Just as the buzzer sounded off on Wednesday night, Oct. 4, in the game between the Philippines and China in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, not a few Filipinos may have stopped rejoicing for a moment to call to mind the storied campaign of the country’s first-ever, all professional basketball team in the 11th Asiad that China also hosted in Beijing 33 years ago.

Billed as the “Philippine Dream Team”, the Nationals in that 11th edition of the Games were coached by Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) legend and La Tondeña franchise coach Robert Jaworski, who was assisted by American Norman Black.

The Philippine squad was mainly made up of former players of the famed Northern Consolidated Cement amateur team of the late 80s – Allan Caidic, Hector Calma, Samboy Lim, Yves Dignadice, and Rey Cuenco; backstopped by the PBA’s battle-hardened veterans Chito Loyzaga, Dante Gonzalgo, and Ramon Fernandez; and supported by the era’s incoming cage greats – Alvin Patrimonio, Benjie Paras, Ronnie Magsanoc, and Zaldy Realubit.

The cagers from Asia’s first professional basketball league were regarded as superstars in the Games with even fellow athletes visiting their quarters in the Athletes Village just to get a glimpse of them, and a Chinese camera crew shadowing the team wherever it went.

Highly-touted for being the country’s most sparkling collection of basketball talents, the PH Dream Team buckled down to work as soon as it stepped into the Beijing Collegiate Stadium, demolishing Pakistan and Japan in the preliminary round.

In the next round, the Filipinos encountered their first serious challenge from a North Korean team that was bannered by a 7-foot-5 behemoth. But Jaworski had a master plan on how to deal with the North Korean.

Dispatching the wily Loyzaga, who was dwarfed by the North Korean giant at 6-foot-4 but was able to use his cunning, exceptional experience, and heft inside the paint, drawing four offensive fouls from him in the first half that all but took the behemoth out of the equation as the Filipinos cruised to a 98-82 victory.

But just as the Filipinos back home, as well as the handful of Filipino expatriates working in the Chinese capital, were starting to get their fill of national basketball euphoria, all that was shattered – terribly – when the Philippines ran into the Great Wall of China.

In the quarter-finals, the hosts demolished the Filipinos by 65 points (125-60) as the Chinese unraveled the talented, nimble but solid power forward Song Ligang (6-foot-7), who was already being eyed by scouts for possible drafting into the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The Filipinos were quick to bounce back from that setback as they closed out their quarter-final assignments with an 80-75 win over United Arab Emirates (UAE), then shrugged off a tentative start to pull off a 94-90 semi-final victory over Japan – setting them up for a rematch with China for the Asiad gold.

However, even after being buoyed by those convincing wins over UAE and Japan, the Filipinos could hardly find any solution to the quick and tall Chinese – as well as a jampacked Beijing Collegiate Stadium that had the local crowd chanting “China” every step of the way. The hosts convincingly prevailed anew over the visitors, 90-76, to handily win the gold.

But on Wednesday night, Oct. 4, it was payback time as the Filipinos were able to close the book on that Asian Games debacle 33 years ago, and will move on to yet another chapter in their Asiad saga in the gold medal match against Jordan.