MY PROBLEM WITH PHILIPPINE BASKETBALL
The Philippines was occupied by the United States after the latter gained sovereignty over the country from Spain through the Treaty of Paris in 1898. The Americans staged a mock battle in Manila Bay and made fools out of the revolutionaries who thought the Americans were liberators.
I have seen my son's history textbooks now, and I can see the glaring difference in how they portray the American Occupation compared to the way it was portrayed in my time.
One main thing that stood out is that they aren't as nice to the Americans as they once were in my textbooks.
In the mainland United States, Filipinos were seen as savages, even though we had a more advanced way of living, with Spain being the older country that was also competing for top-dog status until the cost of maintaining its global empire depleted its resources.
So, from 1898 to 1945, and I guess even up until today, you can feel the sphere of influence the Americans have had over Filipinos. And with the rest of the world advancing, along with the way the country has been reacting nowadays, that grip has gradually decreased.
Now, I know what you're thinking: What the hell is this long intro?
Well, it's about our basketball.
For almost a century, we have patterned our basketball after the Americans, particularly the NBA. For most of us '90s kids, we had Michael Jordan posters instead of Spanish legend Juan Antonio San Epifanio. I mean, we're not in the wrong here. It's cooler to dream about dunking the ball with your tongue out than taking a set shot.
However, we also played with more isolation and fewer set plays.
And yes, basketball is played in the streets, or anywhere you can put a hoop. However, the game is still played with style over substance. We learned basketball and played it as if we were in the streets, even in the biggest of pro stages.
There are more isolation drives, there is more pizzazz, and even the way we hit our threes has a certain unnecessary style. Even the way we play defense has a certain oomph. Whether it's a phantom punch, a deliberate elbow, a jersey being pulled down, or a wrestling move for possession, the best way to do it is if the fans are into it.
I mean, Toyota versus Crispa, Ateneo versus La Salle, Letran versus San Beda, and even the SMC versus MVP rivalry have this, which is why we love it whenever we see it.
And because of the influence Michael Jordan brought, along with the other NBA superstars before and after him, we play the game in a way that no Milo Best, Alaska Camp, or any other basketball seminar could cure. We look for heroics at the end and just disregard the other things we do beforehand.
The Ber months are basically the peak of Philippine basketball action. Aside from the FIBA qualifiers, we have all sorts of basketball tournaments spawning. At the moment, the UAAP and the NCAA have just started, and after the second Group E window, the PBA will go back into action.
The new NBA season will premiere in October, with the EuroLeague, CBA, KBL, B.League, and EASL following suit. Not to mention, the MPBL games are about to get hella important.
However, whenever we watch these games, it feels like the plays in college aren't that different from the ones in the pros.
There are two Pinoy basketball jargons I need to mention now.
Agawan buko is defined as a chaotic way to gain possession of the basketball.
Meanwhile, balibag-tae is a wild attempt at the basket.
I mean, how can we advance to the biggest basketball stage if we just create something out of a "nowhere" play and then our baskets aren't sure-ball makes?
And let me get back to the UAAP and NCAA, because no matter how many foreign players we put in the lineup, if we are just going to execute the same shitty plays and take the same wild attempts at the basket, then we're just stuck where we are.
And I think it's backward thinking to say that we aren't doing enough to develop our players.
We do.
I know the Asian Games for the 5X5 men's team is a bad look, considering that the officials knew something was wrong even before we witnessed the outcome. I mean, you can stop blaming the players and officials, but if the team was finished even before the Opening Ceremonies had started, then how can you not be embarrassed by the outcome?
That said, if you watch the Women's or Juniors divisions of the NCAA and the UAAP, you can see the same problem. And this is alarming because, at this point, the players have no reason to have egos, look for sponsorships, and get angsty with the officials.
What I'm trying to say is that there must be some way to hone our basics.
If you saw Slam Dunk, Coach Anzai gave Hanamichi Sakuragi an insane task: to hit 20,000 jump shots. Yes, it feels insane, but it proved vital to Sakuragi's development. The Shohoku versus Ryonan-Shoyo arc was my favorite part of the series because, while we never saw Sakuragi's sophomore season, this was basically the point at which we saw him turn into a more serious player.
By refining his flaws from the previous tournament, Coach Anzai saw both the problem and his potential, and he made it his mission to develop that potential further.
If you've been checking out my blog, you know I am advocating for the PBA to get younger, especially since most of its draft picks are between 23 and 27. But for these players to develop further and not get stuck in basketball limbo, they need to perfect the basics.
One of Gilas Pilipinas' main problems is that our shooting isn't solid. If we made our baskets, whether they were two-point shots, triples, or free throws, then the China lead wouldn't have been as bad as it was. If we had just hit those shots, then we wouldn't have lost to Bahrain.
And yes, this isn't just a one-time thing or even a one-tournament situation. This has been happening throughout the Philippine basketball scene since the PBA was launched in 1975.
