Last night’s FIBA World Cup Asian qualifier game between the Philippine and Australian national teams turned into a basketbrawl when players from both sides got into a scuffle towards the end of the third quarter.
The scene was right off a sports drama — or a barangay (village) street game, depending on how one wants to look at it — and it all started when Australian Daniel Kickert intentionally elbowed the Philippines’ Roger Pogoy behind the head upon seeing his teammate Christopher Goulding on the floor due to a shove from Pogoy.
Australia had been leading the game with a 79-48 score.
From there, all hell broke loose at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan when players from both sides joined the melee. There was punching, kicking, and at one point, even chair-throwing.
Included in the fight were Australian Milwaukee Bucks forward Thon Maker and former NBA player Andray Blatche, who is a naturalized player for the Philippines.
The incident resulted in 13 players being ejected, including nine from the Philippines.
The game continued but Australia eventually won by default after two of the remaining three Filipino players fouled out.
Watch the brawl here:
The Philippines’ head coach Chot Reyes said yesterday that the incident was “absolutely unacceptable” but alleged that Kickert had been playing dirty since the warmups.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable but the reality is that (Daniel) Kickert [was] hitting our players during the warm-ups. He hit Carl Bryan Cruz, he hit Matthew Wright, Pogoy and he hit Calvin Abueva during the warm-ups,” Reyes told Rappler.
“So when he did that, the foul of Pogoy on Goulding was an offensive foul, it was a basketball play, but he (Kickert) was the one who came in and decked Pogoy. 5th time. You don’t expect to do it to a team 5 times and not expect to, to retaliate.”
In a tweet yesterday, FIBA, which governs international basketball competitions, said that it will “open disciplinary proceedings against both teams.”
Following the incident that occured in the third quarter of the Philippines-Australia game on Monday in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers, FIBA will now open disciplinary proceedings against both teams. The decision(s) will be communicated in the coming days.
— FIBA Media (@FIBA_media) July 2, 2018
