This is a great sacrifice, at least for some of the players.
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel point guard LA Tenorio is part of arguably the most successful Gilas Pilipinas core ever. That core helped Gilas break the so-called course of Korea in 2013 to qualify for the 2014 FIBA World Cup, where the national team put the fear of God on Croatia and Puerto Rico in close losses before beating Senegal.
So, it is safe to say that Tenorio knows a thing or two on how a national team can attain some level of success in the world stage. And, if he would get his way, he would like this current Gilas iteration to do something the 2013–2014 Gilas teams did: Get off social media.
“We agreed na we cannot read social media,” Tenorio said on Playitright TV. “Nag-start kami mag-prepare, and especially nung training proper, we cannot read social media. And we were all disciplined… We made a decision. We had that rule, in every competition that we did before the World Cup in Spain, every tournament. As soon as we started the preparation and played in a tournament, we cannot read social media.”
And, apparently, it worked, according to the Gilas long-timer.
“Nakatulong siya kasi we were focused,” Tenorio added. “Hindi naman sa pagmamayabang, but we had a good run. One thing na pwede ko i-suggest sa kanila is do that. There’s too much noise outside and you cannot really focus because now, it is a social media world. But [they should] try.
That might be easier said than done because as Tenorio pointed out, this is a social media world, and several of the players in the Gilas pool—Thirdy and Kiefer Ravena, for example, as well as Dwight Ramos and Bobby Ray Parks Jr.—are actually active on social media. Even coach Chot Reyes is a fixture on Instagram, while assistant coach Tim Cone has Twitter.
But if Gilas really wants to do well in the FIBA World Cup two weeks from now, everyone must be willing to do whatever it takes—including saying goodbye to social media for just a few weeks.