“So cold at the surface, so angry at the roots.”
I was reading through the Sunday paper and came across this quote in an article by Samantha King about one of the country’s greatest writers—Kerima Polotan.
The quote came from another great Filipino, Nick Joaquin, describing the body of works of Polotan. Reading the article brought me back to the sports page of the national daily which I think most of us read first— reporting the reaction of Manny Pangilinan about the decision of key players to opt out of the Philippine Gilas Baskeball Team.
“Sad day for Phil basketball. But thank you to the team which helped the national cause. Laban Pilipinas. Puso.” is the exact statement of MVP lifted from his Tweeter account.
With a total of five players from the World Championship team who are not suiting up for the Asian Championships—June Mar Fajardo, Marc Pingris, LA Tenorio, Jeff Chan, Paul Lee—it is a sad day indeed for Philippine basketball.
If there is any hurt that can be discerned from the statement of Pangilinan, he has every right to such feelings. After all, he has thrown in his own personal resources and that of the conglomerate that he heads to support the resurgence of Philippine basketball.
It all started with the dismantling of the old, politically-laden and non-performing BAP. Freed from their erstwhile bonds, the Gilas Philippines gave a glorious performance at the World Championships in Spain. The momentum is already there, and MVP would probably want the ball to continue rolling.
Now the effort is being stymied by the lack of interest from players and teams in lending their full support to the cause. Is there politics involved, or is it just mere coincidence, that no player in the roster is coming from the other big bloc in the PBA?
I could not help but compare the state of affairs of Team Gilas with the basketball camp that was called by the United States Basketball Association in Las Vegas for the US Dream Team for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
That is more than a year away, and the world’s greatest basketball powerhouse, with the greatest basketball players are not taking things for granted.
In the case of the Philippine Team, the Asian Championships is just about a month away and SBP is still trying to scrounge around for players.
In the USBA Camp, 34 of the brightest stars of the NBA have been recruited. To mention a few: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kyrie Irving, Russel Westbrook, John Wall, Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Kawhi Leonard, Deandre Jordan, Dwight Howard, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony and many more.
Lebron James was not in the camp, but has pledged his commitment to be a member of the team if chosen.
The salaries of these NBA players together, would form a good part of the P3-trillion budget of the Philippines for 2016. But these players set aside this concern, for the privilege of serving their country.
It is interesting to note that in the Gilas Team those who opted out of the team are home-bred players, who should feel that they have something to return to Philippine basketball, while those who have shown the most enthusiasm to be part of Gilas are foreign-born and foreign-trained pros.
Matter of cultural orientation?
Anyway, I commiserate with Manny Pangilinan’s frustration, which happens to be shared by millions of Filipino basketball fans.