RENAULD “SONNY” BARRIOS, speaking for the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), returned home from a winless Gilas Pilipinas stint in a pocket tournament in Estonia with a profoundly disturbing admission.
Gilas is “very far from where we wanted to be,” he told ANC Sports, “And that’s a candid assessment.” The huge losses to the Netherlands and Estonia were disappointing, but not totally unexpected, considering that Gilas competed with less than three weeks of training as a team.
It was the loss to Iceland that was harder to take. Team handball is referred to as Iceland’s national sport in which it won an Olympic silver in Beijing in 2008. Its most famous athlete comes from football and plays in the English Premier League. But basketball doesn’t rank with the passion and adoration that Filipinos have given this national pastime. That is why Gilas Pilipinas’ 10-point loss to the Reykjavik cagers crystallized all our fears about the ultimate readiness and competitiveness of Baldwin’s team.
Baldwin’s boys have a long way to go even as the tournament for which they are preparing is less than a month away from kick-off in China. As if the controversies surrounding the absence of three San Miguel stalwarts in the national tryouts were not enough, the team faces more formidable hurdles.
Naturalized player Andray Blatche was grossly overweight, having come from a long layoff. Ranidel de Ocampo, still recovering from injury, isn’t back to his old fiery form. Another big man, Sonny Thoss, doesn’t have Ranidel’s three-point touch and could be relied on only in brief stretches as a reliever. Asi Taulava is tall, but at 42 may be slow for the young, agile big men of the field.
Calvin Abueva is tough and rugged but foul-prone, while Terrence Romeo often takes matters into own hands. We might be seeing limited minutes for the older guys, notably Jimmy Alapag and Dondon Hontiveros.
Marc Pingris, the prodigal son of the national five, returned to the fold, reportedly under threat of being traded by the San Miguel-owned Star Hotshots in the Philippine Basketball Association. But during his absence from training camp, he “missed a lot” and now has a “big burden on his shoulders to catch up as fast as he can.”
In fact, with Pingris’s late entry, Coach Tab Baldwin’s prognosis on the team’s progress sounded discouraging. “[T] he reality is we now have to stop our progress and wait for Marc to catch up,” he told ANC Sports. “That’s never an ideal situation, never.”
That’s extra stress to a team already bombarded by extreme pressure from multiple fronts. To his eternal credit, Pingris continues to believe in himself and, more important, in the sacredness of the cause of the flag. He did not return to save Manny V. Pangilinan, the Gilas godfather, from the embarrassment of a second-rate national team competing in an Olympic qualifying tournament.
Nor he did it against the wishes of San Miguel, but instead declares, “Naglalaro ako para sa bayan natin.” That may well be the case. His ancient legs still looked sturdy although banged up. How much fight he has left in them—not his heart—only he would know by competition time.
From the incremental progress that Baldwin has achieved since opening the Gilas tryouts early this month, we can reasonably converge on one conclusion. This national five would not be near the ideal shape Baldwin wants when the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asia wars begin next month.
In fact, while Barrios has given us a reason to fire up our hopes with the potential addition of Filipino-American Jordan Clarkson, the young Los Angeles Lakers lion, to the Gilas lineup, Baldwin has tried to tamp down expectations. Clarkson would be an excellent addition to the team, but his entry so late in training would pose problems greater than those that Pingris created.
But the SBP is so certain Clarkson would meet Fiba’s residency requirement, and get clearance from the Lakers for him to play in the national colors, which included his name in the Gilas Pilipinas pool submitted last week for scrutiny by the Fiba.
Fans, like the true devotees of the sport, have rejoiced. Could Clarkson be the savior of the team that hopes to top the Fiba Asia Olympic qualifying tournament?
He is no superman, that cager who, like the great Carlos Loyzaga, could do it all. At 6-3, Loyzaga, at the peak of his powers, was peerless in Asia, and old teammates of his still speak reverentially not only of his towering talent but also of his unmatched courage in the face of adversity.
A healthy Loyzaga in the Philippine five, in the young days of Fiba Asia’s predecessor, the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC), always struck fear in the hearts of Asian opponents. Even a Loyzaga playing on low gear, with banged-up knees and swollen thighs, as in the 1963 Taipei ABC, could inspire and motivate his team no end to win a championship.
He was the undeclared messiah of local basketball, and his courage and devotion to excellence was canonical.
In this day and age of a borderless world, when mixed cultures produced Filipino sons who are taller, heftier and had access to better nutrition, health care and training abroad, Clarkson seems God-sent.
He is 23 years old and 6-foot-5, agile, skillful. The big point guard who started in 38 games for the Lakers last season, who can run, soar to the rim, sink perimeter jump shots and flick passes with amazing confidence. But above all, he holds a Philippine passport, stamping out all doubts about his biological roots.
Given his talent, how would Clarkson fit in with Gilas?
If Pingris’s lateness in joining practice in a team he knows too well created wrinkles in Baldwin’s brow, how much more with a National Basketball Association talent who would be coming in from the cold?
Sparks have flown over his coming. Fans have hailed his coming, waving metaphorical palm fronds. But the potential disruption he might inadvertently cause is something to seriously think about.