[FIBA Asia finals] Regaining Asia from China PHL 5’s wall to climb

 

MANILA—One final Asian basketball jinx, affixed with Chinese characters and that is as intimidating as the Great Wall, is left to hurdle.

It is China, grabbers of the Philippines’ earlier success in continental basketball since the mid-1970s, that stands in the way of the revival of the old, dominating flair of Filipinos that was then the face of Asia.

The 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) champions, the Philippines. Thirty years is a long wait for this basketball-crazy nation to get back what's theirs: basketball supremacy in Asia. (archives of The Bulletin Today; photo by The Filipino Connection)

The 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) champions, the Philippines. Thirty years is a long wait for this basketball-crazy nation to get back what’s theirs: basketball supremacy in Asia. (archives of The Bulletin Today; photo by The Filipino Connection)

Tonight, in the Chinese city of Changsha in Hunnan province, and for the first time in the knockout playoffs era of the biennial Asian Basketball Championships, China and the Philippines both aim to regain what’s rightfully theirs. Only one country will get back what’s theirs: Asia.

Both booted out deposed champions Iran, the top Asian country in three of the last five FIBA Asia Championships. The surprise came from the Philippines during the second round, 87-73, since an Iranian team complete with its triumvirate star players can’t boot out Iran. Host China then picked up the lessons of Iran’s loss to a smaller Philippine team with a 70-57 semifinal win, sort of a vengeance after Iran waylaid host China, 70-52 in the 2009 FIBA Asia Championships in Tianjin.

So it has come to this: the winningest Asian countries (China 15 titles, Philippines five), the continent’s top performers in global basketball competitions (China, a quarterfinalist in the 2008 Olympics and Asia’s highest ranked squad in world rankings; the Philippines a fifth placer in the 1936 Olympiad and a bronze medalist —Asia’s highest— at the 1954 World Basketball Championships), the continent’s boisterous but fanatic cage fans.

 

Curse

But behind all these credentials is a curse, unfortunately with the Philippines at the receiving end of it. This losing spell is 30 years old.

Since China returned to international sports in the mid-1970s and won its first Asian title in 1975, the Philippines is hard pressed to solve the Chinese hoops puzzle. At that time, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was formed to become the continent’s first professional league. However, professionals aren’t allowed to play in international competitions, with amateurs eligible to play.

So then San Miguel Corp. owner Eduardo Cojuangco assembled a five-year national basketball program, backed by Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC), that will get top amateurs, build them together, and play like they’re better than PBA teams. At that time, the international basketball body FIBA allowed countries to get naturalized players —and the Philippines got three: small forward Jeff Moore, burly center Dennis Still and sniper Arthur “Chip” England. The top supporting cast would become local legends: Allan Caidic, Avelino “Samboy” Lim and Hector Calma. Hell, as a guest team in a PBA conference, NCC even won a title!

 

Championship

The aim was to get back Asian cage dominance, particularly at the 1985 Championships in Kuala

The 1985 story of Bulletin Today of the Philippines regaining the 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) championship given its 82-72 win over China (photo by The Filipino Connection)

The 1985 story of Bulletin Today of the Philippines regaining the 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) championship given its 82-72 win over China (photo by The Filipino Connection)

Lumpur from December 28, 1985 to January 6, 1986. And eventually, China and the Philippines battled for the gold medal, with the Ron Jacobs-mentored Filipinos the clear underdogs.

Prior to the tournament, even if the country regained the Southeast Asian Games title two weeks earlier, Jacobs wasn’t satisfied since his players perform like PBA players: individualistic, one-on-one on offense.

After subduing eventual second placers South Korea, 76-72, China and a pro-Chinese crowd of 10,000 at the Negara Stadium in Kuala Lumpur were left.

From a 48-42 halftime lead, a third quarter spurt was all the Filipinos needed to lead by 23, 74-51, with the last ten minutes left. (They were then criticized for always being sloppy in the third quarter.)

The final score? 82-72, in a game China had to win by 15 points to retain its title. It was perhaps the biggest victory by the Philippines over China, the legitimate Chinese Team A, in an Asian tournament. (Caidic topscored with 22 pts., Lim had 16, Still 14, and Moore 13.)

“We knew exactly what they would do,” Jacobs (now bedridden given a stroke) was quoted as saying by the late Willie Caballes of Bulletin Today. There were new stuff we did against their zone which we never did before. And the Chinese couldn’t get back in their defense very well.”

 

Crushed

That sweet triumph, brought home just a month before the country had national elections then between former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and democracy icon Corazon Aquino, over a Chinese squad never happened again.

Humiliation followed.

