Last Home Stand: Big Fish and crabs

In basketball, the Philippines has been a big fish in the little pond of Southeast Asia for decades. We could send a second-tier college team to the SEA Games and win the gold medal, to the constant frustration of Thailand and Malaysia. In the early days of the game, the first half of the 20th century to be more precise, we were untouched in the whole of Asia. And if not for last-minute changes to the rules of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Philippine team would have come home with the first silver or even gold medal ever in the sport. That is the extent of how we’ve always had a natural gift for the game.

But as early as the 1970’s, Pres. Ferdinand Marcos asked then-Secretary of Education Carlos P. Romulo to confidentially investigate why the Philippines was falling behind in international sports competitions after being runaway winners for so long. Marcos, whose regime had the biggest budget of sports among all Philippine presidents, was unhappy seeing his country start to lose not just in basketball, but in other sports, as well. The two-inch thick report’s final findings could be summed up into two consistent observations: Everyone else got better, and the Philippines got complacent. This was the impetus for the increase in sports spending then, and the creation of programs like Project: Gintong Alay, the precursor of the Philippine Sports Commission.

In the last few years, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has been striving to correct the lack of long-term planning of its predecessor, the Basketball Association of the Philippines. Since 1990 with the advent of open basketball, the national teams have been made the responsibility of the Philippine Basketball Association, and amateur players have not been part of the equation. Such is how the sport has evolved. However, in the past there was an undertone of false guilt obligating the PBA which, as a policy in that era, was focused on its initial vision of being professional sports entertainment for a Philippine audience. That was the direction the league was taking then. But since the PBA had the best players, by default they were supposed to help the national cause. And since then, the PBA and its team owners have been unselfish in providing help to the national team.

When the SBP was recognized by FIBA as the country’s governing body for the sport just a few years ago, that changed. The national program gradually became more clear and focused on the goal of restoring international pride by qualifying for – and hopefully, winning – major basketball tournaments abroad. More importantly, it also became more cooperative with the PBA, its main source of players. So far, with the staging of the FIBA-Asia in the Philippines and the country’s consequent qualifying for the FIBA World Cup, Manny Pangilinan’s vision has been successful. His philosophy is simple, whether the rewards are big or small, it’s the same effort, the same challenge, the same headache. With all those things being equal, why not go for the big reward, instead? It was this belief that prompted him to return to the Philippines in 1999 after spending 22 years building businesses overseas. This, in turn, led to opportunities to participate in the PBA and support the national team.

“How can you turn your back on something that this country loves?” the PLDT chairman said to me in an interview earlier this year.

There were essentially two problems with the staging of the Last Home Stand. First, the organizers did not obtain the necessary permission from the entities involved, such as the NBA and their teams. Player contracts strictly protect the multi-million dollar investment the teams and league have in their prime commodity, the players. The vast majority of live contracts do not allow active players to place themselves in situations wherein they may physically get harmed, such as operating heavy machinery, or riding motorcycles, jet skis, and the like. Michael Jordan was a rare exception. He had a “love of the game” clause put into his contract, which allowed him to play basketball whenever and wherever he wanted to. When the Chicago Bulls star was shooting “Space Jam” for Warner Brothers, he even had a tent with a full court erected next to the set.

At the other end of the spectrum was former Duke guard Jay Williams. Drafted second to Yao Ming in 2002, the 6’2” guard was being relied upon to resurrect the Bulls in the post-Jordan era. During the off-season, Williams foolishly rode a motorcycle though he didn’t really know how, and didn’t wear a helmet. Thinking he was squeezing the brakes, the rookie accelerated instead, wrapping himself and the bike around a light post. It took 16 doctors more than eight hours to put him back together.

“When I opened my eyes and saw the look on my parents’ face, I knew it was bad,” the regretful player told this writer in an interview in late 2004.

Having violated his contract and lost considerable money for the Bulls, Williams never played in the NBA again. That is why the NBA is uncompromising when it comes to what players can and cannot do outside of regular, sanctioned league activities.

. The NBA does not lend its name lightly, and is known for not taking in necessary risks. That is why it is considered the most successful professional sports league in the world. The first NBA China Games in Shanghai and Beijing in 2004 alone took two years of preparation, and that was just one event. Imagine the documentation needed for those two preseason games between the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings.

The second issue was the error in how the oversight was handled. Imagine the grateful excitement of a basketball-loving public in having the rare opportunity to see NBA players live and in the flesh, even just to be in the same building as them. And to see them play against fellow Filipinos? What more could you want? It is a rare privilege and worth the price of the tickets. But to tell the public that their expectations of watching games between the national team and a selection of NBA players were false assumptions is simply wrong.

Having said that, I suggest that we should not resort to indiscriminately spraying bile and venom all over the place. Yes, people were disappointed and inconvenienced and even told it was their fault for believing that what was going to take place was something else. Who wouldn’t be upset? But Pangilinan has stepped forward on behalf of whoever erred and taken responsibility for their mistakes as he has in the past, as real leaders should do. Externally, steps are being taken to address the expense and inconvenience caused by his subordinates and suppliers. Internally, someone will pay, that is for sure. Everyone hates to lose, especially with the stakes this high. But let’s not burn the house down and vilify everyone involved because we feel bad that we did not get what we want. Let’s not jump on the bandwagon of blame. That is the way of simpletons, which I’d like to think Filipinos are not.

Vast resources are being expended for us to be big fish in the big pond of the basketball world again. Let’s not go back to being crabs.