#GilasIssues: Part 4 – Rebooting Philippine Basketball

This piece was supposed to be a little different, but recent developments concerning the Gilas Pilipinas basketball program have conspired, rather serendipitously I might add, to steer this final part of the #GilasIssues series to a slightly different direction.

Right now, Gilas Pilipinas, the team that has captured our collective imagination for the past several years is all but a blank slate. Gilas 1.0 finished top four in the 2011 FIBA Asia. Gilas 2.0 qualified for the FIBA World Cup. How about Gilas 3.0?

Gilas gets a reboot for 2015.

We don’t know just yet.

Right now, the SBP and PBA will go through a selection process for all the members of Gilas 3.0, but, let’s face it, this will be a long and winding road mainly because the issues of the team, which have been detailed in previous posts, go beyond faces and personalities.

#GilasIssues: Part 3 – Opening Up Philippine Basketball

I’ve long held the belief that for anybody to improve at his or her craft, he or she, inevitably, must be exposed to other people who are just as good or even better at that particular craft. In a regular professional setting, this can mean going to conferences, training seminars, or apprenticeships on foreign soil or inviting world-class individuals to come over and give talks or facilitate skill-acquisition sessions (because, of course, one cannot be world-class by just staying home, right?). In the sports setting, however, this almost always means competing against not just the best in one’s school, one’s neighborhood, one’s city, or even one’s country, but going a step further and measuring one’s capacities against the best and brightest of the continent, if not the world.

In the context of the Philippines, this action results in two outcomes – our athletes get to learn from the best, and our athletes get to show the world how Filipinos play.

For Philippine hoops to flourish on the world stage, we need to go global.

#GilasIssues: Part 2 – It’s Not The Coach

Off with his head.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much backlash result from such an unfortunate confluence of events involving Gilas Pilipinas.

After steering Gilas to a disappointing finish in the 2014 Asian Games, seemingly shaming naturalized player Marcus Douthit in public after losing to Qatar, and engineering an unprecedented own-goal attempt against the Kazakhs, coach Chot Reyes came under fire from all angles.

Many wanted him out of Gilas as soon as possible.

Some considered him no more than a disgrace to Philippine basketball.

Everybody wanted, at the very least, an explanation.

Practically nobody was left in his corner, except those who were actually, literally, with him in Incheon, South Korea.

Coach Chot had a forgettable stint in the 2014 Asian Games.
(image from Jumpball.co.kr)

"It's unfair criticism. Obviously, the result here in Korea wasn't what we had planned. We were hopeful to compete for the gold medal. But again a lot of unexpected things happened, from Andray's eligibility issue, to having Marcus back after pretty much two to three months layoff, and on top of that the injuries, but then again, it's not an excuse. The guys continued to fight, gave everything they had but for this particular tournament, it wasn't enough," said Jimmy Alapag in one interview.

#GilasIssues: Part 1 - The Big Picture

Don’t cry for Gilas Pilipinas.

It’s not dead.

It’s not buried.

It’s not gone.

The team fell short, sure.

No medals from Incheon, sure.

A collective record of 4 wins and 8 losses in its last two tournaments, sure.

Coach Chot calling out Marcus, sure.

Marcus scoring an own goal, sure.

There were certainly a lot of things to be disappointed about.

Pinoy fans were the most raucous in #Incheon2014.
(image from Jumpball.co.kr)