By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Filipino basketball community went wild in the championship game of the Strong Group-Pilipinas against Chinese-Taipei during the recently concluded 2024 William Jones Cup.
Aside from the come-from-behind win to seal the championship title, thousands of Pinoy hoops fans cried foul on the performance of former San Miguel Beermen import and Strong Group reinforcement, Chris McCullough.
McCullough, the leading scorer of the Philippine-based sports organization that represented the country in Taiwan, only managed to drop 12 markers, his worst scoring performance in the whole William Jones Cup tournament.
The scoring machine was expected to deliver and carry Strong Group against the strong home squad but he only shot 4/16 from the field while fouling out of the game in the most crucial stretch of the overtime period.
After Strong Group’s courageous victory, the passionate Filipino fans immediately accused McCullough of game-fixing, adding that the American import played to lose, not to win.
McCullough started the game with a salty shooting and got criticized for his lack of effort for the loose balls and in the rebounding department.
In the final three minutes of the game when Strong Group played catch-up to trim their deficit, McCullough was hoisting several bad shots, some of them were forced, while the other attempts were blocked.
It was then a sigh of relief for the Filipino fans when he fouled out and immediately pointed out that it was a blessing in disguise which led to Strong Group’s emphatic win over Chinese Taipei.
What added fuel to the fire was the fact that Taiwan already showed interest in making McCullough their naturalized player for the upcoming FIBA and other international competitions.
That then gave the Filipinos the courage to throw heavy bashing at McCullough, stating that because of Taiwan’s golden opportunity of making him their naturalized player, he had the reason to throw the game for the home team to win.
Hours after the bold accusations the Pinoys threw on McCullough, the American forward couldn’t hold back and responded with an official social media post on his X account.
“I always rep the flag where ever I played so for some of you fans who’s saying all of this nonsense is ridiculous,” McCullough responded.
Despite his poor showing in the grand finals, McCullough was still crowned as the 2024 William Jones Cup Most Valuable Player (MVP) after leading Strong Group to an undefeated tournament campaign.
