He is resigning on his own terms with head held high and integrity intact

Yeng Guiao did the most honorable thing to do when he stepped down as head coach of Gilas Pilipinas following a disastrous stint in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Basketball World Cup in China.

Like what happened to the ill-fated members of the Special Action Force when they were deployed to a war zone they haven’t seen even in their wildest dreams in 2015, Guiao marched without the necessary preparation and personnel for the biggest and most prestigious battle of his coaching career.

First, Guiao really wanted Jordan Clarkson.

The Filipino-American star of the Cleveland Cavaliers was high on his list after powering Gilas Pilipinas to a fifth-place finish in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta last year.

With Clarkson, a tall point guard at 6-foot-5, running the plays, Guiao enjoyed the luxury of creating mismatches in the backcourt, allowing big men like Christian Standhardinger, June Mar Fajardo, Beau Belga and Poy Erram to dominate.

An inside-outside tandem of Clarkson and naturalized player Andray Blatche could have done wonders for Gilas Pilipinas when it clashed with tall and sweet-shooting teams like Italy and Serbia.

Clarkson and Blatche could have properly guarded the passing lanes and disrupted the ball movements of the opposing teams while putting a hand on the faces of their gunners every time they settle for an outside shot.

FIBA declined the appeal to have Clarkson suit up as a local player.

With that, what Guiao paraded was a very short, inexperienced backcourt of rookies CJ Perez and Robert Bolick and sophomore Kiefer Ravena together with Mark Barroca, RR Pogoy and Paul Lee coming off the bench.

Marco Belinelli, Danilo Gallinari and Amedeo de la Valle torched the Filipinos with 15 three-pointers, 11 of which coming from the first half alone that dictated the tempo in their 46-point massacre, 108-62.

Two nights later, it was the Serbians’ turn to shoot over the smaller Filipino defenders.

Serbia, the fourth-best team in the world, converted 12 treys while dominating the rebounding department, 34-24, and the assist category, 37-14, with NBA stars Nemanja Bjelica and Nikola Jokic running the show en route to a 59-point annihilation, 126-67, that served as the widest margin ever posted in this tournament.

Rubbing salt to the wound was the statement by Serbian coach Sasha Djordjevic that the Filipinos “lack the quality” to compete in the world’s biggest basketball stage.

Of course, it had a massive impact on Guiao and the morale of his wards entering their classification games against lower-tiered teams like Angola, Tunisia and Iran, prompting them to end up as the worse-performing team in this prestigious 32-nation tournament.

Second, Gilas went to war without enough preparation.

With the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals between San Miguel Beer and TNT KaTropa extending to Game 6, Guiao had no choice but to train with an incomplete unit.

In fact, Gilas Pilipinas embarked on a 10-day training in Spain with only 11 of the 19 pool members making it. Of course, Beermen Fajardo, Standhardinger and Marcio Lassiter as well as KaTropa Troy Rosario and Pogoy were not around while Raymond Almazan failed to secure his Spanish visa.

Upon return, Matthew Wright and Erram crashed with injuries, prompting them to bomb out of the final roster.

Again, all of these are not Guiao’s fault.

Before Guiao came on board, Gilas Pilipinas was a mess.

Its coaches — Chot Reyes and Jong Uichico — were serving suspensions after Gilas Pilipinas got involved in a massive brawl with Australia during the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

The squad was supposed to compete in the Asian Games and nobody — as in nobody — was willing to embrace the unenviable job of taking the cudgels to repair the damaged reputation of Gilas Pilipinas before the eyes of the international basketball community.

When he agreed to become the head coach, he didn’t only put together the shattered egos of the Nationals, but he also clinched the all-out support of the PBA, crushing the barriers between two companies whose rivalry on the court spilled over the national team program.

As a testament of that support, the entire PBA board of governors flew to Jakarta to personally witness and congratulate Guiao for a job well done. In a dinner at the InterContinenal Jakarta Pondok Indah at the heart of Indonesian capital, PBA commissioner Willie Marcial and San Miguel Corp. sports director Alfrancis Chua pulled Guiao aside to thank him for representing the country well and, yes, for accepting the coaching offer.

Guiao just smiled. All he said was: Trabaho lang tayo, boss.

And now, the time has come for Guiao to step down.

He stepped down not because of his lack of preparation or failure to secure the services of his desired players.

It also wasn’t because of the nightmare that was the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

He is resigning because his job was already done and it’s time to hand the mantle to other able coaches.