Last night we finally exorcised the demons of defeat that had broken our hearts several times and tortured our memories of Philippine basketball for so long. Last night, while thousands of Filipino fans electrified the Mall of Asia during the much-anticipated semi-final match-up between Gilas Pilipinas (Philippine national basketball team) and South Korea, millions of equally feisty Filipino fans were glued on their TVs and underwent a heart-stopping episode of their lives as the Philippine team dismantled our perennial tormentor, South Korea. South Korea, for the last three decades, had always pulverized our dreams of reaching the world basketball stage, beating the Philippine team in several crucial games at a very slim margin.

Last night many Filipinos were about to surrender their dreams of reaching the 2014 FIBA World Championship to be held in Spain when the Philippines’ naturalized center Marcus Douthit injured his leg and did not return to the game after the first half. But as what we have always shouted throughout this season “Laban Pilipinas, Puso,” we proved to the world that heart, a determined heart, can rewrite history. We did it for the first time in almost 40 years: we smashed South Korea in a convincing win that will be well remembered in history, a win that would erase the tears of millions of Filipinos who particularly wept in 2002 and 2011 after we suffered at the versatile hands of the Koreans. It has been an emotional roller-coaster for us, Filipinos, we basketball fanatics. The world does not want to believe in us that we are capable of putting up a world-class basketball because of our height and size disadvantage. Before the historic game started, sportswriter Carlo Pamintuan, recalling his own story of heartbreaks when the Philippines was defeated by the Koreans in 2002, wrote:

“We believe that Gabe Norwood can guard their best wing men, that Marc Pingris can stand his ground against any of their bigs. We believe Jayson Castro, LA Tenorio, and Jimmy Alapag are too good for any of their point guards. We believe that Larry Fonacier, Jeff Chan, and Gary David can all wax hot from three. We believe in Marcus Douthit, in Ranidel De Ocampo, and in Japeth Aguilar. We believe that June Mar Fajardo will have his shining moment before this tournament is through. Our collective hearts have been broken time and again by the Koreans. But there will come a day when the basketball gods will finally reward us for our loyalty, for our passion, for our treatment of basketball like it is a religion. There will come a time when a Philippine basketball team will stand up and defeat the Koreans.” The Korean curse was finally broken last night. The Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena became the loudest spot on earth last night. The resilience of the Filipino heart was tested in a moment when legacy was a work in progress and legends were born. Last night our hearts stopped beating… because we witnessed history…