THE happiest man in Philippine basketball is not who you think it is. Not Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone; or star player Justine Brownlee, a naturalized Filipino; or any one of the other national players.
My guess is the happiest man is PBA commissioner Willie Marcial. What a gift he’s been given, what with the resounding success of the Philippine team in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.
Sure, the campaign is not over and the objective is still unmet, but who would’ve thought that just two games into the OQT, basketball would regain its footing as the must-watch, most-feverish, most-popular sport in the country?
READ: Has volleyball eclipsed basketball as the national pastime?
Basketball has been bushwhacked repeatedly as a flailing sport — most of its games dismissed as unwatchable, the very league proclaimed flawed and dying, and the sport itself declared boring, predictable, and not entertaining at all. Why, its rising stars have left and gone on to play in Japan and in South Korea.
Marcial ended up getting cut up in social media for not doing enough to bring the PBA back to its former lofty place. People asked for his head.
Then came the OQT.
The first game against Latvia drew a surprising number of fans who stayed awake as Gilas played in the early morning hours of Thursday. Still, the fans were treated to a performance they had not seen in a long while: the team was defending, switching, running, assisting, and scoring as though the basket was its for the taking.
That led to an 89-80 victory, a result that ranks as one of the most remarkable in Philippine basketball history. Latvia is, after all, no pushover. Named sixth best in the world by FIBA rankings, it placed fifth in the FIBA World Cup held just last year in the Philippines, a country ranked a far 37th.
No surprise then that the morning after, the game was the talk of the town, with those who missed it feeling they had missed history being made. The game against Georgia the succeeding night, this time played at the godlier hour of early evening, must’ve gotten television ratings soaring.
Gilas lost — but it did not matter to Filipino fans. Gilas still advanced to the semifinals, thanks to its victory over Latvia and the exigencies of a quotient system that knocked Georgia out because it won by just two points, 96-94, when it needed to beat Gilas by 19. Cone, used to winning, said this was the first time he felt good about losing.
The next game against Brazil on Saturday could be the most-watched basketball game in Philippine history. Brazil is a three-time Olympic bronze medalist, with 1964 its last big hurrah; it is currently No. 12 in the FIBA rankings; and it’s a mark of its player quality that some of them continued to be drafted in the NBA.
A Philippine win would engineer a knockout encounter with the winner of the Latvia-Cameroon game. And another win? That is Mount Olympus waiting to be ascended.
At stake is a spot in no less than the Paris Olympic Games! To get some historical perspective here, the country last competed in Olympics basketball in 1972 in Munich, or 52 years ago. It was much earlier, in the 1960 Games in Rome, that the Philippines last beat a European basketball team, in particular Spain, 84-82.
Kume must be ecstatic
The PBA must be ecstatic with what is pleasantly unraveling in Latvia. The team is made up of our best players from the PBA, and coached by Tim Cone, whose record as a winning coach stands alone in local league history.
The guy must have a Midas touch. Whatever he touches, thank heaven for clichés, turns to gold. Can he do it again like he did in the 2022 Asian Games when an unheralded Philippine team captured the gold?
No, we’re not talking about our country winning a medal in the Olympics. Let’s not go there, yet. We’re simply talking about Tim Cone pulling off a miracle and bringing Gilas and the country to the 2024 Olympics.
For many, that’s akin to winning a basketball Olympic medal!
Whatever happens, the Gilas campaign is already the stuff of legend. Making it to the semis is bonus enough, but if the unthinkable happens and the team makes it to the finals and then the Olympics, a statue of Tim Cone deserves to be built somewhere.
Meantime, let’s set aside talks that volleyball has supplanted basketball as the country’s national sport. Volleyball, of course, enjoys one of the most remarkable resurgences in Philippine sports, converting thousands into a rabid fan base that fills stadiums and follow its iconic stars.
But unlike Gilas, volleyball has yet to make its mark in international competitions. It hasn’t even captured one gold in the Southeast Asian Games, the entry level of multi-nation sportsfests and the least competitive of regional meets.
That day may come, but in the here and now let’s give a toast to basketball, to Tim Cone, and the Gilas Pilipinas team.
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