After Smart-Gilas’ quarterfinal win against Chinese-Taipei, people tried to trend #nung1987 on Twitter.
This
is an example.
Yeah.
1987
was the last time Team Pilipinas reached
the semifinals of the FIBA-Asia
Championship (then called ABC).
While younger generations will have a problem recalling who Joey Guanio and Jojo Villapando are, Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera, Nelson
Asaytono, Ronnie Magsanoc, Jojo Lastimosa, Dindo Pumaren, Bong Alvarez, and
Benjie Paras are future Hall of Famers. Completing the cast are Zaldy Realubit and Glenn Capacio who
went on to have long careers highlighted with numerous titles. Their coach is
the legendary Joe Lipa.
While the
current generation have forgotten the exploits of the “Golden Bronze” campaign of 1987, this image I saw lurking on the
web will be as timely as ever. The Philippines will face Jordan for the chance
to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.
The last time the country qualified was at Munich in 1972. While the games were
highlighted by the feats of Mark Spitz
and the tragic murders of the Israeli athletes, for us this was our swan song.
That
was 39 years ago.
This is
now.
GO
GILAS!
Game
over!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment