All Roads Lead to Manila: Gilas Entry #10 – Some Burning Issues

This also appears on Rappler Sports.

The past few weeks have brought about a couple of burning issues affecting the Gilas program that need immediate attention and dissection. Read on.

The Taiwan Issue

I wanted to see how Taiwan would play in its 5th place game against Mongolia in the 2013 East Asia Basketball Association Championships in Incheon, South Korea.

This is in the context of rumors that Taipei wanted to sever all sports-related exchanges with Manila, most notably the participation of Gilas Pilipinas in the 2013 Jones Cup and Taiwan's participation in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships, in the wake of the unfortunate shooting incident involving a Taiwanese fisherman and the Filipino Coast Guard.

These rumors, of course, are unconfirmed and unofficial. At best, the Taiwanese media played out some footage of some local politicians and sports personalities fanning the flames with their poorly-constructed comments about the behavior of Filipino athletes. They basically handpicked a few unfortunate altercations between Taiwanese and Filipino players from the past years and used these to form disparaging remarks.

It's an unethical exercise in journalism. It influences public opinion without due consideration for both sides of the issue. It's an overreaction swept up by the sudden surge of nationalistic tendencies and the seeming desperation of Prime Minister Ma Ying-Jeou brought about by an alarmingly low 19% trust/support rating.

And now basketball has gotten caught in the crosshairs.

Jet Chang of Taiwan and Jeff Chan of Gilas are set
to butt heads in the 2013 FIBA Asia tourney.

Not that this is the first time politics and hoops have ever mixed. In theory, they shouldn't have anything to do with each other, but in the messiness of our reality, it is inevitable developments in the former spill over into the latter (and vice versa naturally).

The common ground between politics and sports can be as subtle (really?) as electing a basketball superstar or boxing icon into public office, to something as direct as a Senate inquiry into a stupid new rule in collegiate basketball. And then of course we just had the Shanghai Sharks over for a pair of "goodwill games" that weren't exactly politically uncharged (yes, it's a double-negative, get over it).

The prospect of Gilas Pilipinas's invitation to the Jones Cup being revoked, or the Taiwanese national team boycotting the FIBA Asia joust, however, is particularly disturbing. On one hand, our boys will be deprived of the chance to defend the title they won last year, while on the other, the Taipei quintet will be deprived of the chance to be blown out at the Mall of Asia Arena (okay, that didn't help did it?).

Seriously, though, the failings and missteps on the diplomatic table should not have effects this extreme. If anything, I believe that, should the rumors turn into facts, then both countries will miss out on opportunities to extend goodwill and mend relations. Again, I allude to the Shanghai Sharks’ here. The tensions between the mainland (because, if I am not mistaken, Manila doesn't officially recognize Taipei as independent from Beijing) and the 7,107 isles have been diluted significantly in no small part because of both parties' efforts on and off the court.

Ranidel de Ocampo challenges Taiwan's Wu Tai-Hao.
(image from FIBAAsia.net)

Let basketball, or sports in general, NOT be the victim here, but, instead, let it be the catalyst for renewing and strengthening ties.

Just, umm, don't have Beau Belga or Calvin Abueva, or any potential hot-heads play the Taiwanese. That would just be asking for it.

As for the Mongolia game?

Taiwan won, 94-86, to qualify for the 2013 FIBA Asia tourney. Maybe they want to get blown out after all.

Adding Players

Given how many players have taken their share of the spotlight this past conference, it’s little surprise that fans are clamoring for Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes to consider adding players to the relatively modest national pool.

Context:

-       Most other national pools in FIBA Asia have at least 20 players listed. Just to illustrate, Jordan’s current pool has 20 players (with a new naturalized player in the pipeline), ditto with Japan, while South Korea and China each have 24. Iran, I believe, has close to 30!!!

-       The Gilas pool, which started with 17 players, has dwindled to 15 mainly because of the injuries of Kelly Williams and Jared Dillinger. Alaska’s Sonny Thoss has been present in practices, but he hasn’t participated, and he will miss the Lithuania training camp to boot.

-       Several PBA players did well in the PBA Selection’s exhibition games against Gilas (during the All-Star weekend in Davao) and the Sharks, while some have accounted for themselves really well in the recent Commish Cup Playoffs. In particular, Niño Cañaleta, Arwind Santos, Calvin Abueva, and JV Casio have shone brightly.

