Here we go again

Another of the country’s leading collegiate leagues is deliberating on whether or not to ban foreign athletes beginning the 2015 season. If their goal is to develop more parity in the league, they are taking a dramatic step back. Every major leap forward in development in every field has been a product of shared knowledge and experience, and sports is no exception. More brains, more input, better results.

Sometimes, schools operate as if they were another country with their own set of rules alien to the laws of the land, and to a certain extent, they can be right. In this case, however, they would be stepping on the rights of foreign students to partake of privileges granted to any other student. Once you are accepted and enrolled in a particular school, there is no reason for you to be discriminated against or denied every possible way to obtain a scholarship. You are a student, regardless of what your passport says. This writer spoke out challenging discrimination against foreign coaches in the PBA many years ago. We would be depriving ourselves of the advantages of having extra brains working for us with a fresh perspective.

Let’s take the case of our own national athletes, from the Smart Gilas basketball team to even Manny Pacquiao to those in other sports. What is the one thing they constantly crave? It’s foreign exposure. They know they have to play against bigger, stronger, more experienced foes if they are to improve as athletes and overcome their fears. If not for its constant travels, Smart Gilas would probably not have been so successful in the last FIBA-Asia tournament. In 2005, the secret to our record-setting performance in the Southeast Asian Games was our athletes’ two-month training stint in China, where they learned alongside Olympic and world record holders. 

If we banned foreign athletes, we would be punishing success and breeding mediocrity. Around the world, other countries seek the most talented trainors and athletes to make themselves better. Our own basketball coaches have developed national teams in the Middle East and all over Southeast Asia, and our players have served as reinforcements in less-talented programs in Southeast Asia. Our best billiards champions constantly travel to China and Japan to teach in exchange for large US-dollar paychecks. If foreign leagues and even private individuals acknowledge our advances in sports, why can’t we use their physical advantages to develop our own players?

In professional team sports in other countries, there are no restrictions on nationality. Can you imagine the NBA without Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming and dozens of others who have inspired the youth all around the globe? The NBA would not be as colorful or profitable as it is today. It would not have penetrated large markets like China and parts of Europe as successfully as it has. 

Though the PBA has restrictions based on citizenship, this is to differentiate its tournaments from one another. Early on, the league realized that the monotony of having just one long conference would not succeed, so it broke up its calendar into three competitions, the most popular of which perennially being the All-Filipino. The league hasn’t even had a two-import conference since 1990. This is to allow Filipino talent to shine. But in its early days, imports almost always guarded one another. Now, there are Filipino players strong and skilled enough to defend against imports. That is just one sign that we have developed through our exposure to foreign competition in our own country.

In the sciences, many breakthroughs are accomplished by foreign students or scholars. When their discoveries or studies are acknowledged, their names and their schools are recognized worldwide. In the end, their nationalities are not even mentioned. It’s their schools of residence that gain renown. Eventually, the learning institutions gain a reputation for excellence in that field. That series of achievements ultimately leads to more financial support to develop programs in the field from donors, sponsors and alumni.

When Sam Ekwe came to the Philippines to study at San Beda College, he made an immediate impact on the school’s basketball program and helped end a 28-year NCAA championship drought. San Beda has since managed to be successful with or without foreign players, but they did prove to be catalysts in this instance. African athletes have also benefited schools in athletics and other sports, just as Korean student-athletes have influenced varsity taekwondo in the country, and Commonwealth nationals have helped improve football.

There are already rules in place limiting the impact of foreign athletes in team sports like basketball. It’s the choice of other schools not to avail of the option of recruiting them. Perhaps school leagues could borrow a page from the defunct Philippine Basketball League, which once held a communal scrimmage of imports, and allowed each member team to “draft” from the pool. That concept applied to a collegiate league would help more or less equalize the field. Otherwise, our amateur athletes (not just basketball players) will only realize their weaknesses after they graduate, and this will limit their options of becoming professionals or national athletes later on. They will be oblivious to the fact that there is a much bigger world with much better opposition for them, because they will have been deprived of the opportunity to experience it.

Every time you create exclusionary rules, there is usually a simple excuse behind it. At times it is to protect those who are resistant to change, or those who do not want to spend on development. As a great teacher once said, there is no such thing as stagnation; there is only growth or decay.