Have things changed that much?

In a previous piece, this writer posed the question of whether or not it would be logical or practical to even have a full-time national men’s basketball, given that the sponsor or financier would have to compensate the players with the equivalent of what they would receive as professionals in the Philippine Basketball Association.

The next question would be whether or not it is even necessary to have a national basketball team, in the first place. Things have changed so much just in the last 30 years that perhaps it is the more valid question. As a young sports broadcaster on the 1980’s, this writer recalls vividly former national coach Joe Lipa’s lament that “Before, players used to play hard in college so they could join the Philippine team. Now, they play hard so they can get a higher salary in the PBA.” And this was even before the advent of open basketball.

Let’s backtrack briefly. All this evolution was a result of the US losing badly in the 1988 Seoul Olympics because they sent a bunch of college varsity players who got themselves beaten badly by opponents who were technically pros in other countries, specifically European countries. Such an embarrassment in a game they invented could not be tolerated, and NBA players like Karl Malone were outraged. The Mailman even went so far as to say “It was like watching your little brother get beaten up.” That series of events changed the course of basketball around the world, and very deeply, in the Philippines. As soon as 1990, or the year after basketball was declared open, the country was fielding its best players (pros) to international competitions like the Asian Games.

One of the reasons for the reunification of sports which had amateur and pro distinction was the Olympic motto itself: citius, altius, fortius, or “faster, higher, stronger,” which did not distinguish between who was getting paid, and who was not. In the 1920’s, American Indian all-around athlete Jim Thorpe had two Olympic medals taken back from him for receiving a small one-time payment for an exhibition football game. (The medals were returned 60 years later during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and Thorpe’s grandson was one of those carrying the Olympic flag. Also, tennis, which had a much more dominant pro game than its amateur version, had gone first, and this saw Steffi Graf win a “Golden Slam” (Grand Slam and Olympic gold medal) in an epic year. Also, this ended all the professional vs semi-professional vs amateur nonsense. Back then, you could literally declare yourself pro one day, then revert back to amateur status the next. If there was not restriction in flip-flopping between the two, then why bother separating them to begin with? It was a sign of the times.

Each of these events was brought about by a different reason. The Americans’ competitive nature compelled them to stand up and play for flag and country again, even as valuable cogs to the gigantic NBA machine. But with the passage of time, the memory of those stinging losses in 1988 has faded, and the succeeding generations of players have had less and less reason to suit up for their national team once they made it to the league. Some contend that they were never recruited in college, so why should they even consider it? Others generally cite fatigue and the potential for inventory as a way of protecting their livelihood. Even worse, since generations of college players have not had the experience of playing for Team USA, there is nothing for them to pass on to the next generation, except stories of how their own NBA idols did it. Ironic, isn’t it?

In the Philippines, we have not had a full-time national men’s team for years, and with good reason, sponsors must receive something in return for their support: headlines in the sports section, broadcast news reports, game coverage, and so on. If you aren’t part of a league, you have none of those. For many college players, the system has been short-circuited. They don’t need to take unnecessary risks playing for their country. They can make the leap straight to the pros, even before finishing college. It is more like a Spencer Haywood exception than the general rule in this country. They need to earn, and support their families. How can one deny them that? It is the right (and dream) of a majority of young Filipino men to play professional basketball.

This is one reason why athletics and other sports have more or less remained the same, with a few more records broken along the way. The Philippines has very few athletes of such stature in other sports that they can command huge appearance fees or even draw large events to the country. We don’t have an Edwin Moses or Tiger Woods or Novak Djokovic. And since Filipinos are so enamored of basketball, it has reached the stratosphere in terms of popularity and advertising revenue, while no other sport comes close. In fact, one sports official calculated that all the money poured into basketball (advertising, financial support, television revenues, merchandising) would be enough to support 100 other national teams to all their international competitions combined. And that may not be far from the truth.

And that is where the huge gulf lies between basketball and everyone else. Rightly or wrongly, there is just too much demand for the sport, from former PBA imports running their own community leagues in the US and having their uniforms made in the Philippines, to fans who collect only certain players’ jerseys, to sports memorabilia collectors who have a basketball section and “other sports” section in their stash. I’ve met fans who could wallpaper their entire neighborhood with their photos with basketball players. But ask them about other sports, and they invariably draw a blank.

The current system of playing one day a week until a two or three months before an actual tournament is a concession, agreed. But what is worrisome is that we are, in a way, getting away with it, much as the US was, initially, so untouchable in the sport that people used to be satisfied with newspaper photos of themselves trying to play “good defense” against NBA-caliber talent. So far, we have been successful this way. Perhaps the 2016 Olympic qualifiers will be an eye-opener that we are still holding back. In a way, some of us dread winning, because we cling to the belief that we are still compromising, and that victory will vindicate this system. It’s almost like the archaic belief that Fil-Ams are somehow not “real” Filipinos, as some old-timers still believe.

But, as in all growth, we will have to see how long we can get the results we want this way. If we continue to succeed, then perhaps it is true that a full-time national team is the product of an era that has passed us by.

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 The UP Beta Sigma fraternity is hosting the first Rico Arranz Golf Tournament at the Valley Golf and Country Club on Oct. 23, and invites the public to join.