Plowing fertile ground for legends to grow

I would like first to extend our many congratulations to the 12 inductees of Class 2023 to the FIBA Hall of Fame. Best wishes.

About 8,000 miles from here, across the Harlem River in New York, stands Rucker Park – and within it, an unassuming basketball court surrounded by trees. Rucker has been the staging ground for some of basketball’s most compelling stories. Over the decades, spectators at Rucker have witnessed the birth of countless legends – thus making the park’s basketball court a hallowed ground. There, tiny Archibald was still Nate the Skate, Dr. J was still Julius “The Claw” Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still a high schooler named Lew Alcindor.

Until today, visiting stars flock to Rucker in the summertime, like Kobe Bryant in 2002 and Kevin Durant in 2011. But the greatest who ever played there was someone who never made the NBA – Earl “The Goat” Manigault, a 6-foot guard who could reportedly dunk a basketball twice in the same jump, and snatch pennies from the top of the backboard. Even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said that Manigault was the greatest player in the history of New York City. That is how the story goes, and who dares question an all-time great?

Writing the basketball story

We’re here tonight to continue writing the story of basketball. We do so with the recognition that this story is told not just in the United States, but elsewhere in the world as well. The game we love has grown rapidly since the days of Manigault. Just look at the challenge even the greatest basketball nations face – from millions of kids playing in tens of thousands of courts all over Asia, South America and Oceania.

Each playground has its own story to tell. Contemporary playground legends like Jokic and Antetokounmpo, Nowitzki and Petrovic, Yao Ming and Semjonova. The failure to record such legends would represent a failure of our institutional memory. Our task tonight is to memorialize greatness, wherever it might happen in the world, and to whomever it might happen. For us, this is what it means to “win for all.”

All our inductees tonight are men and women who offered their nations a taste of triumph and a fount of inspiration. They range from 5’5” to 7’5” – and hail from all over the world. And every single one of them has been the reason a child picked up a basketball for the first time. They are the legends. They are the GOATs.

Caloy Loyzaga

I’m proud to have our own undisputed GOAT in this list – Caloy Loyzaga – who led the Philippine Team to a bronze medal in the 1954 FIBA world championships in Brazil – together with countless gold medals within Asia. He was, of course, a playground legend – dominating games in the Tervalac basketball court in the streets of Santa Mesa in Manila. There, he was promptly discovered, and recruited by San Beda College – my own alma mater – before proceeding to eviscerate competition in the collegiate leagues as well. We are so grateful for the chance to honor him here, only a few kilometers from where the legend began, and where he took his last breath – in the company of his loved ones. Caloy Loyzaga will always be the first great story of Philippine basketball, and he has inspired so many of us to make sure that his story won’t be the last.

I wish to acknowledge with our warmest congratulations Caloy’s wife Vicky and his children Teresa, Joey, Princess, Bing and Chito; and Chito’s wife – our secretary for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, madame Toni Yulo Loyzaga.

Let me close with this thought – I’m often asked why we brought the FIBA Basketball World Cup to our shores. There are many reasons: a chance to share our culture and unique hospitality with the world, a tourism boost, a gift to the Filipino people who adore the sport. But what we really wanted to do was to plow more fertile ground for legends to grow – to have our hard courts, our backboards and hoops, our fans – bear witness to the story of Philippine basketball as it is written – to transform our historic stadia into places of worship. To emphasize that this basketball-crazy country of ours belongs to the league of basketball nations which is FIBA – and for the Philippines to be a cradle of enduring legends.

Finally, to our inductees, huge congratulations. And to our guests – enjoy the evening. Mabuhay! Puso!

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Speech delivered by Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman emeritus of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and member of the Central Board of the FIBA, at the FIBA Hall of Fame ceremony on Aug. 23 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza.