Australian actor says AUS acting as victims in brawl with PH "bullshit"

Photo credit: www.si.com

Chris Graham an actor from Oregon, and in the blog newmatilda.com, said that the Australian basketball team's version of the story of the brawl that it had with the Philippine team, where they act as the victims is "bullshit".

"The commentary in Australia is overwhelmingly that we were the victims in the fracas. I don’t think it’s stretching the imagination to think that the rest of the world won’t be so sympathetic, in large part because there’s these things called ‘television cameras’, ‘slow motion replay’ and ‘simple common sense’, which, when applied, will leave the viewer in no real doubt about who the bad guys are," the Australian actor said.


"Long story short, it’s us," he added.

In this message which he gave to his fellow countrymen, he said that if these men could not be convinced then maybe they have accepted that they are part of a very long sporting tradition in this country of accepting exceptionally bad behaviour.

Chris Graham, photo from New Matilda

He then made a breakdown of the events in the game.

He shared the video footage of the game, and said that ten minutes into the video, a Filipino player committed an offensive foul, then a few seconds later an Australian player Daniel Kickert rushes in and unleashes a flying elbow like an MMA match.

"After assaulting at least two other Filipino players, and then turning and running as he’s chased across the court, Kickert manages to escape to the safety of some officials, but not before turning and dancing and gesturing at the Filipino players to come and have another go."


He replayed the video and the instigator became the first to flee.

He noted that Kickert’s behaviour goes largely unscrutinised by the Australian commentators, save for a few benign remarks.

Graham said that what Kicker has done is criminal assault.

"Apparently undeterred by reality, the commentators continue: “Have a look at these flying punches and kicks that come from the Filipinos…” As the line was being delivered, an Australian player literally came flying into the brawl with a kick, and then out again with another as the commentator pauses.

And then this: “That’s followed by what can only be described as coward attacks on people looking the other way.”"

Graham noted that at 4:10: “Thom Maker (an Australian player) is out of line for flying through the air with feet first. But look at that, from Romeo, a punch to the back of the head [of]a man not even looking at him.”


"The footage being described does indeed show Maker flying through the air (the picture above shows the run up)… and landing with his knees on the back of a Filipino player who is, what’s the phrase, “not even looking at him”. For the record, Maker is just over 7ft tall and weighs 101kg."

He then said that Romeo indeed hit Maker.

"All up, it’s a pretty tawdry affair, by players from both sides, and commentators. Australia already has an international reputation as a pretty bad sporting nation. Bad in the sense of our behaviour. This latest incident doesn’t do much to dissuade the world of that notion. More importantly, it looks like we’ll miss another opportunity internally to have a reasonable discussion about the behaviour of our sporting icons."

He added that the Asutralians jail and torture children on faraway islands.

The actor added that the Australians aldo demonise some of the nation's poorest people.

"I guess being bad sports is the least of our problems, but maybe it’s part of the key to a more honest assessment of our real national character," he added.

Check photo below and make your own mind up:

Daniel Kickert, far left, gestures to Filipino players to challenge him after sparking a brawl by elbowing an opposing player in the head | Photo from newmatilda.com

Source: newmatilda.com