MERALCO Bolts player Diego Dario has a memorable moment with newly-minted NBA champion Jayson Tatum. That happened about 10 years ago when he was a member of the Philippine Youth Team and clashed with Tatum, who was playing for the US team, in the FIBA U17 tournament in Dubai in 2014.
Now that Tatum has become the star of the Boston Celtics side that won the NBA championship, Dario recalled that encounter as the country is set to start another campaign in the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup,
Tatum, then playing out of Chaminade as a sophomore, was making his debut with the Team USA, which also featured future NBA players Harry Giles, Terrance Ferguson, Josh Jackon, Malik Newman, Henry Ellenson, the late Caleb Swanigan, Ivan Rabb, and Diamond Stone, the former Meralco and San Miguel Beer import.
'Superstar in the making'
While the superstar was already showing great promise back then, Tatum wasn’t exactly the main man of the team, the 27-year-old Dario noted.
“He wasn’t the best player on the team yet. He wasn’t the leading scorer, but he had all the tools to be one of the best in the world,” said Dario, whose team won the PBA Philippine Cup recently.
Against the Batang Gilas that had twins Mike and Matt Nieto, Jolo Mendoza, Richard Escoto, Lorenzo Navarro, and Paul Desiderio, among others, Tatum finished with eight points, seven rebounds, and two assists as a starter in a 124-64 blowout win.
The best player in that USA Team was Newman, the shooting guard out of Callaway who later had a brief stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He led the Americans to a 99-92 win over Australia during the gold medal play.
Newman, now 27, scored 21 points and 11 rebounds in the championship game, eventually winning the MVP award and named to the Mythical Team along with the streak-shooting Stone.
Photo: Diego Dario FB page
But it was only Tatum, 26, who became an NBA superstar. He was picked No. 3 overall by Boston during the 2017 draft after a one-and-done season with the Duke Blue Devils.
His amateur career included winning gold medals in the FIBA U19 World Championship in Greece in 2015 and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“During that time, we didn’t know he was gonna be an NBA superstar,” recalled Dario.
Incidentally, Tatum won his first-ever NBA championship just two days after Dario and Mendoza claimed their very first PBA title with Meralco, which upset highly-favored San Miguel in the best-of-seven series, 4-2.
“It’s a blessing to have that kind of an opportunity,” added the proud product of University of the Philippines.
The Gilas U17 team will be competing in the World Cup from June 29 to July 7 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Kieffer Alas, a member of the Mythical Team in the FIBA Asia U-16 Tournament last year, will once again spearhead the campaign of the team coached by Josh Reyes.
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