There is no sport I don t like. Any sporting competition, I am all for it, be it mental or physical. Even today, I don t hate basketball, I just don t watch it like I used to back in the late 70 s and then during the mid 90 s.
I used to play basketball, not at the varsity level, but during school intramural. And I wasn t very good at it in spite of my height and size. As NBA scouts say, you can t teach height, but I never gravitated to the sport. I was more into volleyball than basketball as I got into college.
Now in the Philippines, basketball is the number one sport. Almost every other available space in our crowded cities has a basketball court. Basketball players became actors, businessmen and politicians because of the sport.
But there is one thing I disagree with. It s the belief that we are as good as those players that play in the NBA and the Olympics. Please, we re not.
We, as a country, are in a denial that a homegrown boy can play in the NBA in our lifetime. I m sorry, but someone has to tell you that it s not going to happen, not even in the next lifetime. We have resorted to hiring foreign players and with the help of the government, turned the color of the passports brown to suit up for red, white and blue. And still, we re not advancing.
We used to be the best in Asia (Asian Games 1951) but other countries blessed with good genetics and good planning have moved forward and left us behind. Even the SEA games aren t a given anymore. The best showing of our basketball team was seventh in the 1956 Olympics, and I believe we can even go back to that spot soon.
Yet here we are hoping against hope that one day, we can join the Olympics. Consider South Sudan, who lost to Team USA by 1 point during an exhibition, they don t even have a dedicated basketball stadium in that country. But why did they almost beat the number one team in the world? Genetics, what else?
I know it s a big ask but it should be about time to defund basketball and spread the budget around to sports that we have done well in international competition like boxing, weightlifting and now gymnastics. There is a saying that it would be better to improve your strength rather than strengthen your weaknesses.
I have stated this before that our leaders are only great at giving money to athletes after winning a gold medal in the Olympic champions but never to grassroots programs that will eventually produce potentially more medals. In some countries sports scientists go around their country scouring schools for potential champions. Here, our kids are neck deep in education that kids have to go home very late after personal tutorials. Where s the play after the, work and phrase ?
Finally, keep politics out of sports and pay our athletes and coaches well. The career window of a sports professional isn t that long so they should be paid well.