Vietnam’s new coach is Filipino

After sending a sixteen-year old "export" to play for a Japanese high school, the Philippines is now supplying Vietnam a new head coach for its national young men’s basketball team.

Ricky Magallanes, who served as an assistant to coach Francis Rodriguez’s regional selection in the Sinulog Cup in Cebu last January, will prepare the Vietnamese under-19 team for international competition.

"When we got back from Cebu, I asked coach Boycie Zamar (head coach of the RP Cebuana Lhuillier team and chairman of the National Basketball Coaches Commission or NBCC if there was any way I could help."

"It so happened that the Vietnam Basketball Association was looking for a Filipino coach through the Basketball Association of the Philippines," explained NBCC executive director Bay Cristobal. "The NBCC is under the umbrella of the BAP, so Vietnam channeled it through BAP, and BAP channeled it to NBCC."

Vietnam was looking for a young coach, and Magallanes submitted his resume.

Within a week, he was summoned to the BAP office where, after a lengthy interview with secretary-general Graham Lim, he got the job. But it looks like a rather large undertaking for one man, since Vietnam is not a hotbed for basketball like the Philippines.

"Their number one sport is soccer," Magallanes elaborated. "In a rate of one to ten, if Filipinos are a ten, Vietnam is a four. They’re really behind in terms of technology, compared to the Philippines."

That is why part of Magallanes’s two-year contract stipulates that he will conduct basketball clinics even in remote provinces of Vietnam, to upgrade their overall skill level in the sport.

"We are so happy about it," Cristobal admitted. "There are many Filipino coaches who are always in overseas. And other countries are looking forward to having Filipino coaches."

And now, one of them is out to conquer Vietnam with the Philippines’ passion for basketball.