Hard work to bring Pinoy to NBA

MANILA, Philippines - When NBA commissioner David Stern was in Manila to attend the first league game ever to be played in the country last October, he said hard work will bring a Filipino to the majors someday. If anyone thought Stern’s declaration was apocryphal, a look at his own history will erase all doubts on his credibility.

Stern, 71, gained an enviable reputation as the best commissioner of sports through hard work. He took over as NBA commissioner in 1984 after joining the league as general counsel six years before with the existence of pro basketball in serious jeopardy. The NBA was on the brink of bankruptcy. But Stern, a history graduate of Rutgers University and a Columbia Law School alumnus, painstakingly brought the NBA to a level of stability with a creative genius marked by a fearless approach in charting a course for the future. Stern wasn’t afraid to take bold strides. And he wasn’t afraid to step on toes, not even of wealthy franchise owners or superstars of the game, if only to preserve the NBA’s integrity. Stern rolled up his sleeves and led the NBA to unprecedented heights.

On Feb. 1, Stern will turn over the NBA reins to his successor Adam Silver, ending an administration of 30 years. During his term, Stern survived four lockouts, welcomed seven new franchises, established the WNBA, NBA D-League and NBA.com TV, increased revenues by 500 percent, opened NBA offices all over the world, partnered with FIBA to bring global popularity to the sport, developed social vehicles to reach out to marginalized communities, promoted campaigns for fitness and well-being and affirmed the Philippines as Southeast Asia’s most successful market with “very important plans for growth.”

The closest to a Filipino to ever play in the NBA was Fil-Am Raymond Townsend whose mother Virginia Marella is from Balayan, Batangas. Townsend, now 58, played for Golden State in 1978-80 and the Indiana Pacers in 1981-82 out of UCLA. Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is also a Fil-Am whose mother Elisa Celino is from San Pablo, Laguna. Both Townsend and Spoelstra were born and raised in the US. Legendary basketball guru George Raveling was recently in Manila and singled out Talk ‘N’ Text guard Jayson Castro as someone who could make it to the NBA as a role player.

Stern said the signs are clear for a Filipino to someday play in the NBA. “This is a country that has qualified for the FIBA World Cup,” he said. “It qualified its junior team to the World Cup. It’s about, I suppose, commitment and growth but that’s an individual question. It’s about sacrifice, discipline, hard work and teamwork. And increasingly, what you’re beginning to see is that our players don’t just make it to the league because they’re great athletes, they work very hard, they practice, practice, practice. In the summertime, they go to their own training regimen, they go to different places where they work with other players. It’s hard to get here and it’s hard to stay here and it’s a tribute to all the hard work of our players. I’m sure there are Filipino athletes that will be competent and capable of playing in the NBA. It’s going to depend upon how committed they are to making that next step.”

Stern said in no uncertain terms, that basketball is the No. 1 sport in the Philippines but he has no illusions of overtaking soccer as the world’s most popular game. “It’s okay to be No. 2 all over the world,” he said. “There’s a lot of room for growth, especially in new markets. In India, with its 1.2 billion people, cricket is not a sport, it’s religion. A (recent) IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket game between the Delhi Daredevils and the Mumbai Indians ... was seen by 10 million people in India, 10 million TVs and we’re on the same network and we were probably seen by 100,000. But that gives us a lot of room for growth and it’s fun to contemplate. But will we ever be No. 1 in India? Never. Will we grow substantially in India and around the world? Absolutely. So the ranking is less important than the opportunity and actually, with football, I think we’ll all be stressing the values of sports which is a good thing, too.”

Taking the NBA overseas has precipitated growth and it was Stern’s vision to globalize. The NBA has now staged close to 150 games outside the US, including the Philippines. “We’ve been all over,” said Stern. “We went to the Soviet Union with the Hawks in 1988 and we had the Chinese national team as our guests in 1985, the Nets and the Phoenix Suns went to Italy in 1984. We’ve been doing it but now it’s really in a much more coordinated way in support of a growing business and our fans seem to really be getting it and are very appreciative of what we’re doing. And we’re feeling very good about that.”

Lou Goldstein, in his book “The NBA Through the Eyes of the Spectator,” said Stern leaves behind a legacy of myriad proportions. “The bottom line is the owners saw the value of franchises increased from the $20 Million range when he took over to more than $1 Billion,” he said. “According to the most recent Forbes Magazine NBA valuations report, the average value of an NBA franchise is approximately $509 Million. The highest value $1.1 Billion is the New York Knicks and the lowest value $312 Million is the Milwaukee Bucks. And players’ salaries have increased from an average of approximately $300,000 in 1984 to over $5 Million a year in 2013.”