The Philippines and China, in the first face-off of the two with an all-professional Philippine team, fought in an elimination round match at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. China's amateurs walloped the PBA-backed team, 125-60. From then on, the Philippines has been having a hard time beat a Team A of China in international play. In tonight's FIBA Asia Championship final, the Philippines wants to regain Asia. (archives of The Philippine Star; photo by The Filipino Connection)

The Philippines and China, in the first face-off of the two with an all-professional Philippine team, fought in an elimination round match at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. China’s amateurs walloped the PBA-backed team, 125-60. From then on, the Philippines has been having a hard time beat a Team A of China in international play. In tonight’s FIBA Asia Championship final, the Philippines wants to regain Asia. (archives of The Philippine Star; photo by The Filipino Connection)

A “strong” all-PBA team took advantage of the FIBA’s open basketball policy in 1989 to form a team for the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. Coached by Robert “The Big J” Jaworski, the team however was formed two weeks before the Sept. 22-Oct. 7, 1990 tournament. Calma, Lim and Caidic were there, so is Ramon “El Presidente” Fernandez, then 1989 Rookie of the Year and MVP Venancio “Benjie” Paras, Alvin Patrimonio, Ronnie Magsanoc, Yves Dignadice, Chito Loyaga, Rey Cuenco, Zaldy Realubit, and Dante Gonzalgo.

As the “first” all-professional team in an Asian competition, the Philippines was said to be “feared” together with host and 1989 Asian champs China. Jaworski was careful in his language: “I can’t really see any difference between our pro players and the amateur players from other countries.”

“The all-star Filipino cagers are almost unbeatable,” then Japanese Simuzi Yeshiaki said.

Almost.

The Sept. 30 preliminary round encounter at the Beijing Collegiate Gymnasium was an all-China show: 125-60. The wall separating “professionals” and “amateurs” crumbled, even as early as prior to the tournament when the Chinese reportedly said the Filipinos can be given plus-20.

China, led by its towers Ma Jian, Song Ligang and Gong Xiaobin, streaked from the outside, ran the floor well and suffocated the Filipinos defensively in the first 30 mins. “Lumambot,” Jaworski said post-game of the first half that ended at 56-28.

“Give up the dream. Forget about it,” writes Recah Trinidad for the six-year-old Philippine Daily Inquirer given that 65-point massacre he witnessed first hand. “It was not only a mismatch. It was a bacchanalian trip for the overpowering Chinese who feasted wildly on the all-pro RP squad on the 41st day of their (China’s) republic.”

“The unmasking of the PBA pros was complete.”

 

Cradle of Asian success

From then on, China is the Great Wall of Asian basketball the Philippines has the hardest time to hurdle. Coincide that with Korea whom our losing streak was also three decades old until the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships semifinal match in Manila.

The PBA went on and had its new stars. China then formed its own professional league, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), in 1994 that is now among the world’s sought-after foreign leagues.

China had brought five homegrown players to the NBA: the celebrated Yao Ming (2002-2011), the first Chinese NBA player Wang Zhizhi (2001-2005), current superstar Yi Jianlian (2007-2012), another old nemesis Bateer Mengke (2002-2003), and guard Sun Yue (2008-2009). The Philippines has yet to have its first homegrown talent in the NBA.

The CBA had foreign players come to China and play in an NBA-style tournament. The PBA remains a three-conference league (except for some years that became two conferences).

China remains among the top 20 teams in the world for over a decade. The Philippines is all but enjoying a recent wave of increments in its world ranking.

China has faced the United States Dream Team in the world championships and the Olympic Games. That match remains alien to a Filipino hoops team.

There’s a great wall.

 

Crusade

Tonight, the Philippines tries to rekindle the glory of the 1985 champion team. The 30-year curse of beating Korea ended in 2013. The eight-year losing spell to Iran ended in this FIBA Asia tournament’s second round. Only China remains.

But the obvious underdogs from Southeast Asia brought down its own “wall of intimidation” on how international

File photo from the 2014 FIBA World Cup where the Philippines almost made Argentina cry (photo from FIBA.com)

File photo from the 2014 FIBA World Cup where the Philippines almost made Argentina cry (photo from FIBA.com)

basketball plays. It happened in Sevilla, Spain when the Philippines competed in its first FIBA World Cup since 1978.

Unknowns in world basketball almost stunned powerhouses Croatia (in overtime), world no. 3 Argentina (four-point shave) and Puerto Rico, while losing to world no. 4 Greece by 12. Then the Philippines barely got out of Senegal for a first World Cup win in a generation.

That kind of performance, especially against Argentina, might crumble the great wall of intimidation —and the annoying losing streak— of Filipinos to the Chinese.

The hunt is on for the Philippines’ biggest success since the FIBA’s 1989 open basketball policy. The Chinese wall to climb, while tall, will hopefully fall into the hands of underdogs and a nation whose dream is to regain what’s theirs: Asia.

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About Jeremaiah Opiniano