President Rodrigo Duterte has personally witnessed his prescient warning turning into reality as Gilas Pilipinas was beaten black and blue by Italy, 62-108, at the start of the 2019 FIBA World Cup on Saturday night.
Duterte arrived an hour before the game in Foshan, China with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.
To recall, Duterte said earlier in August before a meeting with Filipino-Chinese businessmen in Malacañang: “Wala, talo tayo, walang laban. Sa China na lang tayo magpusta. We will lose sa Italy.”
(We will lose. We don’t have a chance. Let’s just bet on China. We will lose to Italy.)
Though he had said that Gilas won’t stand a chance against the taller Italians, Duterte still expressed his support for the Filipino cagers when he gave the team a pre-game pep talk.
“We are here to give you the spirit to fight. We can do this. It’s never too late to dream. And we’ll all be praying for your victory. I’m here for you guys. Give your best. I’m all for you guys,” said Duterte in the televised match.
However, those encouraging words from the President hardly mattered as Gilas faltered right from the get go as the Italians raced to an early 37-8 lead.
It didn’t help that Gilas started the game on a 0-for-7 shooting from the three-point territory.
It was all Italy the rest of the way as it was never threatened after closing the first half with a huge 62-24 lead.
Luigi Datome led the Italians with 17 points, while NBA stars Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli added 16 and nine markers, respectively.
Andray Blatches and CJ Perez scored 15 points apiece for Gilas, which only made three triples in 23 attempts.
Photo credit: Sen. Bong Go
