fendilim wrote:But why of all people that they can trip, it was specifically Kickert who is known for his anger issues in Australia?
Also, this isnt the first game for the Philippines, they’ve also played against different countries as well, but nothing of this incident. It was only during the time merger of Oceania with Fiba asia that this happened.
Perhaps there have been racial issues, we will never know. But the Philippines have never had any problems with other Asian countries.
I mean, there are 2 sides to a coin. You can choose whatever you believe. Everyone will try to be innocent and say they didnt start it. Obviously what happened in the end was disgraceful etc, but whatever lead to that incident only those inside the court will know. Because no one will admit it, knowing the magnitude this has escalated into and what FIBA will hand down to them.
Obviously the action by the Philippine team should not be tolerated neither was Australia’s. If Australians are trying to be the victim here, then how do you explain the elbow to Pogoy’s face that started the scuffle. There are some Australians at fault and neither have that player apologized for it. Obviously there was an elbow by Pogoy to his defender after the possession stopped, but if the Australians were the good guys here, then shouldnt he have pacified it? Instead he threw an elbow to the face which really escalated the incident.
The tripping incident was already ironed out, team captains were already called by the referees to midcourt to settle their differences before the game.
No one is saying Australia is the good guys. The Australian media has said that Kickert went too far with his reaction but there is a huge difference between that and your whole team (including coaches, bench players & officials) ganging up on defenseless guys who did nothing (Goulding/Sobey). It’s downright criminal watch 8+ guys throw chairs, punch and strangle a player who did nothing wrong.
Kickert deserves 6-8 game suspension. Maker maybe 1-2 (although he was only defending Goulding/Sobey and threw no punches). Thon Maker has apologized for his part in this and the rest of media conferences tomorrow morning.
But the whole Philippine team deserves to be banned from the World Cup and from playing for at a minimum 1 year. Your coach & in particular the assistant who was punching Goulding deserve lifetime bans. Your coach has already been caught out in the timeout saying to put the Australians “on their asses” and also caught out lying.
In Australia, if one of our players does something wrong, we let them know about it. Three of our cricket players were caught “ball tampering” recently. This has happened to South African, England, Pakistan and Indian players and they only received a maximum 2 game ban. Our own governing body gave our players a one year ban. So we’re not afraid to punish our guys when warranted but the PBA is backing their players which is absolutely appalling. I expect harsh penalties from FIBA on the Philippines