It is to the Filipino’s chagrin that our national basketball players had to cover their too obvious defeat with misplaced machismo, leaving just three of their teammates fighting to the last when the whole team should have carried on– win or lose.

Because that is how the beautiful game of basketball is played– a team starts with five, and wins or loses the game with five.

That is unless more than seven players have fouled out, which happens very seldom in clean and honest matches.

The Australia-Philippines tiff for the leadership of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier late Monday, that ended in the Aussies’ favor even before that disreputable brawl took place, had put the country in ignominy. There was nothing to be proud of with that. And that we say firmly.

It stole some highlights from LeBron James’ signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, alright.

It made international news just as quick as the Philippines Gilas’ Peter Aguilar sneakily slammed a chair against Aussie Boomer Nathan Sobey’s nape. It was an act good for entertainment wrestling and nothing more.

That a social media meme listing the casualties of that melee– Terrence Romeo, Carl Bryan Cruz, Jayson Castro, Japeth Aguilar, Calvin Abueva, Andray Blatche, RR Pogoy, Troy Rosario and Matthew Wright for the Philippines; and Daniel Kickert, Thon Maker, Nathan Sobey and Chris Goulding for the Austrialian side– had blazed past the farthest fiber optic lines of the US, Canada, China and Russia, just as quick as it did to the internet towers of Tawi-Tawi– made the rivalry known for all the wrong reasons around the world.

The Gilas side nearly cleared its bench. Only the five Australian players on court, who were subjected to the hit-or-miss kicks and punches by the now infamous Gilas brawlers with support from many Filipino hooligans who could not seem to accept legitimate defeats, had been ejected.

Only June Mar Fajardo, Baser Amer and Gabe Norwood showed true class. They held their chins up even in the face of an Australian slaughter, because that is how we play the game: Lose with grace, win with humility and do both with dignity.

Gilas coach Chot Reyes called the outcome of the game as ‘unfortunate.’ He had the game in his hands from the start. He had lost it even before the tip-off was made, however.

At one point, he gave his players the license to “hit somebody, put somebody on his ass.” And so his players did and a lot more. So classy, not!

This Gilas bunch will be remembered for this notoriety.

After the brawl that nearly emptied the Gilas side, the Philippines had lost more than the game.

The team has to face the consequences of majority of its players’ actions. The International Basketball Federation had announced to have “open(ed) disciplinary proceedings against both teams. The decision(s) will be communicated in the coming days.”

Suspensions would tell on the Philippine campaign for a World Cup slot, and would put down the drain everything team benefactor Manny V. Pangilinan had poured into the Gilas program.

We had lost the international respect earned by the previous Gilas squads who have worked harder so that this bunch would enjoy what they had before they snapped out of their minds and basketball control.

It no longer matters who started the fight.

Whether the Aussies had called the Filipino players monkeys or not, as alleged by the Philippine side after the melee, they have acted like monkeys when they could no longer hold the game together.

We profusely apologize to monkeys for saying that.