“We probably have to review the performance," said Pangilinan. “What went wrong, what went right. We’ll see."
Appraising the team’s performance in a conference is a standard operating procedure as far as the Tropang Texters are concerned, although in this case, the franchise has to thoroughly look into the campaign, especially with the way they lost a series they controlled right from the start.
Talk `N Text already had Barangay Ginebra on the verge of elimination after racing to an early 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series.
The team actually is still on top of the situation until the final minute of the first quarter of Game 4 when it decided to walk out of the playing court and forfeited the match due to perceived biased officiating.
The Kings were leading, 27-20, when the incident happened. The end result had the league’s most popular ballclub walking away with an easy win to level the series at 2-2.
The deciding Game 5 came and a pumped-up Ginebra side pounded on an obviously distracted Talk` N Text team to hammer out a 113-100 win and clinch the last semis berth in the All-Filipino tournament.
Unlike in the aftermath of Game 4 when he left his ringside seat dejectedly, Pangilinan was humble in defeat Sunday night.
“Ginebra played very well. They deserve to win," said Pangilinan, among the last few who left the Big Dome almost an hour after Ginebra’s mastery of his team.
The Kings became just the third team to author a big comeback from 0-2 down to win a best-of-five series. They now meet top seed Alaska Aces in the best-of-seven semifinals beginning Wednesday.
As for the Tropang Texters, they will go down in PBA history as the latest team that failed to repeat as All-Filipino champion in the last 25 years. Great Taste was the last squad to achieve the feat in 1984 and 85.
Asked whether a shake-up in the team is imminent, Pangilinan was non-committal.
“We don’t know yet. It’s difficult to say," said the Smart/PLDT chairman, who is also president of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).
Although it already committed to play the deciding game of the quarterfinals series, Talk `N Text still left a cloud of doubt on whether it would show up or not, arriving at the Big Dome only during the endgame of the first knockout match between Rain or Shine and Purefoods.
The Tropang Texters came together riding on a team van that came all the way from the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center in Katipunan, where the players dressed up and held shooting rounds.
They showed up each carrying a white rose and the no. 33 patched on their jersey as tribute to suspended teammate Ranidel de Ocampo.
De Ocampo was meted a one-game suspension following the flagrant foul 2 he committed against Ronald Tubid in Game 4, a call that eventually sparked the Tropang Texters’ decision to walk out of the playing court.
Pangilinan stressed the team is not remorseful on what happened during that fateful day.
“No. No regrets," he said. “It (walkout) was the right decision under the circumstances."
Source: Author Unknown | GMANews.TV
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