Tough break for Mo, really.
Mo Tautuaa won a gold medal as a member of Gilas Pilipinas from the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games’ 3x3 event in 2019. For sure, he wants to do more for the national team in bigger international tournaments like the Asiad. A few weeks back, the athletic big man got his shot as Gilas coach Tim Cone asked him to join the squad in the trip to Hangzhou, China.
But that was weeks ago. As it stands, Tautuaa, Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, and Jason Perkins remain ineligible to play for Gilas in the upcoming Asian Games. Blame the brouhaha surrounding 60-player and 37-player lists. That being said, the Filipino-Tongan center is still keeping his hopes up. After all, Cone said that they’ve been trying out other avenues, wherein the four cagers might be given the green light.
On Wednesday, Big Mo went on Instagram and made a public plea on behalf of his banned teammates. He needed only three words to let everyone know how hard it has been since they heard the bad news.
“Let us play,” Tautuaa wrote as he reshared an IG story originally posted by Abueva.
It feels like the Coach Tim, the ousted players, and of course, the rest of Gilas have been shafted big time in light of this debacle. So much so, that the option of Gilas pulling out from the Asian Games has been brought up. Fortunately, the Filipino hoopers chose not to back down.
At the moment, Gilas is gearing up to face Jordan, Bahrain, and Thailand in the group phase of the Asian Games men’s basketball tournament. The Philippines’ opening match will take place on September 26. Hopefully, Tautuaa’s appeal has already been granted by then.
(GM)