Some friends of Coach Rajko Toroman from Europe got in touch with him the day after the dirty game with Bad Karma and they all expressed shock at the kind of game that was allowed. They saw it on youtube and video streaming. It's not like this doesn't happen elsewhere but this was borderline criminal. It was a legalized assault by men in tank tops. It wasn't basketball but basketbrawl. Honestly, it was painful to hear the comments relayed to Toroman. Of course, it's the Philippines so it hurts but it's all true so how can I not agree?
Like I said on the night of the game, four flagrant fouls were called in the span of 9 minutes and there were two that were not called. The crowd was really worked up during the game and you really cannot blame the fan for calling out Bad Karma in the worst terms. Was he the worst? Not even by a mile. The fans in the lower box section really let Bad Karma have it. One man went with his two daughters and he could not help himself at seeing the dirty game. He was even calling out the entire Bad Karma team to a fistfight. It was really bad.
What many did not see off cam was how Wynne Arboleda went after the fan as they were both exiting through the south basket pathway. He had to be restrained by event security again. Yes, the fan gave him the finger again as he was leaving. Both were wrong but again... it boils down to the provocation.
You think this is bad? You have not watched the UAAP where the taunting is 12x worse.
But why just Arboleda? That goes all the way up. C'mon. Let's not play stupid here. As I wrote also, I found distasteful that their coach was heckling Gilas by saying: "O, yung import niyo pasok na" and "Wag na kayo mag-zona walang import." He repeated it three times at different intervals. Do you actually yell out instructions like that for all to hear? For many who were watching, they found it distasteful.
I used to be a fan of his. No longer. I stopped being one during the Powerade team's stint in Tianjin. He didn't scout, totally snubbed SBP (you may not like the Executive Director but respect the position), and then cussed the refs in the vernacular on international television.
This is another low moment in the PBA's history. And to think of all their bum moves this early... threatening to ban Japeth Aguilar (dude, some of your teams did not sign three first round draft picks). So what is your argument now? Should we fine those teams? I don't hear anyone protesting now?
I wrote before that Japeth had a change of heart about playing as he didn't want to play for an organization that sells its players because it needs the cash and to play for a coach like that. One former player of his from Red Bull said, "We lived and played in fear."
I'm interested to hear what the international office of Burger King has to say about this.
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