The Gilas and their Quest

It's all over but the muscle aches and finishing fourth in the recently concluded FIBA-Asia Stankovic Cup notwithstanding, the Philippine National Developmental Basketball Team, a.k.a. Smart-Gilas, can hold their heads up high as they secured a spot in next year's FIBA-Asia Men's Basketball championships. This serves as a qualifying event for the 2012 London Olym-pics.

I give due recognition to Asi Taulava, who without reservations, and maybe purposes of evasion, shared his time, talents and effort for flag and country. Why does it take some-body like Asi who was not even born and raised in this calamity-privileged (natural or man-made) banana republic to carry our colors in international competitions? This question holds true to all other sporting disciplines where foreign-born and bred athletes readily jump on the chance to have the national flag on their chests.

There were four key players on the Gilas for some reasons or whatever, who skipped the tournament. Their absence pushed the panic button and almost prevented their participa-tion. Coach Rajko Toroman, the same Toroman who piloted Hamed Hadadi of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and the rest of the Iranians to world prominence, requested for Asi and, if I'm not mistaken, two other players from the PBA. Long story short, Asi was the only one, true patriot, being technically still a Tongan, who responded for the call of duty.

Team Pilipinas was the smallest but speediest squad on the tournament held in Beirut and they gave a surprisingly splendid performance managing to go toe-to-toe with the Arabs, particularly host Lebanon, losing by just a point. This resulted into their best performance ever since their inception two years ago.

This is a developmental squad and the composition just shows the inexperience in international competitions. Well, if the point is to develop, then we stick to the core of collegiate and commercial players, plus a few reinforcements. We continue to send them to internationally sanctioned tournaments for exposure and then evaluate results as it progresses.   Again, this holds true to other sports.

The national basketball team has in the pool Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, Dylan Ababou, JV Casio, Jason Ballesteros, Aldrech Ramos, Mac Barracael, Marc Bar-roca, Chris Tiu, JR Cawaling and Fil-Am Chris Lutz.

American Marcus Douthit and Fil-Am Marcio Lassiter are included in the pool but they still have and must secure their Philippine passports before the September 15 deadline for submission of lineups imposed by the Asian Games organizing committee.

And they want to have that basketball gold which the national team last won in 1962 at the fourth staging of the Asiad in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Toroman and team manager Frankie Lim wants a PBA selection for the 2010 Asiad scheduled in November at Guangzhou, China. If the two could have their way, they want aside from Taulava, James Yap, Arwind Santos, Kelly Williams, Sol Mercado, Ryam Reyes and Ranidel de Ocampo. Together with the big men in the original pool, this team can match up with the other Asian powers, particularly the heftier and taller Middle Eastern quintets.

But for these PBA players to don the national colors, they still have to secure approval from their mother teams and the PBA board. This could be disadvantageous to the collegiate standouts on the team as obviously, they will be inferior to the pros, talent-wise. The set-up will displace them and that would create problems.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and SMART Telecom must weigh their options and decide on what they deem best for the team. And since GMA 7 also sponsors the national team, it would be nice if they can show Gilas games on TV. So far, I haven't caught their games on the "kapuso" network. Where is your heart for Gilas fans who long for the games on TV?

For trivia's sake, after the Beirut games last week, FIBA ranked the Gilas #53, up by three notches from the previous 56. We belong to the FIBA-Asia Zone composed of 20 teams with the top 10 comprising China (9) followed by Iran (21), Lebanon (24), Korea (27), Qatar (28), Japan (32), Kazakhstan (36), Jordan (38), Chinese Taipei (42) and India (52). Enclosed num-bers after each team are the FIBA world rankings.

The Philippines joined FIBA in 1936, had 7 Olympic appearances and 4 World Championship appearances, winning the bronze in 1954. Of the 23 Asian Championship participations, we won the gold in 1960, 1963, 1967, 1973 and 1986. We had silver in 1965 and 1971 and the bronze in 1969. This year, the Gilas aim to fly and soar in the Guangzhou Asiad and hope for a medal finish. It's really all up to the basketball gods if they give their blessings to Team Pilipinas. Meanwhile, we continue to dream.

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