So there will be no Philippine men’s basketball team competing in this year’s Asian Games, the first time we won’t be sending a quintet since the country got suspended from participating in all FIBA-sanctioned events in 2005.
In 2005, FIBA suspended the Philippines due to conflict between warring groups inside the Basketball Association of the Philippines, then the governing body of basketball in the country. The suspension prevented us from fielding a basketball team in the Southeast Asian Games, which we hosted. One could imagine the frustration of every Filipino watching the biennial meet without basketball being played right in front of our basketball-loving countrymen.
The following year, the suspension cost us participation in the basketball event of the Doha Asian Games.
Call it deja vu 12 years later, the Philippines is not sending a basketball team either in the coming Asiad in Jakarta and you could imagine the uproar from the nation considered as the craziest when it comes to basketball. We take pride being labeled as basketball-crazy, yet we couldn’t send a team to the quadrennial meet.
What led to the non-inclusion of men’s basketball?
Unlike the women’s team which was simply not included as officials perceived the squad is not capable of winning medals, our men’s squad couldn’t join because the governing body in basketball, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, decided to pull put participation at the last minute even though there’s a team already willing to take over and represent the country in the Asian Games.
That team was Rain or Shine, which was tasked to take over the spot of the TNT Ka Tropa, whose key players figured in a free-for-all early this month in a FIBA Asia Cup qualifier to the World Cup against Australia.
All’s well as the Elasto Painters put up a team even naming their former coach, Yeng Guiao, who is now calling the shots for the NLEX Road Warriors, to rejoin his previous squad. He asked for additional players from the other PBA squads and got one in Stanley Pringle, who was agreed to be loaned by GlobalPort management.
But a midnight decision shocked the whole nation, the basketball sector in particular, as the SBP issued a statement it will no longer send a team to the Asian Games.
It was like a dagger struck to the hearts of the basketball-loving Filipinos, who were not hoping for a medal and managing expectations for the hastily put up squad, but at least wanting to see a representative out there in the event which we usually give importance.
Gone were the days when Philippine basketball prioritizes the Asian Games it even led us to creating the first ever all-professional team in 1990. The Filipinos had not won a gold medal since 1962, yet it should be more of a challenge for our basketball leaders to come up with a solid program aimed at reclaiming Asian glory via the Asiad basketball.
Yet we decided to become more ambitious, focusing our attention more in the World Cup and the Olympics.
But shouldn’t there be a program designed for the Asian Games, the SEA Games and other events that will not be participated by the PBA? Realistically, the PBA cannot accommodate all lined up in basketball calendar, hence the SBP should have come up with a more concrete program.
Which led me to asking? Whatever happened to the Gilas Cadets team?
The objective of creating a Gilas Cadets team is to ensure that there would always be a standby squad in case we’ll be participating in the Asian Games and SEA Games since the PBA players are more concentrated in more elite tournaments like the FIBA Asia qualifier for the World Cup and Olympics.
But do we really have a program for the Gilas Cadets? It looks like every time we’re participating, PBA players are the ones being bothered and the pro league had to scramble for time, trying to help out SBP like a big brother coming to the aid of the aggrieved sibling.
Where are the Gilas Cadets when they are needed the most?
Rey Joble has been covering the PBA games for more than a decade. He is a member of the PBA Press Corps and Philippine Sportswriters Association.
reyjoble09@gmail.com
