Late Post: Are You Ready?

The Philippines will begin its campaign for the FIBA World Cup on August 30, our first opponent will be Croatia. In all likelihood,  Croatia is ready but I believe our team is also ready, the question is "Are you ready?". How will you cheer for Gilas? What kind of Gilas fan will you be? Will you be the GV type of fan? Yung tipong all Good Vibes. If we win, okay. If we lose, okay din basta no one gets injured and you're happy we are in the World Cup because we are just one of the 24 teams in the World Cup. Or you will be the NEGATRON of the group. Like you'd surely criticize someone. Win or lose, you need someone to blame. Its that player's fault. The coach should have done this. Bakit pa tayo sumali dyan? Nega, nega, nega. Or are you somewhere in between? Sometimes its going to feel right to spread good vibes, its our first time back in the World Cup, understandable naman if manibago yung players. Understandable naman kung magulat tayo with the opposition. We don't go to the World Cup everytime, so if we lose games, you'll say "Chillax, mabuti nga kasali tayo e. We'll get them next time.". On the other hand, what if next time never happen? I mean there are no guarantees in sports. What if we don't make it to the next World Cup? What if this was our best shot? So we want the team to go all out, you want a now-or-never mentality, c'mon we can't afford to raise stakes, your belief will grow stronger if we win, but you'll be devastated if we lose.

Or maybe, we're all just guessing. Most of us belongs to a generation that is clueless about the World Cup. Sure, we've watched it before but never under the current circumstances. Yung may Philippines na kasali, yung may team ka in the tournament. Something real and something valuable and something that matters are at stake. My guess is we'll be different type of Gilas fans for different types of Gilas moments. We will smile, we will laugh, we will curse or  for sure, mapapamura tayo sa galit o sa tuwa. Sana madalas yung sa tuwa. We might cry when we lose a game, but we might cry even harder when we win a game. I can't suggest that there's only one way to cheer for Gilas in the same way, I can't demand Gilas to play perfect basketball all the time. We are not team USA. As fans, our expectations are not just different, they are diverse. Some believe we can shock the world, others hope we don't shock ourselves. But I believe our team is more ready than we are. I believe they are more ready than I am. And that's the way it should be. They lead, we follow. They lead, I follow. And unless, you are always Mr. or Ms. GV, or Mr. or Ms. Negatron, you won't know how to feel, until the moments happen.

Am I ready for the FIBA World Cup? No, I'm not. I don't know if I will curse more often than I cheer, I don't know if we'll be embracing each other when all of these are over. Hindi ko talaga alam kung anong mangyayari. But, is Gilas ready? I believe they are. And at this point, their readiness is all that matters. JMP