They provided the spunk and passion necessary to reclaim the gold medal.
A total of eight Gilas Pilipinas players made their Southeast Asian (SEA) Games debut in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Mason Amos, Arvin Tolentino, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, Justin Brownlee, Jerom Lastimosa, Calvin Oftana, and Mike Phillips.
The team had less than two months to prepare. And the task was to regain SEA Games gold while facing squads that fielded multiple naturalized players. The pressure must’ve been immense, especially for the new recruits.
But guess what, they rose to the occasion, and the mission was completed. Tasting the sweet taste of victory in the regional competition for the first time, some of the biennial meet rookies expressed their elation through Instagram.
For BGR, the team's breakout center, the gold medal meant extra special, considering he had to settle for bronze as a member of the Gilas 3x3 team that played in Hanoi last year.
"I'm a gold medalist," he wrote.
Amos kept it simple. Winning his first medal as a member of the Gilas men’s team, the 18-year-old plainly said who Gilas is for the next two years: The champs.
Motor Mike and the De La Salle University Green Archers may have missed the Final Four in Season 85 of the UAAP, but look at the 6-foot-8 big man now.
TNT Tropang Giga swingman Calvin Oftana, who suffered a calf injury in the tourney, walked around the Cambodian airport with Lastimosa, making sure everybody noticed that they are the gold medalists.
Similar to Phillips, Lastimosa has yet to win it all in the UAAP. In the SEA Games, however, the Adamson Soaring Falcons ace proved that he is a winner, showing that he is a worthy point guard next to the country's GOAT reinforcement.
That GOAT, Brownlee, has been having the time of this life in the Philippines in the last few years. But the SEA Games gold tops all of his other milestones, he said.
All these guys went hard on the linoleum floor of the Morodok Techo National Stadium. Brownlee and Ganuelas-Rosser were the ones who really stood out. They did their thing and gave it their all, sacrificing their bodies for the W. Lastimosa, meanwhile, showed glimpses of how great he could be for Gilas in the future.
Their case to make the national team’s roster in future tournaments has definitely become stronger after their stint in Cambodia.
(GM)