What will never change

Juan Gomez de Liaño made his debut for Lithuanian club BC Wolves this week, ushering in a new era for Philippine basketball. Sixteen years ago, Friday Camaclang signed with Brighton and Hove Albion WFC in the FA Women’s Premiere League, becoming the first Filipino athlete, male or female, to play in Europe. This new signing opens up a big market for Filipino basketball players, regardless of the resistance or denial of any local institution. Publicity photos of De Liaño between two towering teammates has raised some questions among the uninitiated. Why would they recruit a diminutive player from the Philippines?

The answer is simple. Around the world, commercial teams recruit based on skill and position, regardless of size. Australia, Indonesia and other nearby countries have been doing so for decades. In the Philippines, size is the prime consideration for importing foreign players. But there are universal rules in basketball that will never change, and these govern the selection of players from overseas. These rules will likely remain, and continue to influence the sport worldwide.

Size, position and training influence one another. One flaw in perception set back Philippine basketball for a long time: that a tall child would become a tall adult. Thus, thousands of young players who were trained early on to play in the front court have problems as undersized adults. Twenty-five years ago, you could play center in the PBA at 6’4”. Now, you need to be at least 6’6” and relatively heavy-set. We’ve seen young draftees who dominated college play have unsuccessful pro careers because of an inability to adapt to playing guard or small forward. They naturally have underdeveloped dribbling and shooting skills.

Physics plays an important role in succeeding in basketball, too. The ball will always move faster than the man. Similarly, a smaller man can move faster than a big man. It simply takes more energy to move anything with a greater mass. These laws have propelled the development of four-on-four basketball in China, which has been pioneered by Chinese sports brand Anta in their “Shock The Game” campaign. This format diminished the advantage of having a big man. The players ran so much that the length of the game had to be shortened from 15-minutes to 12 so as not to wear them out. If you add the fact that centers have to run farther than guards, you see the challenge that basic physics creates.

Talent always attracts attention. From basketball to rugby, ice skating, billiards, chess, boxing, martial arts and other sports, Filipinos have gained in value overseas. This will not change. Instead, the trend will accelerate, as Filipino athletes are in thousands of highlight reels on YouTube. In past decades, VHS tapes brought talent like Mark Caguioa to the PBA, while DVDs got the likes of Japeth Aguilar scholarships abroad. Now, evidence of athletes’ abilities are just clicks away.

In the next few years, we will see an explosion of Filipino talent outside the country’s borders. This means only one thing: that they are good enough to compete with the best athletes around the world. And that is unequivocally a good thing.