Joson second Filipino after Animam in Aussie league
Jack Danielle Animam’s latest overseas gig is in Australia, where she will soon be joined there by another Gilas Pilipinas fixture in Jhazmin Joson.
And their stints there will, without a doubt, bolster the national basketball program as it forges ahead.
“The involvement of Jack and Jhaz can inspire young athletes and potentially attract more attention to women’s basketball in the country,” national coach Pat Aquino told the Inquirer on Sunday, shortly after helping oversee a Gilas girls tryout in Davao.
“Their stints there will contribute to the growth and development (of the program),” he went on.
Animam, who has played in Serbia, France and China, has signed with the NBL1 club Ringwood Hawks. She has since debuted for the squad, turning in a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds in an 83-55 rout of Kilsyth Cobras.
Days later, Joson also turned pro, her path leading to the Goldfields Giants that compete in the Western Conference of the Aussie league.
Animam has helped deliver multiple gold medals for the Philippines. Joson, meanwhile, was integral in the National Five’s breakthrough victory in the main division of the Fiba (International Basketball Federation) Women’s Asia Cup.
The 6-foot-4 Animam has been the lone homegrown Gilas player to ever ply her trade outside Southeast Asia. Options for other and smaller members of the National Five have been scarce over the years as they were limited to either offers to become an import to neighboring countries like Malaysia.
More than the exposure that Animam and Joson’s stints will bestow upon the game here, Aquino believes that it will also harness something within.
It is exactly what the Gilas program needs as it braces for the next Fiba competition, The World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournaments, slated sometime in late August
“[This will reinforce the belief of] the athletes that they are capable of competing on a global scale,” Aquino said.
The seasoned mentor, who has steered the program to a bevy of milestones, assured that both Animam and Joson will be ready for Philippine duty when that tournament comes along. INQ
