BEST Center: 36 years of building champions

MANILA, Philippines - For 36 years, BEST Center has been training aspiring basketball athletes to become better players.

BEST, which stands for Basketball Efficiency Scientific Training, has produced some of the country’s top hardcourt stars, PBA Philippine Cup finals Most Valuable Player Larry Fonacier, Smart-Gilas Pilipinas captain Chris Tiu, PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals MVP James Yap, and legends-in-the-making brothers and star players Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena.

Established in 1978 by former national coach Nicanor Jorge or coach Nic as he is fondly called, Best Center continues to be the Philippines’ premier basketball clinic and enjoys the trust of aspiring hoopsters, parents and academic institutions.

The success of the clinic is largely due to its scientific approach to training, which starts not with the clinic, but from the program to be implemented, the selection and training of its coaches. 

“Not only does BEST Center adapt the best training program for our coaches and students, we are continuously updating the program with latest developments in training used by the world’s top basketball athletes,” says coach Nic. “We regularly send our coaching team abroad for training. Through the years we also had some top global athletes and coaches visit our clinics to speak and train both our coaches and students.”

Coach Nic started making his mark in Philippine basketball in 1964 by being the youngest coach in the UAAP, coaching the UP varsity team at the age of 21.

In 1977, he was also able to steer San Miguel, a team not expected to perform well, towards the championship. A year after that, he coached the Philippine team at the eighth Asian Games in Bangkok. While the country did not win the title, he knew that he was only getting started on a coaching career. He even coached Singapore national men’s and women’s teams in 1983 at the 12th SEA Games.

The BEST Center was born from his extensive travels to Europe and the US to study and further improve his knowledge on basketball. He was inspired by Louisiana State University coach Dale Brown (the coach who discovered Shaq), to put up the BEST Center, where children can learn to play basketball the scientific way.