HANGZHOU. – This could be a rematch for the ages: Gilas Pilipinas vs Jordan for the 19th Asian Games men’s basketball gold medal.
And Justin Brownlee vs Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for bragging rights as the tournament’s best player.
The 2023-2024 PBA season is four weeks away but the Gilas-Jordan final should provide a preview for another great matchup: Barangay Ginebra San Miguel with Brownlee against TNT Tropang Giga with Hollis-Jefferson in the forthcoming Commissioner’s Cup.
For now, all roads lead to the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Friday where the flag-waving hometown crowd will be on hand at 4 p.m. to watch China and Chinese Taipei, upended by two visiting teams, dispute the spoils of war – the bronze medal. Then it gets to choose its pick between the Philippines and Jordan at 8 o’clock.
The two teams will be equally motivated in its bid for the glittering hardware.
Jordan has never won the Asian Games title, having finished fourth place twice, the first in 1986 in Seoul when it bowed to an all-amateur Philippine team coached by Joe Lipa in the battle for the bronze. Jordan gained another shot at the bronze in the 2006 Asiad in Doha, Qatar but lost to Iran.
Revenge for a long ago slight could be out there somewhere for the Jordanians.
The Philippines, on the other hand, last ruled Asiad basketball in 1962, at the tail end of an 11-year reign as champions, and when its coach Tim Cone was still too young.
Payback will likewise be on the Nationals’ mind after Jordan beat them in the preliminaries 87-62 and sent them off down a perilous path against Iran in the quarterfinals and China in the semis.
In contrast, Jordan, having secured an outright quarterfinal berth after downing Gilas, breezed past Saudi Arabia in the round of eight and Chinese-Taipei in the Final Four.
Gilas survived both missions, weathering a massive comeback by the Iranians to win by one, and then completing an epic rally to beat host China, again by one – with Brownlee figuring prominently in the two victories.
While the gut-wrenching squeaker over Iran was magical enough, the down-the-wire thriller against China took on an almost miraculous state as both games were decided after the oppositions’ best shooters missed dying-second threes.
“This is special,” said Cone, choking on his words. “Twenty-five years ago, China beat me. And, I tell you, to this day that’s the only game where I cried. To come back here and get this victory now is to come full cycle. It’s an emotional time for us and, I think, for everybody.”
Quickly snapping out of the reverie, he added: “But I’m trying to keep an even keel because we got another game, and our goal still is to win the gold.
“We said that from the beginning. I’m not sure we believe we’d get here, but we did say that from the beginning. We also kept saying we want to get back and play Jordan, so we’re back to play them. Now, we’ll see what we can do (in the title match).”
