GILAS NATURALIZED?

We have come a long way in reviving Philippine Basketball. from the mid 80s team of NCC winning the ABC (now FIBA ASIA) to a silver medal finish in 2013 FIBA ASIA.. and now we are back in the basketball map of the world. If you're a PBA make that basketball fan you should be excited on the coming FIBA WORLD CUP.

But lets take a look at what we did exactly to reclaim the throne as one of asia's basketball powerhouse;
if you remember the 1990 Phil team coached by the living legend Sonny Jaworski, that was the last time that we were able to compete head to head with other asian countries, if i remember it right we only loss twice in that tournament both against china, the last game being the finals, thus giving us a silver medal finish... do you remember our players back then? let me try if i can recall the names of all those 12 greats..

L-R Rey Cuenco, Yves Dignadice, Ronnie Magsanoc, Benjie Paras
Samboy Lim, Alvin Patrimonio and Allan Caidic

Benjie Paras
Alvin Patrimonio
Allan Caidic
Samboy Lim
Ronnie Magsanoc
Hec Calma
Dante Gonzalgo
Chito Loyzaga
Rey Cuenco
Yves Dignadice
Rey Cuenco (thanks wikipedia)
Zaldy Realubit (thanks wikipedia)


thanks to wikipedia i was able to get the names of the 2 center/forward, its been 24 years, i was an avid anejo fan back then and a solid supporter of Philippine basketball i was 15 yrs old... wow. when my dad and i found out that our idol Jawo will coach the Phil team, we readied our VCR (betamax) and recorded all the games of Philippine team including the 2 losses to china, i remember us beating Japan easily, North korea's 7'7" center guarded by chito Loyzaga and his whole 300lbs frame, the result the North korean giant was almost useless the whole game.. memories... hey, before i get carried away try to look at the line up once again... see any americans? naturalized? fil-am? now i guess by now you have an idea where i'm heading.

now lets jump 20 yrs.. after the Jawo led team no other Phil team won higher than a bronze medal, it was our centennial team in 1998 led by another set of PBA greats who came close by winning silver in ABC or was it ASIAN games? When the first Gilas was formed couple of years back, one of the priority of the MVP backed team was to recruit not just naturalized player but a foreign coach as well. That really irritated me. I mean c'mon i know coach Raiko Toroman is a great coach but hey we have loads of talented coaches here, i won't mind if it was Tim Cone or Norman Black since really they are already based here in the PHils, but aside from them there are Coach Yeng, Chot, Gie, Franz, Ryan, Allan, etc... i can name upto 30 coaches. So that (coaching) for me is already a big mistake. Then Naturalized player.. behold 6'9" giant Marcus Douthit... you can't hate the guy, he's gentle not too flashy just a perfect fit for Gilas. but if you remember NCC? 80s? we won several Int'l competition but up to know we will always here this "kasi may 3 kano tayo eh" does Dennis, Jeff and Chief ring a bell? yes im reffering to San Antonio Spurs shooting coach Chief Engleland (not sure about the spelling) yes he did play as a Filipino ( for some of you who are too young to know)

Don't get me wrong i don't dislike these naturalized players, they are all great and i am very thankful for their contribution in Philippine basketball. i used to cheer for these players, and even remember watching  Dennis steele playing with Sore eyes and still was very effective. I love these guys!

But my question is, do we need to naturalized Foreign player for us to have a descent finish in the world cup? for me getting a Silver in the ASIAD with all Filipino player is a lot better than an 18th? 19?15? place finish in the FIBA-world cup.

Point is Coach chot made a very nice theme for their FIBA ASIA run and that is "PUSO" (hearth) which basically means that they will play with their hearth, emotions, love for the country and not with skills. well, thats the way i would interpret that. He was able to formulate a very effective plays the dribble drive offense that doesn't require much height and skills.. do you remember the 2nd half of the Gilas vs Korea game? where's Douthit? he was injured.. where are their PUSO? in the game! right, they were very motivated, very inspired, determined to win even without our naturalized player. because of one thing... Coach Chot was able to put in their minds and in their hearth that they can win, that they need to win for the country and that they have the hearth to win and thats exactly what happen... we won.. for me that last 2 minutes of that game was the BEST 2 minutes of Philippine Basketball and the first 2 minutes after the buzzer sound ending the game was the most emotional victory ever for Phil Basketball team Bar none! again because of PUSO.

Now we are preparing for the world cup... and what??? we will pay 2 NBA players to play for us?? are we mad? again let me remind you (whoever is suggesting to get these NBA Players), we won FIBA ASIA with our hearth! PUSO! Coach chot how will you motivate your players to play with their hearth if they have 2 or even 1 team mate thats playing for the money? I remember Ping (mark) told reporters before that they are not really being paid for playing for the country but they just wanted to. that is HEARTH!

2013 GILAS PILIPINAS  Basketball Team. 

Blatche? Mcgee? will shout PUSO? how credible is that? these NBA superstars will not play their 100% game with us for 2 simple reasons 1. They will be playing for the money and we cannot give them the money thats enough for them to play the way they play in the NBA 2. These players are under contract with their NBA teams, meaning this game just be like a exhibition game for them. Do you think blatche or mcgee will dive for looseball do you think they will risk getting injured? of course not! they have to protect their NBA career. simply put it this way.. NO HEARTH! why because their not Filipinos and this is not their bread and butter.. its NBA! if we will be putting a naturalized player on the roster it might as well be Douthit. for 2 reason 1.) he's been here for a while and he knows the system and blended well with our locals 2.) THIS IS ALL HE HAVE! he has no other league to play for, this is his team!

Coach Chot i remember you saying this during one of your interviews after winning the Silver in FIBA ASIA "Who will we replace and who will we get that will have a big impact in the outcome of FIBA WORLD" are you saying that these 2 NBA players can put us in the TOP 10? and without these "NBA players" what we will be in the bottom? who will you replace? RDO? DAVID? FONACIER? who? those players who will be cut from the team to be replaced by naturalized nba player who will play without their hearth how do you think that will affect the composition of the team? just my opinion with NBA naturalized we can probably reach up to 14th place without them 16th... is that a big impact? id rather see our Gilas taking the 16th place playing with their Hearth than placing 14th with any of this "Filipino kuno".

Mr. Pangilinan, MVP. please hear us out. its enough that we watch imports in the PBA. But in Gilas? c'mon if not Douthit then All Filipino. We can do this! we can have a descent finish in the world cup and win asian games with our local players (or with douthit). May these coming basketball competitions (FIBA WORLD and ASIAN games) bring pride to our country and not humiliation. (sir please watch Shaqtin' a fool u'll see your mcgee there) :)

I believe that the composition of GILAS PILIPINAS during the FIBA ASIA is enough to win the ASIAN games and have a descent finish in FIBA WORLD.  LABAN PILIPINAS! PUSO!