Yes, I said it. The whole thing came around when the PBA happened because, three years before its launch, Robert Jaworski and the rest of Team Philippines competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics, and then won the 1973 ABC Championship, which was the previous name of the FIBA Asia Cup, which gave them a spot in the 1974 FIBA World Championship.
When the PBA and the BAP back then didn't sever their ties, the Filipinos would have been privy to the way international basketball was being played at that stage, and we wouldn't have been overtaken by China by this much.
So, do we blame the PBA?
Well, you can, but we forget that the PBA is the first professional basketball league in Asia, and it's almost our right to have been the first because we were THAT good compared to the other countries in Asia. But yeah, since FIBA prohibited professional players from joining sanctioned tournaments back then, most of the players came from colleges and amateur leagues like the PABL and MICAA.
That said, if we had the proper program to create top basketball players at a young age, then the PBA would have been their natural progression.
Somewhere along the way, especially with the advent of the NBA, we went from doing set shots to doing dipsy-doos.
So, for me, it has to start from the ground up.
I think we have that figured out because the likes of Kai Sotto, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, and even the likes of Juan Gomez de Liano, Justine Baltazar, Rhenz Abando, SJ Belangel, RJ Abarrientos, and Justin Arana are around this age.
But what's driving me nuts is that we are forgetting the basics.
I don't want to nitpick, but in the two games Jonathan Manalili has played in the NCAA, he has made 11 of his 16 shots. However, Manalili has yet to attempt a three-point shot.
Manalili may be the sheesh now, but when will he learn to hit his triples? If Titing is going to play for Gilas, he has to learn how to confidently shoot his threes because I doubt he can use his speed to drive to the rim on a consistent basis. He needs to become a threat from the perimeter so his opponents won't sag off him too much.
This is the problem Jayson Castro had early in his PBA career, and this is the problem Scottie Thompson is currently improving on in the international scene.
And in the Asian Games, we can see the same thing with all of our basketball teams.
In the semifinals and the bronze medal match, the men's 3X3 team combined to shoot 2-of-15 from beyond the arc. For the women's 3X3 side, they shot 1-of-15. Yes, the 3X3 squad had a game plan in which they would power their way to the basket, but for every Nic Cabanero drive or Kacey Dela Rosa seal, the opponent would just snipe a point more from the outside to counter their efforts.
And while the 5X5 teams didn't really do that badly from the three-point area, you could say it's far worse because this is a game where size matters as well. This is why it's important for the players to shoot well from the outside. In the Bahrain game, Calvin Oftana had six of the team's 11 triples, while in the Kazakhstan duel, Jerrick Ahanmisi went berserk with seven triples. This means only two players were able to make good use of the long-distance zone while the others struggled.
Meanwhile, it's even more difficult for the 5X5 teams because they have other variables working against them, such as running up and down both sides of the court and battling for possession while looking for ways to score against taller players.
OUTSIDE SHOOTING STATS
EVENT | GP | 3PM | 3PA | PCT% | RESULT |
MEN'S 5X5 | 3 | 33 | 93 | 35.5% | GROUP STAGE |
WOMEN'S 5X5 | 4 | 30 | 89 | 33.7% | QUARTERFINALS |
EVENT | GP | 2PM | 2PA | PCT% | RESULT |
MEN'S 3X3 | 6 | 11 | 43 | 25.6% | 4TH |
WOMEN'S 3X3 | 6 | 7 | 32 | 21.9% | SILVER MEDAL |
The PBA is a league in which the rookies are in their mid-to-late twenties. This means that by the time they improve their game, they might already be virtual elder statesmen in international tournaments.
And while I hate to compare them to Kiefer Ravena, last season with the Yokohama B-Corsairs, he hit almost 46 percent of his shots, with a whopping 38 percent from the three-point area.
That said, SJ Belangel finished last season with the Daegu KOGAS Pegasus averaging 15.8 points per game on a 43 percent field-goal clip and a 31 percent three-point clip.
Yes, these are decent numbers, but we can't really say he is a benchmark for Philippine guards because we never really saw the need to pressure him to return to the PBA and play for Gilas Pilipinas. It's actually the same case with Migs Oczon. Before suffering a season-ending injury last season with the Ulsan Mobis Phoebus, the former Benilde Blazer had a 41 percent field-goal clip and a 41 percent three-point clip. Yes, Oczon's stats aren't that high, but he wasn't exactly a deadshot from the three-point area when he was still playing in the NCAA.
If you've lasted this long, then I applaud you.
Again, I will reiterate my stance on Philippine basketball. I am a PBA fan and will continue to support the league, to the point that I believe we should allow younger players to enter the professional ranks earlier so we can get the best out of them at a young age.
That said, these players need to iron out their kinks. We already know how the game is played internationally, and I can still see us playing our own style. However, we need to find a way to score more efficiently and create the right plays to take sure-ball shots.
I don't know if this is because of confidence, an inferiority complex, or whatever, but if we improve on these things, we might have a better chance to dominate not only in international basketball but in all aspects of the game played in the country.
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