WHEN was the last time a Philippine men’s basketball team competed in a major tournament without a reinforcement or naturalized player? The team of Yeng Guiao, which didn’t crack the medal round of the FIBA Asia Cup in Tianjin, China in 2009. That team was bannered then by PBA stalwarts Asi Taulava, James Yap, Jayjay Helterbrand, Ranidel de Ocampo, Willie Miller and Arwind Santos.
That was the last squad to compete with an all-Filipino roster in the entire tournament. After that, the Philippines made sure it has a naturalized Filipino in the lineup.
That was until Friday night when Gilas Pilipinas played Jordan without resident reinforcement Justin Brownlee, who is still recuperating from multiple injuries.
Current Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is no stranger in fielding in a team without a reinforcement and he was able to experience that when he first coached the Centennial Team that placed third in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.
Two of Cone’s former players, Jojo Lastimosa, who co-skippered the squad along with Alvin Patrimonio, and Allan Caidic, the best pure shooter ever produced by the country, knows how tough it is for the Philippine team to prevail in Asian Qualifiers for the FIBA World Cup and the Asian Games in Japan two weeks from now.
If there’s one saving grace this time as far as the national team is concerned, it is the availability of Kai Sotto, the 7-foot-3 NBA prospect, who will team up at front anew with 6-foot-10 Filipino Cypriot AJ Edu and versatile Dwight Ramos.
These young stars had rejoined forces with current PBA stars led by nine-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo.
Lastimosa was honest enough to say that without Sotto coupled by the absence of a naturalized player, the Philippines don’t have a prayer in the fourth window and the Asian Games.
“If Kai wasn’t there, it’s over,” Lastimosa told The Manila Times. “With him, we have, all of a sudden, an anchor on defense and inside finisher.” Still, Lastimosa believes it’s still going to be a very challenging task for the Philippine squad to play the two home games in this FIBA window and the Asian Games without a Brownlee or any other reinforcement.
“It’s hard to say the strength of the competition. We barely won with Brownlee versus Jordan (in the gold medal match of the Asiad). I think it’s equally hard to win it all just like last time. We have to click on all cylinders,” he said.
Lastimosa was talking based on experience. He had to play probably the best game he ever played in the international scene during the bronze medal match against Kazakhstan — a game where he played angry after he was barely utilized for the most part of the campaign by Cone, his old coach at Alaska — but came up with a clutch performance in leading the team to victory.
Caidic was one of those few players who experienced playing both with reinforcements or without them.
He played with Chip Engelland, now a shooting coach in the NBA, when they won the gold medal in the William Jones Cup in 1985 and the World Club Championship.
Jeff Moore and Dennis Still are the two other naturalized players when the Northern Consolidated-backed team won the last FIBA Asia Cup gold played between late 1985 to early 1986, back when the event was still known as the Asian Basketball Confederation.
The Trigger Man also experienced playing for Philippine teams without a reinforcement and these happened in four editions of the Asiad.
“All of the Asian Games I played for we played all-Filipino or probably the closest on having a reinforcement was when we had Fil-Am Andy Seigle for the Centennial team,” recalled Caidic.
“We placed third with an all-amateur team in 1986 coached by Joe Lipa, went on to secure the silver with the first allpro team in 1990 coached by Robert Jaworski, finished fourth in 1994 coached by Norman Black then placed third in 1998 under Tim Cone.” But while seeing the national team playing with an all-Pinoy lineup isn’t a strange thing, Caidic knows how tough the games are since tapping a naturalized player has become a trend in international competitions.
So it’s like deja vu for Cone, who could only worry on things he could control as Brownlee is still not fit to return to action yet.
The naturalization papers of Bennie Boatwright needs approval before becoming eligible to play while Jordan Clarkson won’t be available as the winningest coach in PBA history cited the contract he had with newly crowned NBA champion New York Knicks prevented him a return trip to reinforce Gilas Pilipinas.
Ange Kouame, meanwhile, is still under contract playing overseas.
But Cone is ready for the challenges in the FIBA window and the Asian Games where the matches are essentially must win for us.
“I think all of us to a man are excited to be playing this window All-Filipino.
The challenge will be great but the winning will be sweeter,” wrote Cone in a Viber message.
