IN the spate of news filled with violence and other unwanted events, a little bit of the good comes to us. The Philippines was recently awarded by FIBA, the official governing body of basketball in the world, the right to host the 27th FIBA Asia Championship from August 1 to 11 this year. A basketball tournament of this magnitude has never been staged in four decades, the last one being the 7th Asian Basketball Confederation Championship (ABC Championship) in 1973 where Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Abet Guidaben, and Bogs Adornado proclaimed dominance among Asia’s best by beating Korea in the finals, 90-78. Back in the present era of Asian basketball, we remain competitive in the region, but always in the shadows of giants the likes of China, Korea, Iran, and Jordan
The Philippines first struck gold back in 1960 as the inaugural winner of the tourney that served as a qualifier for the FIBA World Championship. Held in Manila, it was then called the ABC Championship. In fact, the Philippines claimed gold in the first three of the four editions of the biennial meet. The rush was then followed by pioneering gold miners coached by Tito Eduque and were led by the likes of the legendary Jaworski and company. Sadly, it was the China show after they got into the fray in 1975. The Chinese now have a tally of 15 titles with the Philippines at second with five. Our last title came in courtesy of the 1985 team that had quarterback Hector “The Director” Calma, “The Skywalker” Samboy Lim, and Allan “The Triggerman” Caidic. The team was coached by the great Ron Jacobs.
The right to host, actually, was first awarded to Lebanon. But due to the unrest caused by an ongoing civil war in Syria that trickles to its neighboring countries, authorities of FIBA Asia Executive Committee changed venues for the overall safety of the event. Now that the stage is set, expect the basketball faithful to come in full support of their team. Reliving the glory of our past gold excavations is not impossible. Coach Chot Reyes and the boys have the whole Philippine archipelago and its basketball fanatics behind them. This is the home court advantage that we have been looking for.
Erratum: For last week’s article, “Boni’s 150”—Supremo, the film, was directed by Richard Somes with Alfred Vargas as the Supremo. Mark Meily sat at the helm of El Presidente.
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