-       Marcus Douthit is now 33 years old. This may well be his last tour of duty in the FIBA Asia tournament. Given his age and the expected wear and tear, it’s not a stretch if he gets a new injury as Gilas preps for the big dance. I feel it prudent for the team to lobby for a back-up naturalized player. Some strong candidates could be Denzel Bowles, Mike Dunigan, or even Eric Dawson.

The big question, of course, is this – will adding players help or hinder, especially given the fact that Gilas already has a cadet pool in place? Now, despite the depth of that set of players, the truth is a lot of other guys who are good enough to be in the national pool aren’t there, especially once-a-generation talents like Kiefer Ravena and Ray Parks, or future bigs like Isaac Holstein, Ian Sangalang, and even Raymond Almazan. My take is even if these guys have no shot of making the final cut, at least bringing them to practices or scrimmages will help them improve and be exposed to the international brand of play. This is the reason many of the top teams in the continent like Iran, China, and South Korea have at least a sprinkling of really young talent in their own pools. Right off the bat, Iran has Behnam Yakhchali and Mohammad Jamshidi, China has Wang Zhelin and Guo Ailun, while SoKor has Lee Jong-Hyun and Kim Jong-Kyu (and a LOT MORE!) – all of whom are relatively new in their countries’ respective pro leagues or still playing in college.

The strange thing is we actually have a similar system in place. It’s just that the local leagues have never really gotten together to make the necessary sweeping changes that will greatly benefit the national pool. The sad thing here in Manila is that FIBA Asia is NOT the biggest basketball draw in the calendar. For a lot of people, it’s either the collegiate wars or the PBA. I hope our hosting of the FIBA Asia this August will greatly change that.

Pocket Tournament

The last issue I want to raise is regarding hosting our own pocket tournament, especially in case Taiwan does revoke our Jones Cup invitation. Still, even if we do play in the Jones Cup, I would LOOOVE for the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to host its own preparation tournament for FIBA Asia.

Off the top of my head I’m thinking maybe 8-10 teams. Gilas Pilipinas will definitely be there. I’m thinking perhaps the cadet pool plus reinforcements from the UAAP and NCAA. Also, not one but TWO PBA Selections – one made up of established stars and one made up of rising stars. Imagine something like the Veterans and Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors All-Star teams of old.

And then these local teams will go up against invited international teams. These don’t have to be the top-level national teams in Asia. We can invite maybe club teams from Iran, Lebanon, China, or Korea. Or even from elsewhere, like when we invited the Melbourne Tigers eons ago. I’m sure the USA squad that Gilas defeated in 2012 would be interested in participating, or, better yet, maybe the B Teams of the different countries. We just need a tournament that will help not just Gilas but all our local talents and fans get more exposed to international basketball.

For the sake of imagination, I’m thinking maybe the following local selections can compete in a tournament like this:

PBA SUPERSTARS SELECTION	PBA RISING STARS SELECTION	COLLEGE/CADETS SELECTION
ASI TAULAVA	JASON DEUTCHMAN	ISAAC HOLSTEIN
ARWIND SANTOS	CLIFF HODGE	JAKE PASCUAL
NINO CANALETA	CALVIN ABUEVA	MATT ROSSER
MARK CAGUIOA	CHRIS LUTZ	RONALD PASCUAL
SOL MERCADO	JV CASIO	GARVO LANETE
JOE DEVANCE	RABEH AL-HUSSAINI	IAN SANGALANG
JERVY CRUZ	SEAN ANTHONY	NICO SALVA
CYRUS BAGUIO	CHRIS ELLIS	RAY PARKS
PJ SIMON	MARCIO LASSITER	KEVIN ALAS
WILLIE MILLER	PAUL LEE	RR GARCIA
MICK PENNISI	NONOY BACLAO	RAYMOND ALMAZAN
REYNEL HUGNATAN	MAC BARACAEL	JUSTIN CHUA
DANNY SEIGLE	ALLEIN MALIKSI	JERIC TENG
MAC CARDONA	CHRIS TIU	KIEFER RAVENA
ALEX CABAGNOT	MARK BARROCA	JUSTIN MELTON

Please remember that the original Gilas Cadets pool, as far as I can remember, included Holstein, Sangalang, Salva, and Melton. Ravena and Parks also played with that pool in the 2011 SEA Games. I haven’t even added some awesome Pinoy players playing in the ABL like Chris Banchero, Moala Tautuaa, Julius Armon, Stanley Pringle, John Smith, and Phillip Morrison.

#parasabayan