WHAT’S wrong with China? There definitely was something wrong with the way the People’s Republic of China squad performed in the 27th FIBA Asia Championship in Manila.
The Chinese played sub-par ball for most of the 11-day tournament, quickly surrendering the title they regained in 2011 in Wuhan, China with a close 70-69 win over Jordan in the finals after being beaten badly by their blood brothers from Chinese Taipei, 96-78, in the knockout quarterfinal phase despite a 10-point (50-40) advantage at halftime.
It was the second straight time in the biennial competitions that the reigning titlist was taken out in the crucial quarterfinals. In 2011, Iran, the FIBA Asia king in 2007 and 2009, suffered its only defeat with a shocking 88-84 reversal at the hands of Jordan.
The Mainlanders eventually ranked fifth in the tournament following a 96-85 win over Qatar in a consolation game last night. After its dethronement by the Taiwanese, a listless Chinese team survived a scare before edging out Jordan, 79-76, in the opener of the classification round for fifth to eighth places.
With three losses (vs. South Korea, Iran and Chinese-Taipei) in nine assignments, China failed to secure one of the three automatic tickets available in the biennial FIBA Asia Championship that will qualify it to the FIBA World Cup (formerly known as the World Basketball Championship) in Madrid, Spain next year.
Additionally, China is likely to slip by several notches from its current 11th position in the FIBA world rankings following their poor performance in the Asian tourney.
Perhaps China may yet enter the 24-nation Madrid World Cup since a pre-WC tournament will be held also some time next year to determine the four wildcard berths.
Top non-qualifiers from the four FIBA continental tournaments (Asia, Africa, Americas and Europe – Oceania has two outright WC berths and Australia and New Zealand have already clinched them) will be issued invitations.
The fourth-placer from FIBA Asia Championship will definitely be there and even the fifth- and sixth-placers may be invited. The FIBA, though, is prohibited from selecting more than three teams from the same continental zone.
What went wrong with pre-tournament title favorite China in the FIBA Asia Championship? Everything from the get-go did not seem right.
Even before the games commenced, the team got a major jolt when the Chinese basketball federation overruled debuting national team coach Panagiotis Giannakis by insisting that he insert three players from his original roster, including 7-foot, 36-year-old veteran Wang Zhizhi, in place of another trio that included two-time Olympic veteran playmaker and former Sacramento Kings hopeful Liu Wei (who was here in Manila last May for the PH-China Goodwill Games but failed to suit in any of the two exhibition games allegedly due to a bum stomach).
Out went whatever stability and chemistry that the Greek-born Giannakis was trying to install. With the Chinese federation’s interference, Giannakis became a lameduck coach. His stoic demeanor could not inspire leadership. I don’t think he even earned the respect of the players.
Four years ago (2009) in Tianjin, China, dissension also rocked the Chinese national team as the players were divided and bickered over their Chinese coach whom they accused of favoritism.
The end result was a humiliating 70-52 loss to Iran in the finals before a stunned home crowd. Months later, the coach was unceremoniously dismissed.
Will Giannakis follow suit even if he is only in the first year of a three-year deal? Misfortunes struck China early in the FIBA Asia Championship.
The deposed champion lost to South Korea, 63-59, in the tournament opener and their NBA veteran Yi Jianlian apparently suffered an injury.
But was the injury serious enough for the 2011 FIBA Asia Most Valuable Player to miss the next five games, including a prelim 70-51 loss against Iran that China did not look to win at all?
Even when Yi returned to action against Chinese-Taipei, the morale of the team had already taken a hit. How did one feel when your meal ticket would rather be in street clothes perhaps feigning an injury – or the coach apparently saving his best player only for the important games – while the rest went to battle?
In the end, the Chinese’s lack of cohesiveness took their toll. Meanwhile, unbeaten Islamic Republic of Iran and the Philippines faced each other last night in the finals of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Chinese Taipei battled South Korea in the bronze medal game that also rewards the winner with an automatic berth to the 2014 Madrid World Cup along with Iran and the Philippines.
During the semifinals, Iran stretched its winning streak to eight games (with no defeat) after outclassing Chinese-Taipei, 79-60, and the Philippines avenged its bronze-medal loss to South Korea two years ago in Wuhan with an awe-inspiring 86-79 victory over the same team.
The Philippines thus qualified for the World Basketball Championship (or FIBA World Cup) for the first time since the country hosted the event in 1978 and quickly dropped all its eight assignments with an amateur cast.
Next to our lion-hearted players, hoop fans have a lot to thank Qatar for when it upset Chinese-Taipei, 71-68, in a second-round encounter that changed the roadmap to the Filipino cagers’ date with history.
(If the Qataris had not beaten the Taiwanese, our boys would have had to face China in the quarterfinals and most likely triumphed over the Mainlanders but they would have drawn a tough semifinal opponent foe in Iran.) Laban Pilipinas!