HE was the Philippines’ top stats-padding naturalized player in the country’s first-ever last-place ranking (at 0-5 with a minus 147-point differential or a 29.4-point losing margin per game) during the 32-nation 18th FIBA World Cup competitions in China.
But at age 33, Andray Blatche is a goner, coming into the China overweight and in terrible shape.
The former NBA frontliner could not run well like the athletic naturalized players of other countries and, as usual, was in love with playing from the outside despite his 6-11 frame.
Yes, he topped the Filipinos in scoring (15.8 ppg), rebounding (8.4 rpg) and assists (3.4 apg) all right. But those numbers pale in comparison to his 2014 World Cup performance in Spain when he normed 21.2 points (tied for third in tournament) and topped all players with 13.8 boards an outing in a 1-4 effort by our boys.
Yes, you were problematic in China. And we understand that. A sound advice: Take a leave to resolve your personal problems but do not bring down Philippine basketball with you.
If it’s any consolation, C.J. Perez, a rookie in international play, came off the pines to average 12.6 points in nearly 20 minutes of service – the only player outside of Blatche to norm in twin digits in scoring.
A homegrown Filipino born in Hog Kong, Perez went 15, 16 and 17 points in his first three appearances in first-round play and was the only player on the team to make at least half of his field goal attempts at 54 percent.
How bad was our shooting? Only five men shot at least .400.
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Oh-for-5 and expectedly, two of the five largest losing margins in the recent WC event belonged to the Philippines.
The Filipinos posted the worst defeat in the games, being shellacked by Serbia, 126-67, in their second assignment last September 2 for a 59-point differential.
Canada beat Jordan, 126-71 (55), in Classification Round (17th to 32nd places) action last September 7. Lithuania walloped Senegal, 101-47 (54), in first-round play on September 1.
The dethroned back-to-back gold medalist United States crushed Japan, 98-45 (53), in preliminary-round play last September 5.
The Philippines fell to Italy, 108-62, in its debut, a 46-point margin that was matched by Serbia in a 105-59 rout of Senegal in opening-day mismatches (August 31).
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The 18th FIBA World Cup in China came to an end last Sunday with Spain being crowned the gold medalist with an unblemished 8-0 record.
Deservedly so, the Spaniards made life hard for Argentina in their 95-75 victory in the finals with their suffocating defense and six skillful players with NBA experience.
Spain, which copped its first WC gold in Saitama, Japan in 2006 when the quadrennial global attraction was still called the World Basketball Championship, was bannered by tournament Most Valuable Player Ricky Rubio of the Phoenix Suns, revitalized 7-1 center Marc Gasol of the reigning NBA titlist Toronto Raptors, brothers Willy and Juancho Hernangomez of the Charlotte Hornets and Denver Nuggets, respectively; and a couple of ex-NBA players in Rudy Fernandez (2008-11 Portland/2011-12 Denver) and Victor Claver (2012-15 Porland).
Fernandez and Gasol were also members of the 2006 gold medal-winning squad that was headed by Marc’s elder brother, 39-year-old Pau, who earned tournament MVP honors that year.
Notwithstanding the successful staging of the 18th FIBA World Cup, there were a few controversies centering on alleged bias officiating and scheduling woes that resulted in quite a number of non-appearances by NBA players from different countries, including the dethroned United States team.
Officiating was troublesome for Australia, Greece, Lithuania and France.
At the halftime buzzer of the bronze-medal game, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert of France confronted Filipino referee Bong Pascual over a non-foul call.
The Boomers were ahead, 30-21, at the break but the Les Bleus eventually pulled off a 67-59 victory to hand France its second straight bronze in the World Cup competitions.
In the 2014 edition in Spain, France edged Lithuania, 95-93, in the third-place duel.
Before that, it was Australia that had complained about officiating in the Boomers’ 95-88 overtime loss to Spain in the semifinals.
Aussies assistant coach Luc Longley, the first Aussie ever to earn an NBA title ring in 1996 and was the starting center for the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls units that registered an NBA title “three-peat” from 1996-98, was critical of the FIBA because of the perceived bias officiating against his team. He said: “I don’t know what we’ve gotta do. We’ve gotta find an altar somewhere and burn a sacrifice or do something for the basketball gods because they’re not kissing us on the dick yet, like they do Spain.
“Spain gets kissed on the dick by the basketball gods every time we play them.”
Australia also lost to Spain, 89-88, during the men’s basketball bronze-medal game in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Aussies star Andrew Bogut also took a potshot at the FIBA.
Bogut, a 7-foot, 34-year-old center who won an NBA title with Golden State in 2015 and was the MVP in the Australia’s National Basketball League this past season while leading the Sydney Kings to the championship, told the tournament reporters after the semifinal defeat: “Cheating ass motherfu …ers. Google where the headquarters of fu….g FIBA is. It’s a fuc… g disgrace.”
Bogut was insinuating that FIBA, which has been based in Mies, Switzerland since 2013, was favoring European teams in its international events.
The FIBA is now looking to suspend Bogut for his verbal attacks against the 87-year organization.
Much earlier, Greece and Lithuania also complained about the alleged poor officiating in their games.
Lithuania was upset that no goaltending was called against Gobert in the dying seconds of France’s 78-75 second-round win over Lithuania that eliminated the Lithuanians from the Final 8. At the time, France was ahead, 76-75.
The missed call spurred the FIBA to suspend the referees in that game.
Greece sought the ban of the referees – and those officials who selected them – following its 84-77 win over the Czech Republic in second-round action that also eliminated it from quarterfinal contention (the Greeks needed to win by a dozen points or more to qualify). The Greece coach said reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokuonmpo was the victim of a lack of respect” when the refs whistled the Milwaukee Bucks star for a questionable, disqualifying fifth foul midway through the fourth quarter.
The Greeks were to write to FIBA seeking a ban on the three referees and also those people that nominated the trio to officiate in that game.
Pascual was one of three whistletooters in several USA games, including the Americans’ 89-79 quarterfinal loss to France that broke a 58-game winning streak by the Star Spangled Banner team in international competitions while employing NBA players.
All in all, the 49-year-old Pascual reffed in eight games during the 18th FIBA World Cup.
The recent FIBA World Cup was decimated by a lot of withdrawals by topnotch NBA players, notably on Team USA but also including other countries.
The move by the FIBA to hold the World Cup in an odd year just before the Summer Olympics was to be blamed, according to many hoop observers.
“The FIBA calendar proved to be wrong in any competition they have organized,” said EuroLeague chief executive officer Jordi Bertomeu. “From the national team windows in the middle of the season ’til organizing the World Cup one year before the Olympics. The logic says to return to World Cup to even years.”
This marks the first time that the World Cup and the Olympics are being staged in consecutive offseasons since 1967 (WC in Montevideo, Uruguay) and 1968 (Mexico Olympics).
The new international schedule presents a challenge to many players with injury or personal concerns that offseason rest or vacation is becoming the better option.