System needs fixing
The Philippines has historically been among the top contenders in Asian Games basketball; the country has consistently advanced to the knockout rounds or has even stayed in medal-hunt position.
But a game against a perennial rival ended that run—and exposed some of the parts within the country’s basketball system that need fixing.
“Of course, it feels bad,” Calvin Oftana said in a television interview moments after a 105-61 defeat to China that slammed the door shut on its Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games stint.
“We did not want this kind of a result for us and for the team,” added Oftana, after China ensured a new men’s basketball champion in the continental showcase.
The Philippines looked like it could still make the quarterfinals despite a shock opening defeat to a heavily-naturalized Bahrain squad. After turning back Kazakhstan in its second game and with results from other groups falling into place for Gilas Pilipinas, all the team needed to do was avoid a loss of 38 points or more.
That didn’t seem a big thing to ask for a squad that upset China on its home court in the semifinals of the last Asiad on the way to the country’s first continental crown in six decades. Even without miracle worker Justin Brownlee, the task seemed doable.
“We got behind the eight-ball early because we came out with the thought of trying to win the game,” national coach Tim Cone said. “We just got a little bit excited and played a little bit quickly, and that got us behind.
“And then at halftime, we figured [that] if we want to survive this tournament, we have to win the quotient game. We tried to do that in the second half. I thought we played a lot better. I thought [assistant] coach Richard del Rosario made a great adjustment in the second half by going zone.”
Del Rosario has been mapping out the plays in the last two games while Cone watched from the bench.
But Gilas Pilipinas seemed doomed long before China went on runs in the first half that allowed it to pull away. Even Cone admitted that the Philippines was already playing behind even before the Bahrain stunner.
“[I]f we don’t or can’t bring our best players to these international events, we won’t excel,” said Cone. “We brought some really good players, but we didn’t bring our best players.”
And that draws the PBA into the discussion. There was a time when the PBA lending its top players for the national cause meant relief for the national program. But with top prospects plying their trade in more lucrative leagues abroad, pooling together the top national team standouts poses a challenge.
For the PBA to regain its status as the ultimate go-to for top Filipino prospects, the league will need to match, or pay close to, contracts offered by foreign leagues.
And sources told the Inquirer that an informal and unofficial study showed that at least half the current field of PBA teams will not be able to sustain their franchises if the league adjusted its salary tiers to challenge offers from abroad.
Even the status of the country’s naturalized players pool came under scrutiny with Brownlee, Jordan Clarkson and Ange Kouame as the only available options. And none of them were able to suit up for the Asiad for various reasons.
“The question is: why do the other countries have so many naturalized players?” Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said.
“Why can’t we?”
Naturalizing players in the country is a drawn-out process and even with Bennie Boatwright already granted citizenship after his naturalization lapsed into law, there were still documents he needed to complete that could not meet the Asian Games deadline.
“It’s not an easy process to naturalize players like it is in other countries,” Cone said.
The Philippines wound up ninth in the competition with its early exit, even worse than the seventh-place showing during the 2014 edition held in Incheon, South Korea.
“We gave ourselves a shot, but we came up short,” Cone said.
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