Inquirer Sportsletter September 15, 2023

 

September 15, 2023

Germany is the world's champion.  (August Dela Cruz)

Hey there sports fan, If there's ever a player outside of the Philippine national team that you should never forget from the recent Fiba World Cup, it's Dennis Schroder. The guy even got his own trivia question in our weekly sports quiz:  How many points did Dennis Schroder score in the championship game where Germany beat Serbia for the title? (Answer is at the end of this newsletter). Schroder was named MVP after a memorable performance in the final of the global showcase, where Germany defeated Serbia to crown themselves world champions.  There Fiba World Cup will leave us with a lot of memories beyond the championship game. And if you want to look back at how the tournament unfolded, you can go check our World Cup archive for stories you might have missed.  As promised, we covered the World Cup beyond the scoreboard, giving you some of the best stories to come out of the tournament, thanks to our indefatigable team on the ground: Denison Rey A. Dalupang, Jonas Terrado, Celest Flores-Colina, Mark Giongco, Lance Agcaoili and Rommel Fuertes Jr.  They all did an awesome job producing stories day in and day out while working on 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. shifts.  There are some stories you might want to jump into right away though. After the Philippines' last game, the polarizing national team head coach Chot Reyes said he would answer all his critics as long as they brought up their complaints face-to-face. It didn't take a second after he uttered those words that we called him on his dare, leaving him a message that we would like to raise some points against him. It took some ironing out of schedules, but he obliged. And we got a three-part series out of that interview, which you can watch here. If you'd rather we put those words of his in context, here are links to the stories in the series: 1, 2 and 3.

Everyone, even the young kids, went crazy over Luka. (August Dela Cruz)

Meanwhile... Speaking of the World Cup, we learned some amusing stuff from our hosting of the tournament. First, Filipinos love Luka Doncic. Like, really love. Second, you know how before the start of the game, right after the introductions and the national anthems, teams approach each other for a pregame handshake? Turns out there may be more than just handshakes involved.  Oh, and by the way, for those who still dream of having Jordan Clarkson represent the country as a local, Fiba has a message for you: No chance of that happening.  What we're up to next: Tim Cone is going to be the caretaker coach of the national team now that Chot Reyes has stepped aside. And he is currently preparing a squad for the Asian Games. We've started our coverage of that and, in a few days, we will plow right into the continental Olympics. Plus, volleyball action and updates on the coming PBA Draft.  Number of the Week: 24 Grand Slam titles of Novak Djokovic after his recent US Open triumph.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “He has done what no one else has done in Germany. I think people will realize that in Germany. Dirk [Nowitzki] was before, Dennis is now.” —Germany coach Gordon Herbert, on Dennis Schroder.

By the way, Schroder had 28 points against Serbia. If you got the answer to the above trivia question right, go ahead and give the other questions in our weekly sports quiz a shot. Check them out in our Viber community, which also features the freshest sports updates.  Buy the Inquirer at newsstands, subscribe to our digital edition, Inquirer Plus, visit our online site and follow us on socials (Twitter: @inquirersports; FB: facebook.com/inquirersports) for more stories and updates—or to send us questions or suggestions of stories you'd want to read. Have a great and safe weekend! See you next Friday. Francis Francis T. J. Ochoa is the Sports Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. For comments, suggestions and questions, hit him up on Twitter (@ftjochoaINQ).