Anything possible in Spain

MANILA, Philippines - FIBA director of TV/new media rights Paul Stimpson said recently how the Philippines will fare in the coming FIBA World Cup in Spain depends on whether Gilas is able to dictate the pace of the game, generate chemistry with Andray Blatche and play its style.

“Anything is possible,” said Stimpson who brought the Naismith Trophy to Manila in the course of a whirlwind global tour and left to take it to China last Tuesday. “Two wins in the group stage may be enough to take a team to the knockout Round of 16. The key is the Philippines must play its game, not the other team’s. That means dictating the pace, going up and down the floor and creating open looks. The national team has deadly streak shooters like Jimmy (Alapag) so it’s important to set them up with good spacing and pace.”

Two wins in the preliminaries, however, won’t guarantee safe passage to the next round. At the 2010 FIBA World Cup in Turkey, Angola and Germany were tied with 2-3 records in the group stage but only Angola advanced by virtue of the winner-over-the-other rule. Also advancing in the bracket were Serbia (4-1), Argentina (4-1) and Australia (3-2). In the same tournament, China went to the Round of 16 despite a 1-4 record in the preliminaries. China, Puerto Rico and the Ivory Coast finished the group stage with 1-4 records but China had the top quotient of 1.017 to Puerto Rico’s 0.9939 and the Ivory Coast’s 0.9938.

In Spain, the Philippines is in Group B with Croatia, Greece, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Senegal. The top four finishers at the end of the preliminaries will move to the Round of 16 while the bottom two are eliminated.

“Croatia is tough with Ante Tomic (7-2 center playing for Barcelona in the Spanish league and Utah’s second round pick in the 2008 NBA draft),” said Stimpson, an English basketball legend. “They were fourth in the European championships last year. The Philippines could surprise Croatia with Blatche. How Blatche blends with the team is critical. Will he change the way the Philippines plays? What will his condition be like? Can he keep pace with the Philippines’ up-tempo game? It will depend on how quickly Blatche can adjust.”

Stimpson said Argentina will be tough to beat particularly if Manu Ginobili plays. “There is news that Manu may not be able to play because of a stress fracture but of course, everyone is hoping he’ll play,” said Stimpson. “Manu is an important element in the Argentina team although they also have Luis Scola, Pablo Prigioni and Carlos Delfino. Greece is very big, plays tough defense and knows how to win as a team and like Argentina, they’ll be hard to beat. Their coach Fotis Katsikaris is well-respected and their shooting guard Vasileoios Spanoulis is a great player. Puerto Rico is a team that can beat anybody and lose to anybody. It’s interesting to see how (Renaldo) Balkman will play against the Philippines. Then, there’s Senegal, that’s a wild team with a lot of really tall, athletic and lean players who can jump out of the gym.”

Stimpson said beyond the World Cup, the Philippines can look forward to battling for an Olympic slot at the FIBA Asia Championships next year. Only the winner of the FIBA Asia Championships will represent Asia at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “By then, Blatche will have adjusted well with the team,” said Stimpson. “China is rebuilding and Iran’s Golden Generation will be a few years older. Chinese-Taipei, Lebanon and Jordan will be contenders. It could be a wide open tournament for first place.”

Stimpson said he expects the FIBA World Cup to be spectacular event. “I hear that about 7,000 Finns and 2,000 to 3,000 Lithuanians will be in Spain,” he said. “Lithuania and the Philippines are probably the only countries in the world where basketball is No. 1. The Lithuanian fans are just as passionate as Filipino fans. I’ve seen the Lithuanians come to cheer for their national team with drums and during timeouts, they unfurl the Lithuanian flag that’s about 25 meters wide and 30 meters long. I also hear that Filipino fans will come out in big numbers to support the national team in Seville.”

Stimpson was at the Smart Araneta Coliseum to watch Game 3 of the PBA Governors Cup Finals between San Mig Coffee and Rain Or Shine last weekend. A crowd of close to 18,000 packed the Big Dome. “I thought Filipino fans love basketball because of the NBA but I realized at the FIBA Asia Championships in Manila last year, they’re not just passionate about the game but very knowledgeable,” he said. “They know what’s going on during a game, why a team is losing or why a team is winning. That makes for a special kind of fans.”

Stimpson said the FIBA World Cup has a long way to go in reaching the level of global popularity of the FIFA World Cup. “But we’re in the right direction,” he said. “FIBA is now redesigning the qualifying format for the World Cup which will be scheduled in the year where the FIFA World Cup is not being held, starting in 2019.  I think when a little kid is given a ball, 99 percent of the time he kicks it, not dribbles it. That’s the advantage of football.”

FIBA’s concept is to boost the popularity of basketball by using the national team as the driver with several opportunities to play during a year like in football. In the next FIBA World Cup, there will be a two-year qualification period with six windows to play in November, February, June, September and November and February. The schedule will cut into the seasons of the PBA and even the NBA. “To make an omelette, you need to break some eggs,” said Stimpson. “You notice that just a few weeks after the FIFA World Cup, several national teams will be back playing for slots in the next regional championships. And the fans will be back cheering for their countries. It’s a continuous cycle and that’s why football is so popular the world over.”