‘Gilas teammates confronted Douthit after loss to Qatar’

INCHEON, South Korea -- Marcus Douthit was nowhere to be seen when Gilas Pilipinas did their traditional post-game huddle at the center court following a shocking 77-68 loss to Qatar at the start of the quarterfinal round on Friday at the Hwaseong Gymnasium.

Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes called out Douthit for allegedly quitting on the team in this important game that sent them reeling to a second straight loss and on the brink of elimination in this 17th Asian Games.

"We're all disappointed at Marcus," Reyes told stunned reporters in the post-game interview.

“Our big guy, Douthit, just quit,” said Reyes. “Our big guy, the man we rely in the middle, just quit on our team. That’s very un-Filipino. I’m very disappointed with that development."

The naturalized Filipino big man left the court even before the endgame buzzer sounded as tension gripped the team.

Some of his teammates reportedly went after Douthit in the locker room to confront him.

Douthit looked spent in the latter part of the game and couldn't keep his man Erfan Ali Saeed from scoring two big baskets at crunchtime.

"I don't think it was an issue of fatigue. I think it was more of an issue of desire," Reyes said.

He even went to the extent of entertaining the thoughts of going All-Filipino in their do-or-die game against host Korea on Saturday.

"I'm gonna ask Marcus if he doesn't wanna play, we'll go all Filipino. If he wants to go home, he can go home," Reyes said.

A day after Reyes called him out for an ill-advised trey in the endgame of a bitter loss to Iran Thursday, Douthit was not in his element against Qatar.

"He is a sissy if he is affected. He is a professional. He should take that comment. We didn’t even talk about it in the dugout afterward. If that affected him, there is something really wrong," Reyes said.

Reyes pointed out to some signs that Douthit was physically present but mentally absent in this game.

“I don’t know what happened. Towards the end of the first half, he was at the dugout watching a music video. He was the last to leave the dugout. He had a very bad body language. And Qatar pounced on him," Reyes said.

Douthit's contract was only renewed when Andray Blatche was disqualified due to technicality. Reyes was openly saying that they have a bigger chance to win the gold if Blatche was with them.

There were doubts if Douthit is in game-shape but he disproved that with two good games until the last play against Iran and Friday night's off-game vs Qatar.

Reyes is known for his style of calling out players to motivate them to bounce back strong from bad games.

With Gilas' medal chances on the line, there are clouds of doubt whether Douthit will still be in it or just quit.