A Filipino player attempted to trip Boomers centre Daniel Kickert during the warm-ups before their World Cup qualifier, new footage has shown.
Fox Sports has obtained vision of a pre-game altercation, which shows a Filipino player sticking his leg out and catching Kickert as he returned to the back of their layup line.
Kickert responded by pushing a different player before a minor scuffle between the two teams broke out.
The incident proves tensions between Australia and the Philippines were already high well before the third-quarter brawl which caused 13 players to be ejected.
The footage also flies in the face of claims from Philippines coach Chot Reyes, who said Kickert hit four of his players in the warm-up.
Reyes said Kickert's subsequent elbow to the face of Roger Pogoy, which sparked the bench-clearing fight, was a "fifth" hit that invited retaliation.
Basketball Australia CEO Anthony Moore dismissed Reyes' allegations earlier on Tuesday.
"We absolutely refute that. It's a conversation we've had with team management," he said.
However, Moore admitted it "wasn't the smartest move" by team officials to remove floor decals from the arena the day before the game.
The Boomers clearly riled the hosts and the SBP, the governing body for basketball in the Philippines, by peeling off advertising stickers from the court that players had slipped on.
Manny V. Pangilinan, a Filipino businessman and former president of the SBP who sits on FIBA's Central Board, posted footage of it on Sunday.
"Aussie team ripping our/Fiba logos on the court of Phil Arena w/o asking permission. We will not back down," he tweeted.
"Those stickers go in. Regardless.
"Not in our House."
Reyes also wasn't happy, saying the stickers were FIBA approved and that the Boomers had acted disrespectfully.
"Besides, we've played in other venues w similar decals," Reyes tweeted.
"Secondly, IF, & that's a big IF, it did indeed make the floor slippery, they had no right to just rip the decals and deface OUR floor.
"There were SBP/FIBA officials in venue #basicdecency"
Moore revealed Basketball Australia had already apologised for removing the decals but said it was no excuse for player-on-player violence.
"We trained, had numerous players fall and fall heavily and our team management undertook a course of action that we actually apologised for. We ripped the decals up," he said.
"That wasn't the smartest move we made.
"There's no doubt that heightened the issue, but that was more from an administrator, federation-to-federation part as opposed to players."
Australian Associated Press
