The fall of Philippine basketball

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Basketball is an invaluable pastime to Filipinos. A basketball crazy country, the Philippines owns a rich hoops history. Here is a quick look at our country's most important basketball achievements.

1. 1936 Berlin Olympics- The Philippines defeated Uruguay to finish 5th overall, the highest ever Olympic finish by any Asian country. Not even China topped that feat. A piece from Wikipedia: "If not for controversial rulings, the Philippines could have won silver or bronze medal." (Basketball in the Philippines)

2. 1954 FIBA- The Philippines finished 3rd in the world championship. Again the highest finish by an Asian country.

The famous Caloy Loyzaga, who was named in the FIBA mythical five selection, would later be represented by his two sons Chito and Joey who both played in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA.) Joey Loyzaga is known to have dated local actress Gretchen Baretto. Chito was the head band guy and was the better ballplayer of the two.

3. Asian Champions- The Philippines were king of Asian basketball having won four consecutive championships in the Asian Games in 1951, 1954, 1958, 1960. That would be the last taste of glory as local basketball eventually declined in terms of international competition.

Won medals since: 1986 (3rd place, win vs Jordan,) 1990 (2nd place, lost to China,) 1998 (3rd place, win vs Kazakhstan)

4. FIBA Asia Championship- The Pinoys emerged victorious five times in the years 1960, 1963, 1967, 1973, 1985 beating Taiwan twice and South Korea three times, respectively.

Other FIBA Asia medals: 1965 (2nd place, lost to Japan,) 1969 (3rd place, won vs Taiwan,) 1971 (2nd place, lost to Japan.) It has been a drought since as the Philippines struggled to keep up with the development of basketball in the Asian region. The highest rank after 1985 is a loss to Japan in 1987 when the pinoys finished fourth.

5. The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)- The PBA is the first professional league in Asia. It was a hit for almost 3 decades. Its prime is comparable to the NBA among Filipinos. Every game is closely monitored. Hardcore PBA fans such as myself knew every player, referee, and commentator. The All Filipino Cup is composed only of local players while the rest is reinforced with foreign basketball players (predominantly American imports.) It was an exciting league to say the least.

This post is about the FALL of local basketball, not its DEATH. Pinoy basketball is still very much alive.

However, some unfortunate events robbed it some of its luster. The significant event points to the end of the 1990's when the league seemed to have found its answer by recruiting "Filipino-Foreign" players such as Rob Parker, Al Segova, Asi Taulava, Mick Pennisi, Sonny Alvarado and a few more- all presented a hybrid game that would potentially propel the Philippines to a new era of basketball greatness in Asia.

It was later revealed that some of these PBA players had false, incomplete, or missing documents. This anomaly created a disturbance among PBA supporters which later proved fatal to the league's credibility. A sharp decline of the PBA's popularity due to this incident and the invasion of NBA basketball on local cable television shaped the face of local basketball today.

The PBA as well as our collegiate basketball leagues used to be the talk of the town. It used to be a pastime many of us cannot live without. Now some of us can live without it. Although local basketball is still doing decent nowadays, it lacks the commanding flare of the basketball culture we've had in the past. The kind of passion we're used to. The leagues tolerate players to play for money, but what is money if paid to losers?

The concept of Team Pilipinas is a good development in bringing the Philippines back to the basketball map. The PBA wasted many years of stagnation by neglecting the importance of winning international competitions. The inevitable has finally caught up: to improve basketball knowledge and broaden experience because we are getting behind compared to other Asian countries.

Aside from the obvious lack of height, our poor country lags behind in terms of compensation to players participating in this program, improving the scientific aspects of basketball, modernizing basketball facilities.

Although much is to be learned from this experience, it is a good step forward. As we have learned from PBA legend Robert Jaworski a long time ago: NEVER SAY DIE.