MIKE Silungan grew up in Chicago idolizing Michael Jordan and aspiring to one day find a way to make an impact on the basketball court.
He did have his chances at the University of the Philippines, where he was looked at then as a savior of sorts for the struggling Maroons.
The high-scoring Fil-Am guard was counted upon to lead State U to the Final Four from 2010 to 2012, but the Maroons fell short each time. Yet despite those shortcomings, Silungan still bleeds maroon through and through to this day.
Those years are now but a memory for the 33-year old, but he still finds other ways to make an imprint in the game in another manner.
Now based in Chicago again, Silungan now works in sales but is still very much connected to the game of basketball, but this time in shaping the careers of those who want to follow in his trail.
Silungan keeps basketball connection
"I've been here, back for seven years now. Still playing ball, still playing almost every other day in basketball leagues here in Chicago, in the inner city leagues, but that's only for fun now. Just enjoying the game and for the love of the game," he told SPIN Sidelines.
"I work in sales and recruiting in the city of Chicago, so it's kind of like being a sports agent in a way and so I help others."
Although he's no longer the one chucking the leather to the rim, Silungan has been gracious enough in lending his knowledge to friends as they all seek to make lives better for aspiring ballers.
One of those is Bata Sole.
Started by his friend Jeff Masangcay, a first-generation Fil-Am from Glendale Heights, Illinois, the non-profit organization has since 2017 endeavored to provide sneakers to those in need back home in the Philippines.
"Here in the States, we're so privileged to always see someone in the gym having and playing with shoes on. So [in Bata Sole], we collect new and gently used sneakers, we clean them up, and then we send them over to the Philippines and we distribute them to different provinces that are less fortunate," he said.
Silungan was hands on in the project that he even oversaw a gift-giving activity back in November 2019 where Bata Sole handed out almost 1,000 pairs of shoes to the kids at the Tenement Court in Taguig.
But it's not limited to that.
The 6-foot-2 guard has also taken an active role in Camp Sole, a basketball camp where their group teaches young kids in the US valuable lessons they picked up back in their time.
"We're training kids, instilling the fundamentals, getting them to love the game like how we did when we were kids," he said of the different camps being held not just in Chicago but also in California and Arizona.
"We're just trying to expand Bata Sole and Camp Sole. We collect shoes for the kids but also teach them the fundamentals of the game as well and just love the game like how we did."
Silungan has also been helping the Chicago arm of FilAm Nation Select of coach Cris Gopez and Alex Cabagnot in the hope of unearthing talents with Filipino blood and give them the option to cross over here in the motherland.
"Anything that can help them get to that next level. I still have some connections with my coaches as well in the Philippines. That is my high priority this summer, to get really good basketball players, Fil-Ams and whoever it is, that want to play that next level to get them overseas and for them to see what it's like in the Philippines," he said.
Is he in search for the next Mike Silungan? Not necessarily, especially given the path that his career took. But he wouldn't change it for the world.
Testing the waters in the country and even trying out for Ateneo and San Beda, Silungan eventually settled at UP through the efforts of then-coach Aboy Castro who convinced him and his father to commit to the hardluck Fighting Maroons.
"My dad was there with me at the time and he was saying [UP] is the right place for me," he said. "It's because of not just the school, not just what we stood for, and not just the academics, but the people and the coaches that came up to us and said, 'We'll take care of your son when you have to go back to Chicago.'"
It took two years of residency before Silungan got the green light to play, with fans salivating at the prospects of UP finally getting its man - "the next big thing" as he was dubbed.
And when he finally got off of the chains, he just went off and scored 17 points in his UAAP debut back in UAAP Season 73 in 2010.
"After waiting for two long years, playing in different tournaments and going to school and just adjusting to the Filipino culture, for me to walk in from Araneta tunnel and seeing 15,000 screaming fans, I was just poured with so much emotion during that time. Even though we came up short, it was just such a surreal feeling of being finally at the UAAP stage," he said, sharing the court with the likes of Woody Co, Magi Sison, Jett Manuel, and Mikee Reyes.
Exceptional as that debut may have been, it ended in a loss as La Salle took the 80-62 victory. Little did Silungan know, that would be a portent of things to come in a whirlwind season and tumultuous stay in Diliman.
Castro filed for an indefinite leave of absence just two games into the season, leaving UP under the guidance of Boyet Fernandez. The coaching change did little as the Fighting Maroons lost all of their 14 games that season.
Ricky Dandan assumed the head coaching role the following year and finally ended that run of futility with a 69-61 opening day victory over University of the East, with Silungan pouring in 15 for his first victory in maroon, but UP never got out of the cellar with just a 2-12 win-loss record to show.
The next year was no better, with the Fighting Maroons still ending at the bottom with a 1-13 card as Silungan ended his UAAP career with marks of 11.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.0 steal.
It certainly wasn't the Jordanesque production Silungan expected from himself, but despite shouldering the load of turning the tide for a success-deprived team, he can hold his head high knowing that he did all he could to make his fellow Iskos proud in his three seasons there.
"I just wanted to go out there every day and play my best and leave it on the court. I don't regret anything that I've done, and even though we didn't win that many games, they thought that I was going to be that guy, that savior," he said.
"At the same time, I wanted to enjoy the game, just go out there and have the best teammates that I had, the brothers that helped me the last two years to get to where I was at that time. It was a tough three years of playing where I thought we could have been a lot better, but at the end of the day, I enjoyed my time there. That's my alma mater and I'm still bleeding maroon."
Coming from those so-called dark days only made UP's ascension for the past few years all the more sweeter for Silungan, who had a chance to watch a few of the Fighting Maroons' games when he visited the country in 2019.
"It was just good to see them being successful, and just having to be part of that culture before and seeing how much it changed in a more positive way," he said.
If UP didn't work out, the life after should've, right?
After spending a season in the PBA D-League, Silungan made the leap to the PBA. He was not picked until the fifth round by Barako Bull at 38th overall in the 2013 PBA draft headlined by Greg Slaughter, Ian Sangalang, and Raymond Almazan.
It was a devastating blow to Silungan's confidence that it forced him to reassess where he stood. "I think I wasn't mentally there," he admitted. "I felt like it was just time, but being drafted that low and thinking I was gonna play right away in the PBA, it took me a lot to just reconfirm myself that I can still play this game."
Silungan did come back a few months later and even served as a practice player for Meralco, but that was when life got in the way and forced him to make the tough detour.
"At that same time, my mother was sick and she had lung cancer. At that time, I was like, 'No, let me go back home and stay with my mom.' I wanted to help my wife come over to the States too and just reconnect myself with my family and my friends here," he recalled.
"I still wanted to play and I think I still can play right now, but it was just time for me to come back home to Chicago and find my roots again. Family always comes first."
Fast forward to now and Silungan considers himself happier than ever. He and wife Nadine are expecting their first child while staying connected to the game he loves.
"You never lose the love for the game no matter where you are. I grew up with this game and basketball took me to places that I've never thought that would that would take me. You hit some successes, you'll hit some failures; you'll lose games, you'll win games; you'll be the star of games, you'll be the bench player sometimes; you'll go to practice and you'll have the best practice and sometimes, you'll have the worst practices. It's all about the grind and it's all about the passion that you have for it," he said.
"Basketball is my first love, it always will be, and you just got to find ways to keep that passion alive even though it's not your main priority anymore."
Jordan famously said, "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
Silungan, for one, sure is trying his damn best.
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