Smart-Gilas and the National Team
Whenever a National Team is formed, controversy always erupts.
This is especially true in basketball and there are always questions around the team like:
Who should coach it?
Who should be in it?
How will training be done?
Are the players going to be paid?
Should we naturalize a player?
Note that this article is not about questioning the team that is currently formed, the Smart-Gilas team funded by the Basketball Godfather Manny Pangilinan. All indications would show that the current team under Toroman has a good system in place and seems to be ahead of the learning curve so to speak. I’m firmly behind the team and I’m enormously excited to see how they will do in international competition.
This does not mean that it cannot be tweeked. As good as this basketball team is now, it is completely the opposite of how I envisioned the ideal national team.
Let’s face it. The best players that the Philippines have are mostly the pros playing in the PBA. This is a no brainer. For this reason, whenever there is a need to form a National Team, we borrow from the PBA.
The problem is the team composed of PBA players would not or could not go all out when playing in international competition. These players get paid to play and the risk of injury while playing in an “unpaid” event can screw with their psyche during the games. Whether such accusation or observation is true or not is not the important part. They have the right to think about their future as basketball players as this is their livelihood, the way they earn money for their families.
Whenever a National Team is formed, controversy always erupts.
This is especially true in basketball and there are always questions around the team like:
Who should coach it?
Who should be in it?
How will training be done?
Are the players going to be paid?
Should we naturalize a player?
Note that this article is not about questioning the team that is currently formed, the Smart-Gilas team funded by the Basketball Godfather Manny Pangilinan. All indications would show that the current team under Toroman has a good system in place and seems to be ahead of the learning curve so to speak. I’m firmly behind the team and I’m enormously excited to see how they will do in international competition.
This does not mean that it cannot be tweeked. As good as this basketball team is now, it is completely the opposite of how I envisioned the ideal national team.
Let’s face it. The best players that the Philippines have are mostly the pros playing in the PBA. This is a no brainer. For this reason, whenever there is a need to form a National Team, we borrow from the PBA.
The problem is the team composed of PBA players would not or could not go all out when playing in international competition. These players get paid to play and the risk of injury while playing in an “unpaid” event can screw with their psyche during the games. Whether such accusation or observation is true or not is not the important part. They have the right to think about their future as basketball players as this is their livelihood, the way they earn money for their families.
What we need are players who have nothing to lose.
What we need are players who have nothing to lose. We need players who are willing to take the risk of injury just to be able to have the chance to play. For this reason, the best players to form the squad would be PBA “washouts”. I do not mean players who cannot hack it in the PBA but those who could but for some reason or another, was not given the proper minutes and opportunities to showcase their talents.
There are many of these players. Collegiate stars who had bright futures at the end of their stint in the UAAP and the NCAA and were even drafted by a PBA team only to be relegated to the end of the bench beside the ball boys and gofers. Promising stars who got buried in the rotation after a trade that sent them to a team with a star player firmly in his position.
These are the players who should be chosen to represent the country. Get them in a room and tell them the truth: They have no future as a PBA player. They’re good, talented players but they won’t make it as a pro. But—they can play for the National Team and be paid like a professional. Lock them down three years. Guaranteed.
Some of you may ask, “Wait, this is similar to Smart-Gilas. They’re professionally paid to be part of the National Team.” Uhm, No. The big difference is that the Smart-Gilas team is composed of players who are still very young and may still have an eye towards playing in the PBA. That’s a huge difference. They can be playing well now but what happens when the threat of injury becomes a reality.
There are many of these players. Collegiate stars who had bright futures at the end of their stint in the UAAP and the NCAA and were even drafted by a PBA team only to be relegated to the end of the bench beside the ball boys and gofers. Promising stars who got buried in the rotation after a trade that sent them to a team with a star player firmly in his position.
These are the players who should be chosen to represent the country. Get them in a room and tell them the truth: They have no future as a PBA player. They’re good, talented players but they won’t make it as a pro. But—they can play for the National Team and be paid like a professional. Lock them down three years. Guaranteed.
