ENDEAVOR
As the FIBA World Cup Championship unfolds at the Philippines Arena tomorrow, Baby Boomers like me could not help but reminisce how basketball was a significant aspect of our growing-up years.
The Philippines also hosted the FIBA World Cup in 1978, at the Araneta Coliseum, where we placed eighth after qualifying for the finals as host. Filipinos are hopeful our Gilas Pilipinas team will perform as well and relive the glory days of Philippine basketball – just like in 1954 when our team bagged the bronze medal in FIBA World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, behind the United States and host Brazil.
Flashback to December 1973 at the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) championship held at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum on Vito Cruz, with a capacity of only 6,100 compared to the 52,000-seat Philippine Arena.
Our national team coached by Valentin ‘Tito’ Eduque won the championship with a 90-78 victory over South Korea that was led by the legendary Shin Dong-pa. The team was made up of the elite amateur players from the MICAA commercial league, as the professional PBA league did not open until 1975.
I could still vividly remember watching that game on live television. If memory serves, the play-by-play was done by Joe Cantada with Willy Hernandez as the analyst. The champion team was composed of the following: Alberto ‘Big Boy’ Reynoso, Abet Guidaben, Jimmy Mariano, Robert ‘Sonny’ Jaworski, Francis Arnaiz, Rogelio ‘Tembong’ Melencio, Ramon Fernandez, William ‘Bogs’ Adornado, Manny Paner, Yoyong Martirez, and Dave Regullano. Their jersey numbers were consecutively numbered from four for team captain Reynoso and five to 15 for the rest of the team. Uncannily, they carried these jersey numbers with them through their later years in professional basketball.
Just over a year later, I had the opportunity to get to know many of them up close and personal, as they played for Far East Bank in goodwill games. Particularly memorable was a two-week stint played in Tagum, Davao del Sur; Digos, Davao del Norte; and Koronadal, Marbel and General Santos in South Cotabato. The team was joined by Danny Florencio and Arturo Valenzona. Florencio was the hero in the 1967 ABC championship in Korea; he also played for the Philippine team that qualified for the 1972 Munich Olympics as the top team in Asia. That was before the People’s Republic of China replaced Taiwan in international competitions.
My keen interest in basketball was sparked when I was 10 years old in grade five at Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati. Don Bosco emphasized sports activities as a way of instilling discipline and civility among students. I tagged along with the Don Bosco basketball team in inter-school competitions and served as the scorer. After each game, I would write a story on how our team fared and this was posted on the bulletin board with photos of the game taken from Kodak instamatic cameras. That was decades away from today’s hi-tech digital gadgets that could have transmitted news and photos in real-time via Viber, Twitter, or Facebook.
In high school, I watched games live at the Rizal Memorial after classes. I was fortunate to catch a glimpse of the legendary Carlos ‘Caloy’ Loyzaga during his pre-retirement years. He played for the YCO Painters team owned by Don Manolo Elizalde who also watched from behind their bench. There was a storied rivalry between YCO and Ysmael Steel that pitted flashy forward Narciso Bernardo against tough guard Ed Ocampo. Other prominent YCO redshirts were clutch shooter Renato ‘Sonny’ Reyes and tough center Elias Tolentino. Among Bernardo’s teammates were Big Boy Reynoso and Jimmy Mariano.
The YCO-Ysmael rivalry was an outgrowth of the UAAP cage wars in which the leading contenders were the University of the East Red Warriors and the University of Santo Tomas Glowing Goldies. These would lead eventually to the Crispa-Toyota duopoly of the PBA’s peak years. Among the memorable Crispa imports were Billy Ray Bates and Tom Cowart. That was the era during which the Philippines also hosted the FIBA World Cup.
Everywhere in the Philippines, there are basketball courts: on town and barangay plazas, street corners, schools – either on sand lots, concrete pavement, or wooden hardcourts. Heightened interest has also been fanned by NBA stars like Michael Jorden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lebron James and Stephen Curry.
Filipino-American NBA coach Erik Spoelstra has also fired the imagination of Pinoy cage afficionados. He is in town as assistant coach of the United States team that is mentored by multi-titled coach Steve Kerr. Erik’s mother hails from Laguna. He met with then President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III in Malacañang Palace in 2011 and in 2012, after he led the Miami Heat to the NBA championship. According to a news account, he presented the president with an autographed NBA T-shirt with the message: “To President Aquino, you inspire all of us to make a difference. – Coach Spo.”
President Aquino was among thousands of spectators at the Mall of Asia Arena in 2013 when Gilas Pilipinas, also coached by Chot Reyes, defeated South Korea, 86-79, to qualify for the FIBA World Cup championship in Spain.
As I write this, the countdown goes on for the “great reveal” of final 12-player Gilas lineup. In their latest practice session with Coach Chot Reyes, 13 players showed up: Jordan Clarkson, Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, Scottie Thompson, June Mar Fajardo, Jamie Malonzo, team captain Japeth Aguilar, Rhenz Abando, RR Pogoy, AJ Edu, CJ Perez, Kiefer Ravena and Chris Newsome.
On their shoulders rest the earnest aspirations of Filipinos for a valiant and victorious stint. Mabuhay ang Gilas Pilipinas!