By REYNALD MAGALLON
Scottie Thompson may have found himself at the center of the online vitriol after his crucial turnover late in the Gilas Pilipinas’ 82-81 victory over Jordan but head coach Tim Cone remained firm on the veteran guard’s positive impact to the team.
The national team tactician even praised Thompson for doing most of the blue collar jobs in the contest — including rebounding and defending against Jordan’s top guards Jalen Harris and Freddy Ybrahim.
Cone said he’s aware of the criticisms towards Thompson, especially when playing for Gilas, but the veteran mentor insisted that the do-it-all guard is bringing a lot to the table not usually seen in the stat sheet.
“People kind of give Scottie a hard time because he was not a great shooter, he’s not a true point guard, he’ll make a turnover here or there but they dismiss all the other stuff that he does,” Cone said of Thompson.
“As we all know in the PBA, he does all the ‘Scottie things. He gets the rebounds, he gets the loose balls. He defends. He knows how to get teams to the execution,” he added.
Thompson, however, got the brunt of fans’ strong opinions after committing a five-second inbound violation with seven seconds left, allowing Jordan to get the final shot of the game. Fortunately, Kai Sotto stepped up and got the game-saving block in the game.
Still, the impact of Thompson was undeniable in the contest, evident in the first quarter when he entered the game for the first time and settled down the team after trailing by as many as 18 points, 26-8.
Thompson also finished with a +13 efficiency.
Gilas team manager and program director Alfrancis Chua also came to the defense of Thompson.
“Defense buong game sa best player ng Jordan, di niyo nakita?,” wrote Chua.
“He will make big shots and get to the rim when he needs to but he really relies on his teammates a lot to make shots,” added Cone.