Some of you may ask, “Wait, this is similar to Smart-Gilas. They’re professionally paid to be part of the National Team.” Uhm, No. The big difference is that the Smart-Gilas team is composed of players who are still very young and may still have an eye towards playing in the PBA. That’s a huge difference. They can be playing well now but what happens when the threat of injury becomes a reality.
Consider the now infamous game between SG and Burger King. Smart Gilas led and was beating BK through style and system until BK turned it up a notch in the thug department. Every SG player was getting hit and getting mugged. Did you see anyone stand up to BK? Not one. HesuChris Tiu laid down on the floor after getting knocked out of his feet. Same with Barocca after Arboleda’s potentially career destroying move of going under a player while he’s in midair. While everybody saw Arboleda beat up a fan (the only person who actually stood up to BK’s rough house tactics), I saw that Smart Gilas began to become tentative, become less physical and, in short, play scared. BK despite taking a huge blow in the 2nd quarter, crept up and beat Smart Gilas.
Smart Gilas never fought back.
Smart Gilas never fought back.
Why?
Because they couldn’t.
They were essentially kids, 22 year olds getting clobbered by thirty year olds who feel slighted and betrayed by Japeth Aguilar. Some quarters say that SG kept their cool as they got hit again and again. That’s a lie. They cowered and slid underneath the table. They got bullied and they went home with their shirt in tatters and pretend that it’s okay. It was classic schoolyard bullying.
The risk of injury was there as well as a healthy dose of “respect thy elders” mentality which combined killed whatever heart Smart Gilas had. While being paid by SG, they still have a future to think about.
We can say that Burger King played dirty (actually, filthy could be a better adjective). But in the end they won.
In international competition, it could only get worse. The BK game was between Filipinos and some of them are even friends. What more if the game is between two teams who do not even share the same language and truly hate our guts?
A team composed of “washouts” has a different mentality. They feel they weren’t given the chance. They feel they were disrespected by these PBA players. Unlike Smart Gilas who only felt being pushed in the last game, these players have been pushed around for a long time. Push them again and they would push back---hard.
Who are these “washout players” that I speak of? There are plenty. At the top of my head, I can name several. Granted I do not know what has happened to them but the idea here is to find players under a similar situation.
Leo Avenido was a star player in college who left too early.
Don Camaso was 6’7 Small forward who can dunk and rain threes.
Omanzie Rodriguez was a defensive powerhouse.
Jervy Cruz is underused.
Chris Calaguio almost never plays anymore.
These players may no longer be viable players these days (except Jervy) but again we should pick up these players and be part of the National Team.
What of Smart Gilas then? What needs to be done?
Experience will come with age. However, that would mean waiting. They will be pushed around and abused in the coming games especially now that it has been shown that they would wilt under that type of physical play. If you think the international teams do not know what happened, you’re kidding yourselves. Right now, the blue print to beating Smart Gilas is exactly that: beat them up.
So how do we change things? How can we make this team better?
What we need is an enforcer.
For starters, we need an enforcer. We need a couple of players who can take rough housing and could dish them out themselves. I don’t see Chris Tiu delivering any elbows and I do not see JV Casio confronting any player after a bad foul on him. As big as he is, Rabeh Al-Hussaini is an enormous sissy who complains after a slight slap to his forearm. I don’t see them fighting back. It’s just not in their nature because they are simply too nice.
We should get at least one player who could be the designated enforcer but also plays decent basketball. We used to have a ton of these players mostly from Ginebra. Chito Loyzaga was one, Wilmer Ong was another. Maybe Jervy can fill this void as well as Jared Dillinger. I may be wrong in naming these players but I do know that Smart Gilas cannot just fold when the going gets tough.
The National Team is always ripe with controversy and we all have an idea what an ideal team should be. Heart plays a big role in this and I am not questioning the current players’ hearts. But there is no question that something is still missing. And it’s not too late to make things better.
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