What might have been?

BAGUIO City – I have had the uncommon privilege to see so many young athletes take wing and discover their latent abilities. None of these experiences have been as exhilarating as watching street basketball kids learn the rudiments of the game and blossom. This weekend, I had a chance to go back and see what might have been, particularly for a young man whose awesome potential as a basketball player I saw five years ago.

John Della was the eighteen-year old team captain of Baguio to the 1997 adidas Streetball national finals. He and his three teammates had survived a grueling elimination on the streets of Burnham Park, and were working their way through their taller opponents from Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Bacolod. Among those who had fallen by the wayside in previous eliminations were future standouts Gerard Francisco and James Yap.

A rainstorm forced the final games to be transferred indoors. In the final, Della and company would be ranged against a tough Ateneo de Manila squad that had claimed the Metromanila championship. The team boasted future blue chip varsity starters Enrico Villanueva and Wesley Gonzales (now Ateneo Blue Eagles), whose parents had driven up to Baguio to cheer them on.

The prizes were no joke: cash and sports gear, plus the right to represent the country in the World Streetball finals in Milan, Italy, where they would surely meet the young Kobe Bryant and perhaps the sage Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then adidas’ signature endorsers. Baguio had never come this far in any national basketball tournament.

With twenty seconds to go and the score tied, Della let fly a long bomb, worth two points. On the next play Villanueva got a lay-up, worth one. With time running down, it dawned on the Baguio boys that they had rewritten the record book of sorts. And they were going to Italy.

"I thank my teammates for trusting me with that last shot," Della recalls. "It was a very fulfilling experience for me. We got to represent the Philippines in international competition."

At that time, many observers noted that Della would have made a great pro. At 5-10 and with a wiry frame and possessing no trepidation in taking the big shot from anywhere on the hardwood, he could have been the next Ato Agustin or Allan Caidic. With his clean good looks and intelligent manner, the young swingman had a terrific basketball future ahead of him.

Today, 23-year old John Della is the executive assistant of Leo Arnaiz, owner of Athlete’s Haven, distributor of adidas and Jump Soles in Baguio. A constant presence and leading scorer in the Cordillera Basketball League, the young husband and father of a five-year old daughter recalls with fondness his street basketball experience.

"It was all good. It helped my character. I matured, and learned a lot from meeting people from other countries."

His jaw still drops when recalling his encounter with Kobe Bryant, who has since soared to the zenith of the basketball on the world stage with the three-peating NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

"He’s meant for basketball," Della recalls. "He was amazing in how much he loved the game. "Wala siyang pakialam. He would just play whenever he felt like it. Not that he was showing off. He just loved to play."

And Della had mixed emotions about having played ballers like Villanueva and Gonzales, who are now the cream of the crop, and on the cusp of turning pro.

"I knew they would make it big. They had the height, and they had the skills." He quickly adds "Their advantage is natutukan sila ng mga magagaling na coaches. Not that we don’t have good coaches here in Baguio. But it’s different in Manila."

Although he only tried out once for an MBA team, Della still thinks about turning pro, though it would mean uprooting his small family from the only home they’ve known. Still, he has had the rare experience of playing on foreign soil.

"I learned what I still needed to do to improve myself as a Filipino basketball player," he shares. "Things are different abroad, and I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to travel and see other cultures as well."

Does he still think of playing in the PBA or MBA some day, as some of us thought he would?

"Maybe next time I’m in Manila, I’ll try out," he says. Some would shake their heads and say it might be a waste of his prodigious talent, but, at any rate, it’s still not too late.

John Della just smiles the smile of a young man confident in his abilities, and at peace with the life he has led, a life that has its own share of success and richness, and still revolving around the game he loves.