AND just like that the Jr. NBA Philippines program presented by Alaska is 12 years old. Three of its participants on its first year are now professional basketball players in Asia’s oldest pro league—Aljon Mariano is with the Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings, Ael Banal is with Blackwater Elite and Kiefer Ravena is with the NLEX Road Warriors. A participant from the second batch—Mark Javen Tallo—has also joined the pros and is a Road Warrior, as well. Kristoffer Porter, a former Atenean, was acquired by NLEX in last December’s draft.
Later batches of Jr. NBA All-Stars have lorded and are still lording it over the collegiate leagues: Thirdy Ravena, Tyler Tio and Gian Mamuyac at Ateneo de Manila; Jarrell Lim, Janjan Jaboneta, Ricci Rivero and Kobe Paras at the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons; Kib Montalbo and Aljun Melecio at De La Salle University (DLSU); Hubert Cani at Far Eastern University (FEU); Dawn Ochea at Adamson University; Lorenzo Navarro at Lyceum of the Philippines University; Rhayyan Amsali at National University and now, San Beda University.
In the juniors division there are more waiting to make big names for themselves when they join the big boys: Sam Abuhijle, the San Beda Red Cubs star who has been recruited by the University of Santo Tomas; former Bull Pup Rhayyan Amsali who is now in the Red Cubs’ den; Jeffy Mailim, Harold Alarcon and Janjan Felicilda of the Bullpups; Ian Espinosa, Andrei Lechoncito, Daniel and Kai Sotto of the Ateneo Blue Eaglets.
Even those who were not chosen All-Stars but who have been part of the Jr. NBA Program are impacting their respective leagues and teams in big ways: Dave Wilson Yu of NU, Zachary Huang and Renzo Subido of UST; Jaydee Tungcab of UP, Justin Baltazar of DLSU.
Introduced to the Philippines in 2007 by the National Basketball Association, the first Jr. NBA consisted of basketball clinics held in various campuses. Camp director was former Detroit Piston Norman Black, who was then Blue Eagles coach. The clinics were followed by a three-day tournament participated in by 16 Metro Manila schools. A two-day training camp rounded up the first ever Jr. NBA program, and the first Jr. NBA All-Stars were rewarded with a four-day trip to San Francisco where they attended a basketball clinic at the Golden State Warriors’ practice session, then watched a Warriors-Clippers game as the high point of their visit.
The following year up to 2018 the Jr. NBA followed a Coaches Clinics-School and Open Clinics-Regional Selection Camps-National Training Camp format and fanned out to various key cities in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. The program blossomed when Alaska Milk came on as partner, particularly in 2014 when the Alaska/Campina partnership allowed the program to include other Jr. NBA participants from Asean countries. Filipino Jr. NBA All-Stars interacted with Indonesian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Singaporean and Thai All-Stars in basketball training, friendly games, tours and NBA game-watching on their NBA experience trips starting that year.
This year the program is taking on a slightly different tack. A lot of focus is being given to the coaching aspect, which is why the start of the program is an intensified Train The Trainers Program. Jr. NBA Coach Carlos Barroca from NBA Asia heads the Jr. NBA coaching staff and is ably supported by other NBA coaches and Alaska coaches led by Jeffrey Cariaso and Tony de la Cruz. This year Jr. NBA Philippines 2019 presented by Alaska did a two-day live-in training for over 50 coaches on.
Coach Carlos, a bright-eyed, energetic teacher-coach who is heading the program for the second straight year, loves what he’s doing and is crazy about Pinoy basketball. “Every time I get off the plane in the Philippines, I breathe basketball. It’s like I’m home. Because there’s no other place in the world where people love basketball the way they do here,” he says.
He tells the story of his first time here. “I arrived late at night and I took a regular taxi from the airport. I don’t know the name of the [old] gentleman. He was driving slowly. So my first question for him was “What is the sport in the Philippines?” And he looked at me and said, “Basketball.” And I said, “What else?” He answered, “Basketball.” “What else?” “Basketball.” And I was like “Oh everybody is playing basketball? ‘Yeah! Everybody play basketball.’ ‘You play basketball?” He looked at me and said “Of course, I play basketball.” He stopped the car, got out and started teaching me how to shoot the ball. This shows you how much love for basketball is in this country.”
“This year, we’re going to be all over the place,” said Coach Carlos and coaches will reach out deeper into communities as well as schools. As before, the Regional Selection Camps will start in February and end in April, with the National Training Camp happening in May.
Although the last part of the Jr. NBA Program is still the Experience Trip to a foreign country, there’s a “surprise” this year. The program has expanded to provide youth in the region the chance to represent the Asia Pacific in the second Jr. NBA Global Championship, a youth basketball tournament for the top 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls teams from around the world. It will be held in August at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida.
The first ever Jr. NBA Global Championship Asia Pacific Qualifiers to the World Championship will be held in Jakarta in June and as many as five boys and five girls from this year’s National Training Camp may be selected to be in it. They will pit their talent against other young players from Asean and Australia. If selected, the road will lead them to the World Championship.
“I was there last year,” Coach Carlos said. “It was really impressive. The American teams were fantastic. The African team was very good. The teams that we brought in from Australia were very competitive. I expect this year to be even better…”
“There will be lots of skills challenge with kids from different parts of the world and lots of other things going on…. The NBA team works not just to make a great competition but also to provide a level of experience like no other. I remember one day the kids were called to the breakfast room for an emergency meeting and didn’t know what to expect. Suddenly, Dwyane Wade showed up and he took pictures with all of the teams.”
Coach Carlos is excited about how far the Jr. NBA Philippines program has come. “I’ll say that the baby became like a teenager now. It’s a big baby. But what we want is to inspire more people and drive more kids to be better players and better people.”
Interested participants aged 10 to 14 can register now at www.jrnba.asia.