No Losses Just Lessons

"Kasalanan ng coach" 

"Ang pangit ng rotation" 

"Walang chemistry" 

"Parang ang tamlay ng players" 

"Walang puso maglaro" 

"Kulang kasi sila sa big man e"

Throw in all the reasons you can think of. Point your fingers at every person you think should be blamed: the head coach, the coaching staff, the team captain, the players, the refs and even the water boy, if you want. 

Reasons, reasons, reasons, I've heard enough of those reasons. 

I'm no basketball or sports analyst. I'm just a fan. Wait, hold up. Some people might say 'Just a fan?' Fine, I'm a die-hard fan.  

A fan. An enthusiastic devotee of sports, an ardent follower and admirer.

I'm not gonna throw in stats or even my own point-of-view. Cause clearly, they've said it all. We're not critics. Well, if you are, by all means, please talk, we're all ears. But from a fan's point-of-view, I have nothing to say about how they played and how they should have played. Sure, I was dismayed. I'd be a hypocrite if I said I wasn't disappointed. But I'm no critic. My job, as a fan, is to keep on cheering for my team. Let's not forget the meaning of the word fan, an ardent follower and admirer. Besides, what's the use of my 'Never Say Die' spirit if I don't show it, if I leave my team just because they had a 4-game losing streak? 

I only have 4 words for our team: 

I know what you're gonna say "They've already been through three losses before this, haven't they learned from that 3-game losing streak?" I share your sentiments on that but why don't you give them time? Do you think it's easy for a kid to write his/her name right away? Of course not, he/she had to have many mistakes of writing a as e or jumbling the letters. But in the end, he/she learned what was wrong and corrected it, heck, perfected it even. And besides, you heard it from Jayjay Helterbrand himself, they're still in the transition phase. They're still in the process of shifting gears and giving the floor to the young guns to create the new era of Ginebra. They're in the process of perfecting the team, like what my favorite Chinese proverb says, “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” That suits this topic well. (Pat on the back for me and for whoever said that lol)

Yeah, there are problems. Obviously there are, we wouldn't have lost 4 straight games if there was none. You're free to point it out, but it's not ours to solve. We're fans, we're allowed to give our opinions and give suggestions, if you may. But I don't get those fans who go berserk on social media about how the team played and how the coach was doing it wrong. Don't you think you're just adding insult to injury? Like what I said on my twitter account, "In the end,we'll never know the real reason. Only the team will know and will be able to solve the problem. We can only show our support."

Sidenote: I'd like to commend those people who stuck through the final buzzer and cheered the ever-famous GI-NEB-RA chant like we were winning. Because that's what we do, we keep them alive, we keep them fighting. We are their fuel. And at that time, we were their oxygen. The oxygen that they needed for them to combust and explode. It just so happened that that night, the oxygen wasn't enough. I encourage everyone to watch their upcoming games, they need us now more than ever. Never get tired of cheering for them. Tweet them encouraging words. You may give them your insights about how they played but don't even think of putting them down. I've seen players who tweet about blaming themselves and putting the loss on their shoulders, when in fact, they were the reason why their team even had a fighting chance.  

Yeah, we lost the past 4 games but we have more games to come. Remember fall seven times, stand up eight? Same rule applies to this. 

Yeah, we lost but that's life. Call it unfair, but things happen for reasons only God knows why. Deal with it. Learn and move on. Pray that things will get better. Our best weapon now is neither The Gineral nor The Spark, it's prayer. There's nowhere to go but up and there's no other direction but forward. 

Bottom line: NEVER. SAY. DIE. 

Laters,

G