The Smart Gilas Last Home Stand Game versus the PLDT FIBR never came to fruition. The game was CANCELLED dismaying tons of Filipino fans! This game originally scheduled today July 22, 2014 and tomorrow features our very own Philippine National Basketball Team, Smart Gilas Pilipinas versus NBA players.

Smart Gilas coach is  Chot Reyes, and the team is composed of favorite PBA players like Junmar Fajardo, Ranidel Ocampo, Bue Belga, Marc Pingris, LA Tenori, Jason Castro, Japeth Aguilar and more. Their reinforcement is naturalized Filipino player, Marcus Douhit.

The Smart Gilas Team is bound for the World Championships to be held in Spain come August 2014.

Smart Gilas Last Home Stand Game 

To help them prepare for the World Championships, Smart PLDT has come up with a team made up of selected NBA players headlined by Perennial ALL STAR James Harden, plus up and coming NBA players like Damian Liliard, Kawhi Leoanard, Tyson Chandler, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross and Kyle Lowry. Blake Griffin and Paul George who were in the original lined-up  unfortunately did not make it to the Philippines.

The supposedly Charity and Warm Up game did not happen for still unknown reasons. Some say that there was a last minute ruling coming from the NBA organizations warning and forbidding its players from playing in exhibition / non-Association games which this charity event is.

The game was supposed to start at 7:30 tonight, but after introducing the players,  Coach Chot Reyes made a last minute announcement that the game was cancelled. Instead of Smart Gilas Pilipinas VS NBA Stars, the Last Home Stand became an on-court practice for lay ups, basic basketball drills and simple play making schemes for these players.

The delayed telecast is still airing via TV 5 right now at 10 pm. If you want to see the snafu, turn on your TV to witness the court side commentators trying their best to salvage the situation. But to be fair, the players participated wholeheartedly in the dunks and skill exhibitions. Just not sure if this is enough to appease the disappointment of the fans who were expecting a heart-pumping, jaw dropping game. The Pinoy fans came in droves and paid tons of bucks to see the NBA players play hard on the court!

“This was a RIP OFF!”, aired by some very dismayed fans inside the Smart Araneta and on social media like Twitter and Facebook. Refunds! Refunds! Refunds! screamed some. As expected Pinoys are quick to create hashtags that trends wordwide like this funny (ouch!) new meaning of PLDT =  Practice Lang Daw Talaga.

The game scheduled tomorrow July 23, 2014 is already cancelled.

The tickets are expensive, sample price for the Patron A is 23,300 pesos, for Box Regular tickets it is at P8,000. The lowest ticket general admission price is at P750. But despite the high ticket prices, the Smart Araneta Coliseum is jam-packed with Pinoy hoops enthusiasts.

Due to the last minute changes,  PLDT HOME Vice President Mr Ariel Fermin himself said that refunds for unhappy fans would be processed. But as this is  a charity event, unrefunded tickets will benefit our less fortunate brothers and sisters. It is up to the ticket buyers if they will request for  refund or not.

“For more details on this basketball event and on refunding tickets, please visit this related post“

Tsk, Today is not a great day for bastketball fans in this hoop crazy nation of ours!