Thai courage a lesson for Petronas

01/05/1998

PETRONAS can only vie for fifth place in the Asian Basketball
Confederation (ABC) championships tomorrow after failing to make the
semifinals on Wednesday night.
Lack of height, poor shooting, inferior in skills ... Petronas coach
Brian Lester's tale of woe goes on and on. One would think they had lost
every match even before stepping onto the court.
Against China Hanwei on Tuesday, the coach readily admitted defeat five
minutes into play and rested all his best players, justifying his reason
as "preparing for the crunch against Hyundai Dynat".
But when the time came to deliver, his players were a sorry lot and had
no determination whatsoever to make the semifinals. Most of them were just
dragging their feet while Hyundai's Jay Webb took the opportunity to do
all the damage from close range.
The Malaysian Basketball Association (MABA) have much to learn, and they
can start by watching Thailand's raw Bangkok Club.
Although they were hammered at every corner, the team - the only outfit
to arrive without foreign imports - took the beatings as a lesson for the
Asian Games in December.
The Thais never stopped chasing for the ball eventhough there was not
even a ghost of a comeback in all their matches. Unlike the Malaysians who
relied heavily on the shoulders of the imports.
If not for American pros Justin Wimmer and Steve Spurlock, Petronas
would not have made it past even Uzbekistan MHSK, whom they edged 74-71.
After the match, Wimmer said he is not here to win matches for Petronas
but to guide the local players: "It is their tournament. Spurlock and I
are here to guide the Malaysians. It is no use if Petronas win the title
but nobody learns from the tournament."
The closest Malaysia came to the title was three years ago when they
finished second behind the Philippines at Stadium Negara. That was also
the year Lester was roped in to prepare the team. Last year they finished
fourth but can now fight for fifth place.
Meanwhile, today's semifinal clash between Lebanon's Al-Riadi and China
Hanwei is expected to be an explosive affair.
Lebanon pulled off a major upset on Wednesday when they beat champions
China Regal 82-80 to edge Japan's Toshiba Red Thunders out of the last
four. All three teams finished with three wins and a draw for seven-point
totals.
But based on tournament rules, the scores for and against when the three
teams played against each other were taken into acount. China Regal came
out tops with a 1.61 average and Lebanon were second on 0.986 and Red
Thunders, with an average of 0.951, were squeezed out.
Today - s-finals: China Regal v Hyundai Dynat (7.30); Lebanon Al-Riadi v
China Hanwei (9.15).
(END)