of Fil-Ams with questionable backgrounds.
@Les
The PBA has a rule on hiring of mixed bloods. Each team is only allowed to recruit up to 5 mixed blood players. And those half-breeds must have played at least 20 games in other local leagues (like PBL, La Liga) before they can enlist for the PBA draft. But there are also exemptions in cases wherein the mixed blood player is signed up for the National Team. Although this has never happen before since the PBA, who was sanctioned to form the NT before the local NSA transferred the control to SMART Gilas, always selects players within its ranks.
But not all teams maximized their rights. Teams like Air21, Sta Lucia are hesitant in exercising this rule, and will only allow if the management and coach feel is necessary. San Miguel, and BGK are moderate.. While teams like Alaska has used this rule to its fullest.
@pogi: Ah, thanks for the explanation.
I have more questions!
What is SMART Gilas? Is it a private company? Gilas is a Malay word for “crazy” and so every time I read it I think of very clever, but crazy Filipinos. : )
And why are the PBA teams hesitant about exercising their right to have up to 5 Fil-Ams? Local sentiment prevents it?
So many people think its a national team. It’s like saying Man Utd/Liverpool is the England team. Where’s the general knowledge people? It’s a club thing, this is ABL, not SEAB
why BGK have this huge fan support… BGK line up have a full filipino line up. unlike singapore, which have 7 PURE singaporean, few americans and 1 traitor filipino… try playing with 100% singaporean and you will get your much needed fan support. but for now… i’m not convinced that you can beat gilas with a huge point… beat a 100% filipino with 100% singaporean… and we will have a good match… and i agree with pogi… most line upe of other asian league have filipino in it… basically, even we, filipinos may not excel at basketball sports, those who get into the top with the help of filipinos have placed the philippines higher than the top
@BGKLoyalist: To call Al Vergara a traitor shows how liitle you understand of the ABL set up. It’s NOT the national teams that are playing. It’s professional basketball teams. What are you blabbering on about? And nobody here ever said Singaporeans are better than the Filipinos in bball at national level. We’re saying we have good enough players to match the Filipinos if only we played as regularly as you guys do in the PBA. Now with the ABL, we have half a chance.
@Gordon,
The problem with the Patriots is that they are competing with the PBA, PBL (semi-pro league), La Liga(like an NBA D League) and the SMART Gilas Development team in the recruitment of top players. And since this is a new team participating in a new league, most players will most likely make the patriots they’re last option.
Most of the players there are journeyman, practice players, and those that were not chosen in the last PBA Draft. But there is one player there (Ogie Menor) who shows promise. He was drafted by a PBA team, but due to the team’s financial troubles, he didnt get signed.
@Les,
They have dual nationality and therefore possess more than 1 passport. Phil allows that. I dont think Singapore is the same though.. because you have to give up your natural citizenship if you want to be a Singaporean. Am I right??
@pogi: Thanks for filling me in on the dual citizenship issue. Yes, Singapore doesn’t allow dual citizenship. How many good sportsmen have been lost as a result? Who knows. I’m sure there are quite a few. So how many Fil-Ams play in each PBA team on average?
By the way, the term “half-breed” is such a terrible term to use. I only use it with reference to dogs! “Mixed parentage” is such a more dignified term.
@pogi They’re that bad? Most teams have imports, especially Brunei (starting lineup of Filippinoes + Americans), we won’t know how they fare until the teams play, right?
@slingerrocks,
Look, Dont think that I am disrespecting your team, I think you have a very good team in the Slingers. And I respect the fact that basketball is starting to get notice there. I think you have potential, and this ABL, will definitely be helpful in closing the gap between the Philippines against its SEA neighbors.
Coach Arsego is a smart coach, you have a 2 skilled imports in Jeffers and LeBlanc, have a very effective system (both offense and defense), you have local players who understand their role with the team, a very good team chemistry. I see the Slingers winning the ABL. Your toughest competition I think would be the Indonesian. You dont have to worry about the Patriots. I saw they’re lineup, and it kinda sucked.
@slingerrocks
I am sure you are right about the mixed bloods. It not only increase the level of competition in the Phil but also throughout Asia including Singapore.
But you have to realize that even before the hiring of mixed blood and naturalization for a NT became a norm in Asia, the Philippines, when it sends its best pure local players from the PBA, has been consistently placed in the top 3-4 teams(China, Korea, Japan, Philippines) in the Asian Games, and FIBA Championships. The Middle East teams were not even in the scene then. This is a fact and is no excuse.
And I didnt say that the Philippines is the best team in Asia. But they are rank among the top teams. Please read my post again.
And in regards to the Powerade team, I would admit that they kinda sucked. They are poorly coached and does not employ a system that is fit for international games. But they would have definitely trashed your Slingers. If they can beat the national teams from Taipe, Japan, and Kuwait, and be competitive against Iran, Jordan, and Korea, then its not illogical to think that they cant beat a club team like the Singapore Slingers (even with 4 imports).
Lastly, Giles is a naturalized player for the Philippines. So you have to deal with the fact that he will be playing for Smart Gilas since this is not against the FIBA rules. I mean I can also say that if it wasnt for the 4 imports in your lineup, then Slingers will be nothing more than your typical national team.
@po Now now, I respect the Philippino players but the Slingers do not have 8 imports, in fact, we have 8 local players (1 developmental). Giles is a naturalized player, not a fil-american. He came to the Smart Gilas after he could not make the first team in the NBA, he felt more appreciated in the Philippines.