Supporters of Gilas Pilipinas earned the Philippines the Most Valuable Fans award at the FIBA World Cup
MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas fans, stand up and take a bow. The outpouring of support for the Philippine men's national basketball team earned the nation the Most Valuable Fans (MVF) Best Country award at the FIBA World Cup.
The Philippines, which competed at the FIBA World Cup for the first time in 36 years, had supporters converge on Seville, Spain from around Europe and as far as the Philippines.
The Philippines captivated the imaginations of a nation of 100 million people, coming close to knocking off the third ranked Argentina, plus the highly regarded Croatia and Puerto Rico teams while losing a competitive match to fifth ranked Greece.
Gilas' victory over Senegal in a non-bearing game was celebrated like a championship win, despite the Philippines having already been eliminated the night before. The victory was the Philippines' first at the World Championship since 1974
FIBA says that it used "a broad range of social actions" including hashtags like #Spain2014 on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to measure "MVF points."
"All points earned by fans that support the same national team accumulated to determine the MVF Best Country Award," said a news item on the FIBA website. - Rappler.com
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