Stunning and Saddening

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

THOUGH it was saddening to know that Philippines just landed ninth-place in  the FIBA-Asia Beijing Olympics qualifying tournament held recently, it was also disheartening to learn that our country is now ranked 62nd among the best men’s basketball teams in the world, behind many countries in Asia.

This is based on FIBA’s latest ranking report as published in one of our daily broad sheets. It is quite ironic for a basketball crazy country like the Philippines to be behind other Asian counties like Lebanon (23rd), Korea (25th), Qatar (27th), Japan (31st), Iran (32nd), Chinese-Taipei (40th), Kazakhstan (43rd), India and Syria (45th), Kuwait (50th), Hongkong (51st), Malaysia (59th), and China, now considered a world contender and the highest Asian team at rank 11.

There are only 72 countries ranked by FIBA so you can easily figure out how low we are in the ranking, despite the fact this game is unquestionably the numero uno sport of the Filipinos.

It really sounds weird, right?

But the record speaks for itself.

Our low ranking is due to three major reasons. Our debacle during the FIBA-Asia tourney is one of them. Second was our suspension by the FIBA during the last two years. But most of all, we are not sending our contingent for the FIBA-Asia Under-21 and Under-19 tournaments. All these affect our rankings because these cagefests are all sanctioned by FIBA and are used as one of the criteria in ranking the countries.

I still wonder WHY we do not send our delegations since we can easily recruit a lot of good players in the country from these age groups. Remember, we  send our tot and pony baseball little leaguers abroad yearly using taxpayers’ money, but why can’t we send some our young players to cagefests where I believe we have a very good chance of winning.

Weird again, right?

Gone were the days of Carlos Loyzaga, Lauro Mumar Sr., Carlos Badion, Tembong Melencio and Robert Jaworski.

These dribblers put Philippines in the basketball map, especially Loyzaga when he spearheaded our country to finish third in the Second World Basketball Championship held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1954.  Because of his sterling performance during the ten-day hostilities, Loyzaga was selected as one of the members of the æmythical selection,’ a feat never surpassed yet by any Asian cager.

Loyzaga also sparked the Philippines to four straight triumphs in the Asian Games, 1951 in New Delhi, 1954 in Manila, 1958 in Tokyo and the last in 1962 in Jakarta. He was also the skipper of the winning RP squad to the ABC championship, now called FIBA-Asia, held in 1960 in Manila and 1963 in Taipei.

As the head coach, he steered the RP five to the 1967 ABC crown and to 13th place in the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Our very own Calasiao son Orlando Bauzon was one of the members of that squad.

Now my next question is, why are we still focusing on this sport even knowing that we don’t have a chance at winning a major title at all?

Weird again.

If you ask me, we should concentrate on sports that we know we could excel in, like what our south Asian neighbors our doing, Indonesia and Thailand to name a few. They have been reaping gold medals, unlike us.

We are now 88 million in population but we have yet to produce a ‘golden boy’ or ‘wonder woman’. Nakakahiya ika nga.  When will we ever learn? Siguro pagputi ng uwak.

And also it’s sad to know that no Pangasinense was drafted during this year’s PBA draft held recently. The last time I knew a Pangasinan player was selected to join the professional rank was when Pozorrubian Marc Pingris was drafted in 2003.

Is our province running out of good players now? I guess so. The PBA’s annual draft speaks for itself.

This is a wake up call to our well-known coaches Angel Gumarang, Jack Vidal and William Manaois.  Chino Trinidad and Dayong Mendoza are waiting for your boys with potential.

To play in PBA is a ‘dream come true’ for every good player.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/)

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