A relatively obscure international basketball match made international headlines after the wild scenes of the Australia v Philippines BasketBrawl as it has been dubbed.
There hasn’t been an on field dust up like it for a while. Especially not in Basketball. And especially in comparison to some of the antics at the Football World Cup that cause players to roll around in agony.
To discuss everything we can think of relating to the game, we offer up our semi regular Five Lessons or Questions for your amusement.
So here’s what we learned or now question after the Australia v Philippines BasketBrawl .
DESPITE THE OUTRAGE, IT DID MAKE BASKETBALL MORE INTERESTING….
When you get the line “Did you see what happened with the Australian Basketball team last night?” being asked early in the morning, you know full well it was either going to be really bad, or that someone nailed the sweetest shot from the other end of the court with tenths of seconds to spare.
Sadly, it was the former, and the scenes were indeed shocking, more like a beat down in the Pit from the first series of The Wire than international Basketball, and like The Wire, the beating mainly one sided. Although neither side was blameless.
We admit there is something wrong with us, but the first thought was, geez, at least that makes the sport a little more interesting. Not being regulars to the game, we are easily distracted by the second or fourth time out. So watching the Australia v Philippines BasketBrawl it dawned that it was the first time we’ve seen a Boomers game since the Olympics, and doubled our NBL TV watch time.
Maybe not quite to the same degree as the Australia v Philippines BasketBrawl, but there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of hate in sport.
IF THIS IS JUST A QUALIFIER, THEN THE WORLD CUP IN THE PHILIPPINES IN 2023 WILL BE INTERESTING….
If the Philippines are this fired up for a preliminary qualifier for a Basketball World Cup they aren’t even hosting, and they drew a crowd only Australia could dream of in the highest of drug stupors, can you imagine when they host the whole thing in 2023.
The worst part of the Australia v Philippines BasketBrawl was the fact that officials got involved, and with chairs. Officials should never get involved, and it does put into question if the same people will be able to cope with the pressure of hosting all of the teams. Although, you could probably guarantee after their performance, that not many players from other countries will misbehave.
Or perhaps they won’t get to host it after all. Which is one of the potential punishments we guess. Hope not, as with a few more years of gentle simmer, that the 2023 Basketball World Cup will be worth of look more than usual.
COULD UFC GET ON BOARD AND DEVISE A HYBRID GAME?
Given both sports popularity around the world, both being played in comparably small arenas, couldn’t the boffins at UFC devise a game that combines slam dunks and slamming opponents all in one.
Basketbrawl, as we are now officially calling it, could be a boon for those who would love to play Basketball but aren’t quite tall enough, or those UFC wannabes that aren’t quite insane enough to be assaulted in the cage. Surely there’s a way to accommodate both groups of people, plus those in between willing to give BasketBrawl a try.
Of course it must be played in a cage, in case you were asking.
IS IT JEFF HORN’S FAULT FOR BEATING MANNY PACQUIAO?
Have the people of the Philippines ever forgotten about Jeff Horn aka The Hornet aka The Fighting Primary School Teacher’s win over their hero Manny Pacquiao? Perhaps the on court battle was caused by memories of the Australian’s big win at Suncorp Stadium.
WOULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED IF LEROY LOGGINS WAS MORE INVOLVED WITH THE NATIONAL TEAM?
No.
In our opinion, despite having retired a long time ago, there is not enough Leapin’ Leroy Loggins in the sporting news.
And everyone loved Leroy Loggins. Who could start a fight with the big man nearby.
