RP 5 tormentors in PBA joust

Two players who figured prominently in quashing the Philippines’ gold medal hopes in the last two Asian Games are listed in rosters of two of three foreign teams competing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Samsung Invitational Championships starting tomorrow at the Cuneta Astrodome.

Chinese star Sun Jun of the Jilin Northeast Tigers and South Korean hotshot Bang Sung Yoon of Yonsei University earned a reputation as spoilers for their showing against the Philippines in the semifinals of the Asian Games in Bangkok and Busan.

Sun, 33, scored a team-high 15 points, including 3-of-5 triples, to lift China to an 82-73 win over the Philippines in the semifinals of the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. The shifty 6-6 swingman also compiled three steals in 30 minutes and 19 seconds of action. He logged more minutes than celebrated teammates Wang Zhizhi and Batere Mengke.

A three-time Olympian, Sun has led the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in scoring thrice. This season, he was named the CBA’s MVP after averaging a league-high 32.7 points. Sun played for China at the 1994 World Championships in Toronto.

Bang, 20, made his debut on the South Korean national squad at the Asian Games in Busan last year. The 6-6 forward came off the bench to knock in four points, including 1-of-5 treys, and grab three rebounds in the Koreans’ 69-68 win over the Philippines in the semifinals. In other Busan games, Bang shot 21 points, spiked by four triples, and hauled down seven boards in South Korea’s 114-98 win over Kazakhstan and collected 11 points and five rebounds in the Koreans’ 79-62 decision over Japan.

Bang recently played in the Southern California Summer Pro League in Long Beach. Arthur Volbert, reporting in the website eurobasket.com, said "the training Bang received ... is likely to aid Korea’s efforts in the Asian championships in September."

The 10 participating teams in the Invitationals are bracketed into two groups. Jilin, Coca-Cola, Alaska, San Miguel Beer, and the Philippine team are in one bracket. Yonsei University, Talk ‘N’ Text, Red Bull, FedEx, and Novi Sad of Yugoslavia are in the other.

After the elimination round, the top two finishers in each bracket slug it out in the crossover semifinals with the survivors advancing to dispute the crown in a best-of-3 playoff.

The Tigers are bringing in eight players from the squad that went to the CBA semifinals this past season. Missing is 6-8 Wang Bo, recently drafted into the Chinese national team. But Jilin will reportedly be reinforced by 6-7 veteran Ma Jian who was the last cut of the Los Angeles Clippers two straight seasons before returning to play in China in 1996. Ma, 33, once saw action as an import in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL). The former University of Utah cager played for China at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

PBA sources confirmed attempts to fly in Ma but could not guarantee his arrival. The Tigers plane in from China tonight.

Alaska coach Tim Cone burned the phone lines the other day trying to secure a tape of the Tigers in action. He was referred by Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) secretary-general Graham Lim to CBA deputy secretary-general Fei Yi Xiang in Beijing for a tape. It is not likely Cone will get the CBA’s cooperation.

Cone said he’s familiar with Sun’s game but knows nothing about his Jilin teammates, other than Ma if he plays. The Aces take first crack at the Tigers on Wednesday. Cone was the Centennial team coach at the 1998 Asian Games where Sun shone brightly for China.

Tigers assistant coach Jay Humphries, who played in the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 1995, will not join the team in Manila. Jilin will be coached by Gao Shumin.

Yonsei is considered South Korea’s top basketball factory. Among its products are national stars Kyung Eun Moon, Cho Dong Hyun, Park Jae Jung, and Woo Jin Won.

Aside from Bang, Yonsei will lean on four mainstays of the South Korean squad that had an impressive showing at the World Junior Championships in Greece a few weeks ago. They are 6-4 Yang Hee Jong, 6-2 Kim Tae Sul, 6-6 Kim Jae Hwan and 6-2 Lee Kwang Jae. Yonsei will not suit up new high school recruit 7-3 Ha Seung Jin.

The Koreans trounced China, 101-72, lost a one-point cliffhanger to powerhouse Turkey, and dropped a close 89-83 decision to highly-regarded Argentina in the junior tournament originally set in Kuala Lumpur but later moved to Athens because of the SARS scare in Asia. In assessing Korea’s performance, Volbert said the national team showed "substantial signs of beginning to understand the physical, athletic way that the game is played outside Asia."

The third foreign team, Novi Sad, is coached by former Austrian national mentor Dragan Kecojevic. Three of the Yugoslav squad’s stalwarts are 6-9 Bojan Popovic, 6-2 Slobodan Subasic and 6-4 Predrag Popovic.

Bojan Popovic, 18, is from the Bar junior squad. Subasic, 24, is from Kragujevac and played for Vojvodina Novi Sad in 1998-99. Predrag Popovich, 20, plays for the Trondheim Tornadoes in the Norwegian league.