Loyzaga elevated to FIBA Hall of Fame?

MANILA, Philippines - Carlos (The Big Difference) Loyzaga, the two-time Olympian who led the Philippines to third place at the 1954 FIBA World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, boasts of the credentials to become the first Filipino cager in the FIBA Hall of Fame but to make the induction possible, he must be nominated by the SBP to the Screening Committee as the first step.

SBP executive director Sonny Barrios said the other day he will study the process of enshrinement and look into the possibility of the national federation nominating Loyzaga. The first batch was inducted in 2007, the second in 2009 and the third in 2010 to celebrate the World Championships in Turkey. The induction is set every two years but an exception was made in 2010 because of the World Championships. The next induction is scheduled this year. Nominations are closed four months before the selection by the Honors Committee made up of FIBA president Yvan Mainini, vice president Horacio Muratore, secretary-general Patrick Baumann and secretary-general emeritus Borislav Stankovic.  If the selection will be in September, the deadline for nominations is May.

The process begins with nominations in four categories – player, coach, referee and contributor – by FIBA national federations, zones, Central Board and the Screening Committee. The nominations are reviewed by the Screening Committee headed by Baumann with Jenaro Marchand of Puerto Rico and Manfred Stroher of Germany as members then submitted to the Honors Committee for final selection. 

In the Hall of Fame are 58 players, 16 coaches, 11 referees and 31 contributors. The museum is in a four-storey building on 2,000 square meters of space in Alcobendas near Madrid. The first induction coincided with FIBA’s 75th anniversary in 2007. In the last enshrinement, 16 were inducted from 12 different countries.

Only one Filipino has been included in the Hall of Fame. In 2007, Filipino basketball coach Dionisio (Chito) Calvo was enshrined as a charter inductee in the contributor category. Calvo, who died in 1977 at the age of 74, was the first FIBA Asia secretary-general in 1960 and coached the Philippines to fifth place at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the highest finish ever by an Asian country in the Summer Games. He also coached the Philippines to the Asian Games gold medal in 1951.

So far, there are at least 58 male players, 32 female players, 11 coaches, 22 referees and 23 contributors in the candidates list for this year’s induction. For an enshrinement year, the rule of thumb is each category has a limit of six inductees for a total of 24, at least half of whom must be players. To be eligible for induction, a player must be retired at least five years. Among the candidates for enshrinement are Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Jerry West and David Robinson of the US, Uruguay’s Oscar Moglia, Canada’s Leo Rautins and Germany’s Detlef Schrempf. The players who have been inducted include NBA legends Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson, Lithuania’s Arvydas Sabonis, Serbia’s Dragan Kicanovic and Vlade Divac, Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt, Croatia’s Drazen Petrovic, Italy’s Dino Meneghin and Bosnia-Herzogovina’s Drazen Dalipagic.

No Asian player has been inducted in the Hall of Fame but there are three Asian males in the candidates list – Jordan’s Awwad Mfadi Haddad and Syria’s Jacques Bachayani and Koutrach Tarif. Candidates in the female players category are China’s Liu Yumin and South Korea’s Shin Ja Park. In the contributors class, Asian candidates are the Philippines’ Lito Puyat and China’s Carl Ching Men Ky both of whom served as FIBA president.

Loyzaga, 82, was the second highest scorer in the FIBA World Championships in 1954, compiling 148 points in nine games for a 16.4 average behind only Canada’s Carl Ridd who shot 164 points in nine outings for an 18.2 clip. Loyzaga powered the Philippines to third place, the highest finish ever by an Asian country in the World Championships. After the tournament, Loyzaga was named one of the world’s top 10 players in a poll of 43 international sportswriters, joining Moglia, Kirby Minter, Joe Stratton and Dick Retherford of the US, Zenny de Acevedo, Wlamir Marques, Amaury Pasos and Angelo Bonfetti of Brazil and Ridd.   In 1959, Loyzaga scored 69 points in six games as the Philippines finished eighth at the World Championships in Santiago, Chile.

Loyzaga saw action for the Philippines at the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He hit 20 points in a 57-47 win over Israel, 13 in a 48-35 decision over Hungary and six in an 81-65 romp over Canada as the Philippines registered a 3-2 record to wind up tied for ninth in Helsinki. In Melbourne, the Philippines took seventh place after Loyzaga erupted for 27 points, including 11 free throws, in a 75-68 victory over Chile. At the height of his playing career, Loyzaga was hailed in Spain as “famoso” which was his description in the book “El Libro de Oro del Basket” by Fernando Font. Loyzaga spearheaded the Yco Painters team that barnstormed Spain in 1955. At the Asian Games, Loyzaga led the Philippines to the gold medal in 1951, 1954, 1958 and 1962. He also took the Philippines to the top of the FIBA-Asia (then known as the Asian Basketball Confederation) Championships in 1960 and 1963. With the Painters, Loyzaga steered Yco to seven straight national titles from 1954 to 1960 and in 1956, paced the Elizalde club to 40 consecutive wins.

As Moglia was nominated for the Hall of Fame, surely Loyzaga should also be a candidate. When Loyzaga and Moglia faced off at the 1954 World Championships, the Big Difference fired 31 points and the Uruguay star was held to only nine as the Philippines clinched the bronze medal with a 67-63 win.