A league with a purpose

This summer, basketball clinics and leagues are sprouting like crabgrass. Every school gym and municipal multipurpose facility will be packed with young children and eager teens trying to learn the game. Tomorrow, a different kind of basketball league returns to the picture after year’s absence.

"Last year, we just didn’t have the players," muses Filipino-Indian Basketball League commissioner Dilip Budhrani. "Many concentrated on their businesses, some returned to India, so it was a lean year. But now, we’re back with an intriguing new twist."

In its first three seasons, the FIBL had a unique drafting system. The top 20 players were spread out among the four teams to achieve some form of parity, and the rest of the players were drafted. Now, things are different.

"The team owners decided to scrap the old format and just build their teams from scratch," the former race organizer reveals. "We’ll be in for some surprises."

Unlike other league, in the FIBL players pay to play, and team owners give a set amount for the venue rental and other peripheral items. The competition in 2001 was fierce, with the Knights emerging champion. No team has repeated as champion, so the Knights will be pressured to achieve that rare accomplishment.

The coaches are no slouches either. Seven-time PBA Best Import Bobby Parks has taken the reigns of the newest member team, the Titans. Jing Ruiz, a veteran of the Shell Turbochargers, coaches the defending champions. Former Ginebra guard Mika Advani steers the Hoop It Up Kings, and Archie Pico runs the Bombay Bombers. The competition is intense, and the games are often close, despite the lack of formal training of many of the players.

"This is the only league I know where, after every game, everybody goes out for a meal and a drink or two, including the players and coaches," Budhrani says. "But of course, things change during the playoffs and finals, when they try to keep some distance."

I asked Budhrani why, aside from Advani, they weren’t any other significant Fil-Indian players. His answer was very frank.

"Well, many of those who play also work, and are somewhat well-off. So they don’t really need it," he admits. "And Mike was really different. He really worked twice as hard as everybody else. He was really driven."

One project player that the FIBL hopes to help is PBA Draft reject Khomar Khanshroff. The skinny 6’4" native of Samar has had the hardest of lots in life. His Indian father died when he was young, and his Filipina mother allegedly wants nothing to do with him. Khanshroff worked in a carinderia for enough just to survive, and never even had a decent pair of size 14 shoes for his feet. Having gone without for so long, he simply accepted the discomfort and damaged toenails as part of life.

"When Mike Advani got him a pair of basketball shoes, he was near tears," Budhrani relates. "And I really hope he does well. We’re hoping his training under Bobby Parks really improves him, and hopefully he makes it into the PBL."

Budhrani also gave Khanshroff a job in his warehouse, so he now has some pride, something to call his own. After all, that’s what the young commissioner hopes his league stands for.

"We say ‘Your faith; your art; your taste; your heritage; your league. And we want to uplift the image of the Filipino-Indian. Our cultures have not totally understood each other in the past, and I’m hoping the league will be a bridge between the two cultures."

Budhrani runs a tight ship, from the use of venue (Makati Coliseum) to the officiating (which he also follows through a personal television monitor during games). And he has constantly been looking for ways to improve his system.

"This year, I’m planning something really big for our awarding. I can’t say what it is just yet, but it will be something like an off-Broadway spectacular."

The FIBL opens tomorrow at the Makati Coliseum, and will run for ten weeks, excluding Holy Week.

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Don’t miss this week’s episode of The Basketball Show on IBC-13 at 4 p.m. All the action from the PBA, PBL, and preparations for the coming UAAP and NCAA battles in the fastest 60 minutes on Philippine television.