There have been so many stories bridging the lull between the FIBA World cup and the Asian Games, which open this weekend. On the surface, they may look like disparate stories, but at the end of the day, it all boils down to why we do what we do, what is our motivation for doing all these things, talking about them hiding our mistakes, and making do with an unfair situation. It really bears close scrutiny,
First, let’s begin with the question of what’s next for USA Basketball. After the terrible accident Paul George suffered in a public scrimmage, and the pullout of many of the NBA’s established older players, there is now a lot of talk about revisiting the league’s contribution to Team USA. There is talk that only the younger players be selected to form the next American national team, to avoid injury and allow older players who have more non-basketball obligations to rest. As if that would minimize any risk of injury, which is part of the game.
Some columnists have even gone so far as to spite the FIBA campaign as a useless endeavor for American basketball, as a platform used by coach Mike Krzyzewski to promote Duke basketball, and for Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose to do some public rehab. Truth be told, the NBA is in the middle of two conflicting purposes here. The league is a private commercial enterprise, which, by detail, has the best players in its country, even the world. Therefore, it is assumed that they have the moral obligation to send those players to the highest levels of basketball competition, right? Actually, no. Any moral suasion used against the NBA is an indictment against the basketball system in the US.
Kids growing up in the US are fed a diet of highlights and testimonials of how professional sports can be a way out of poverty, as the means toward that noble end. But the purpose of forming a national team is not the same. It is to represent flag and country, and play to the best of your ability for that cause. So when NBA players refuse to suit up for Team USA, it is not their fault, it’s like the military draft, it can be considered unconstitutional to oblige someone to do it. Some players don’t want to do it, some do, some proclaim they have already served their country, some say they serve it by being successful in what they do and giving people enjoyment. The question now is to find those like-minded players who would gladly do it, and if, as it did as recently as a decade ago, Team USA loses, they will again recruit the best, regardless.
People have been talking about the issue of Andray Blatche’s eligibility, and saying that someone inside Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas screwed up. But the fact of the matter is that the successes of the Gilas Pilipinas program are a relatively recent development, and Blatche’s naturalization last June was even more recent. Could we have predicted these events? Three years ago, could we have done anything about the three-year residency rule? Maybe, but by now we might have needed to replace our original naturalized players, anyway. Frankly, I’m just happy the team has a Marcus Douthit, who has been unwavering in his team spirit and support. He has some unfinished business with Iran, too, remember?
Next, let’s tackle the issue of swapping the two. The rule accommodates replacing a player on account of injury, but not necessarily for eligibility. So in this instance, the organizers did the Philippines a favor.
Next, there have been complaints about how much the Philippines climbed in the FIBA world ranking given the aftermath of the FIBA World Cup. How important is that? We won just one game, granted, it was the game of a lifetime and it shook the history books and catapulted the country into the world basketball community’s consciousness, but it was still just one game. FIBA undoubtedly has a complex formula for determining the rankings, the solution is simple: win more games. As the cliché goes, to be the best, you have to beat the best. We’re getting there, but we haven’t beaten the best, not just yet.
Why are we sending athletes to the Asian Games in the first place? Not just to participate, but to win, to measure the country’s best with the region’s best. We are there to win if we deserve it, sometimes even if we don’t deserve it. Going to any competition means you’ve qualified and you have a shot. There are no participation medals at this level. We are there to win, to take down the giants of each event, to show we belong, if we genuinely do.
We are also there to inspire our countrymen, to serve in the way we know how, the rankings, medals, rewards come when we have do our best, when we have put the same resources into winning as other countries have in recent years. That is the bottomline: we do whatever it takes to win, if not, then we will go home empty-handed.