Aiming for Rio

It will be 56 years since the Philippines played basketball at the Olympics when Rio de Janeiro hosts the Summer Games on Aug. 5-21. If Gilas tops the FIBA Asia Championships in Changsha on Sept. 23-Oct. 3, it will mark an end to the long drought dating back to the 1972 Munich Olympics.

For the record, the Philippines has played in seven Olympic basketball tournaments, excluding the pre-Olympic qualifiers in Yokohama before the 1964 Tokyo Games. The Philippines holds the record for the highest finish ever by an Asian country, winding up fifth with a 4-1 record at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The Philippines was 12th in London in 1948, ninth in Helsinki in 1952, seventh in Melbourne in 1956, 11th in Rome in 1960, 13th in Mexico in 1968 and 13th in Munich in 1972.

Overall, the Philippines’ win-loss record in Olympic basketball history is 25-27. The closest the Philippines got to capturing a medal was in 1936 when the national team beat Mexico, 32-30, Estonia, 37-22, Italy, 32-14 and Uruguay 33-23 but lost to eventual gold medalist US, 56-23. The Philippines drew a bye in the first round then won two in a row before facing the US in the knockout quarterfinals. The twist of fate was a bitter pill. The US led, 28-20, at the half then breezed to a 33-point victory. That knocked the Philippines out of medal contention. In the classifications, the Philippines whipped Italy and Uruguay to finish fifth behind the US, Canada, Mexico and Poland. There were 21 teams in the tournament so the fifth place finish was significant. What was ironic was third placer Mexico was beaten by the Philippines in the second round.

The 1936 squad was made up of Ambrosio Padilla, Charlie Borck, Jacinto Ciria Cruz, Primitivo Martinez, John Worrell, Miguel Pardo, Bibiano Ouano, Antonio Carillo, Jess Marzan, Franco Marquicias, Amador Obordo and Fortunato Yambao. Coach was Chito Calvo. In 1948, London hosted the first post-World War II Olympics and Calvo was back as Philippine coach with players Fely and Gabby Fajardo, Ramoncito Campos, Mariano Fulgencio, Martinez, Francisco Vestil, Eddie Decena, Lauro Mumar, Manolet Araneta and Andres de la Cruz. Campos would also play in 1952 and 1954.

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The last Philippine game in Olympic basketball was an 82-73 win over Japan in Munich on Sept. 7, 1972. Jun Papa scored 20 points, Jimmy Mariano 19 and Bogs Adornado 15 to lead the charge. Japanese hotshot Masatomo Taniguchi erupted for 26 points and guard Shigeake Abe 21. Taniguchi wound up the tournament’s leading scorer with a 23.9 clip. Others on the Philippine team coached by Ning Ramos were Ed Ocampo, Tembong Melencio, Danny Florencio, Ciso Bernardo, Marte Samson, Yoyong Martirez, Manny Paner, Freddie Webb and Joy Cleofas.

There were 16 teams in the tournament. The Soviet Union created a major upset in scoring a highly-disputed 51-50 win over the US. Cuba took the bronze medal after beating Italy, 66-65. The Philippines finished the first round with a 1-6 record, beating only Senegal, 68-62. Then, it defeated Egypt by default and Japan to end the competition on a winning note.

The 1972 Olympics turned out to be a dark chapter in sports history. A gang of Black September Palestinian terrorists managed to sneak into the Olympic Village and held Israeli athletes and coaches hostage in an 18-hour standoff. In the end, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, a German policeman and five of eight terrorists were killed.

Also in Munich, basketball was clouded in controversy as the Soviet Union was given two chances to replay the last three seconds of the championship game with the US ahead, 50-49. The first replay was inconsequential but in the second replay, Ivan Edeshko threw a long pass from the endline to Aleksander Belov who scored the marginal basket. The US filed a protest but was overruled. In a show of disgust, the American players refused to receive their silver medals.

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In a Sports Illustrated story 20 years later, American player Kenny Davis recalled, “I went back to my room and cried alone that night … but every time I get to feeling sorry for myself, I think of the Israeli kids who were killed at those Games … think of being in a helicopter with your hands tied behind your back and a hand grenade rolling toward you and compare that to not getting a gold medal … if that final game is the worst injustice that ever happens to the guys on that team, we’ll all come out of this life pretty good.”

Davis’ teammates on the 1972 team included future NBA players Mike Bantom, Ed Ratleff, Tom McMillan (who later became a Congressman from Maryland), Tom Burleson, Dwight Jones, Bobby Jones and Doug Collins. US coach Hank Iba was robbed twice in Munich. First, the gold medal was taken out of his hands. And second, while he was signing the US protest, someone picked his pocket and stole $370. Iba coached the US basketball team to gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. He died in 1993 at 88.

While there were unfortunate incidents at the 1972 Olympics, the bright moments included Mark Spitz swimming to seven gold medals, Russian gymnast Olga Korbut captivating a world audience and Frank Shorter becoming the first American to win the marathon in 64 years.

Gilas coach Tab Baldwin took New Zealand to the 2004 Athens Olympics and said it was an incredible feeling to participate in the Summer Games. His goal is to bring the Philippines back to the Olympics after 56 years and share that wonderful feeling with the Gilas team that he has grown to love like a father guiding 12 sons to glory.