Finally, a vision for RP five

It took a 34-year-old business executive — who’s nuts about sports — to lay the groundwork for a long-term program that may someday soon prop up the Philippine national basketball team without relying on pros to make it competitive.

Jean Henri Lhuillier, the executive vice president and general manager of pawnshop giant Cebuana Lhuillier, said he was considering offers to sponsor a team in the commercial leagues when the opportunity to manage the national squad came along.

Since 1986, the Lhuillier group has been involved in supporting sports, primarily basketball. In the Philippine Amateur Basketball League (PABL), the Lhuillier Jewelers were bannered by such stars as Samboy Lim, Jojo Lastimosa, and RicRic Marata.

Eventually, the Lhuillier brothers — Michel and Philippe — went their separate ways, both in business and in sports. Michel owns and operates the M. Lhuillier pawnshops, mainly in Cebu, while Philippe, now the Philippine Ambassador to Italy, turned over the reins of Cebuana Lhuillier – with a nationwide network of some 600 pawnshops and 2,000 Employees – to his son Jean Henri.

In 1998, Jean Henri capitalized the entry of the Cebu Gems in the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA). The Gems played in the league until it folded up last year.

Sports has been a priority for Lhuillier since he was a boy studying at the Colegio de San Agustin and later, at Southridge. He studied at a Benedictine boarding school in California and earned a degree at St. Mary’s College – a Christian Brothers institution in Moraga. In 1992, Lhuillier took up gemology in Los Angeles to prepare for his work in the family business and a year later, returned home.

In 1994, Lhuillier assembled a Fil-Am selection that placed second runner-up in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) International Invitationals and in his first taste of overseas action, sponsored the Philippine team that saw action in the Jones Cup last year.

Lhuillier said the family company is throwing its all-out support and long-term commitment to the national team playing in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) championships here in May, the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) championships in China in August, and the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam in December.

"Our goal is to reestablish our supremacy in basketball in our region," explained Lhuillier. "Once we’ve done that, we’ll go forward and anything we achieve after is a bonus. We agreed to sponsor the national team for a year but we’re open to a long-term relationship."

Lhuillier said he’d like to hang on to the 18 players in the national pool for at least three years before they turn pro. He recently conferred with Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) commissioner Noli Eala on setting a minimum age for draft eligibles so that players 23 or 24 and below could focus on seeing action for the country.

"We’re telling our national players that the longer they stay with us, the better prepared they will be for the PBA and the longer their pro careers," he said. "Take Marc Pingris, for example. I think he’ll enjoy a longer PBA career if he stays with the national team for three years — he’ll be ripe for the pros when he moves on. My role in the team is to assure the players that we’re looking after them."

Lhuillier said it’s a family commitment to take care of players in the company rolls. "In the MBA, I remember Dondon Hontiveros broke his wrist after only three games with us," noted Lhuillier. "It didn’t matter if he played only a few games. We took care of him. Same thing with Homer Se who had an ACL injury. We guarantee the players our unconditional support."

Lhuillier said he has converted a 3,000 square meter warehouse in Las Pinas into a two-level sports center which the national players can call their home. A P5.6 Million budget was earmarked to construct a basketball court, training facilities, a recreational room, and living quarters.

Lhuillier said in the next Asian Games, if the Philippine team remains intact, it may not be necessary to enlist PBA stars wholesale. A possibility is to retain the nucleus of the squad, reinforced by certain PBA players to fill in weak spots.

The 18-man pool consists of such standouts as Ranidel de Ocampo, Pingris, Wesley Gonzales, Rich Alvarez, Willie Wilson, Peter Jun Simon, and James Yap. Aric del Rosario is the head coach with Dong Vergeire and Boysie Zamar as assistants.

Apparently, Lhuillier’s love for sports influenced his choice of a wife. In 1998, he married Barcelona Olympics taekwondo bronze medallist and former gymnast Bea Lucero. The couple has a two-year-old son Stephan Philippe. Bea is scheduled to deliver a second child in July.

"Before she got pregnant with our second child, Bea was seriously thinking of taking up wushu," related Lhuillier. "I imagine she’ll get back into sports as the kids grow up and become involved in sports, too."

Lhuillier said he still enjoys playing basketball but lately, branched out to slo-pitch baseball. In his company, he’s gotten employees to play sports — tennis is in the calendar at the moment.

Mixing sports and business, Lhuillier operated the Sports Zone bar and restaurant on Roxas Boulevard for three years. It closed last June because of poor sales. Lhuillier said if the plan to build a giant mall on reclaimed land only pushed through, Sports Zone would’ve survived because of the spillover people traffic.

Former Ateneo center Danny Francisco said Lhuillier’s motivation in managing the Philippine team is strictly selfless. "He’s doing it for the country and he loves sports," said Francisco. "It’s a platform for unifying the different organizations involved in Philippine basketball."

Lhuillier said long-term preparation is key to the success of the national squad. "It is our intention to be a major component in the formation of a long-term national basketball program under the guidance of the Basketball Association of the Philippines," he declared in no uncertain terms.