Australia v Philippines basketbrawl: Someone could have been killed
SHOCKING scenes from the wild brawl involving Australia and the Philippines’ national teams has brought shame on basketball but could have easily ended in tragedy, writes Reece Homfray. See the video and make up your own mind.
SOMEBODY could have been killed at the Philippine Arena on Monday night, over a basketball game.
Shocking scenes from the wild brawl involving Australia and the Philippines’ national teams has brought shame on the sport but could have easily ended in tragedy.
From the moment Chris Goulding hit the floor after heavy contact from his opponent in the key, players from both sides lost their minds in what can only be described as anarchy.
Daniel Kickert’s reaction to Goulding being put down was to strike his opponent in the head but the game, and sport around the world, has survived plenty of incidents as serious as this with varying degrees of wrestling and remonstrating.
But this time all hell broke loose. Filipino players, clearly frustrated by falling 30 points down to the Boomers in front of an enormous and vocal home crowd, took the game to a dark place with scenes that will never be forgotten.
It wasn’t just the players but officials from the Philippines who were involved in the sickening violence.
For a few terrifying minutes the referees lost total control and it’s a miracle the agitated crowd did not invade the court in which case the game would have ended in total disaster.
Players were chased, kicked, punched and set upon without looking.
There were coward punches, chairs were thrown and the most terrifying of the lot was a photo showing Adelaide 36ers star Nathan Sobey being punched in the head as he was looking the other way — by a man who appeared to be an out of control man in Filipino team uniform with what appeared to be official accreditation around his neck.
Sobey was also hit by a chair that was thrown at him and Goulding was mobbed by what looked like a bloodthirsty mob on a wild street.
The vision of emerging Australian NBA star Thon Maker running at his opponents and fly-kicking them showed the state of panic that had swept over the players, while in the aftermath NBA championship player Matthew Dellavedova looked completely stunned by what had just happened.
But the sad and farcical situation continued even after the fight had stopped when players and officials from the Philippines posed for a selfie as if it was some sort of moment worth capturing to brag about later on.
Then the referees deliberated over the vision for over 30 minutes before deciding the game would go on even after ejecting 13 players including four Australians.
Perhaps they thought continuing the game after the only players that were left had shook hands was the only way to calm a crowd that could have erupted if it was abandoned. But it was a bizarre and ultimately fruitless decision because the Philippines played with only three men and quickly fouled out.
Basketball Australia front office acted swiftly last night by releasing a statement that said it deeply regretted the incident and the team’s involvement in it.
But the fallout is still to come. There will be sanctions and fines but there may also be some psychological scars for people — especially children — who witnessed the frightening scenes and there will be a stain on the sport and the two nations for a long time to come.
But considering the extent of the violence, both teams really should think themselves lucky that no one was more seriously injured or even killed.
Because one punch is all it takes and while last night was bad, how would the game’s image ever recover from that?