Pakitang Gilas

In the recently concluded 22nd FIBA Asia Champions Cup, the Philippines saw a number of things that herald the coming of something good for Philippine basketball in the international arena.

First, the very fact that the Philippines competed really well during the week-long tournament, sweeping their group games, only to fall in the semis to dethroned champions Iran and bronze medal game to Qatar. Throughout the classification phase, Gilas really showed promise,
showing a good mix of inside and outside game, with a little bit of flair. Veteran borrowed players Asi Taulava and Dondon Hontiveros were good additions to the team, while JV Casio, Chris Tiu, Marcus Lassiter, and Japeth Aguilar teamed up with naturalized player Marcus Douthit to form the core of the Rajko Toroman-helmed squad.

Despite losing to Qatar in the battle for third, Smart Gilas really showed the great strides of improvement the team made throughout the tournament, losing to previous champion Iran by only three points after coming back to challenge in the last minutes of the fourth quarter.

But the other big news for Philippine basketball as signified by the FIBA Asia Champions Cup here at the Philsports Arena was the fact that the tournament was held here. That goes to show the clout that Manny Pangilinan, chairman of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and main backer of Team Pilipinas. This, on top of kuru-kuro that he's also getting poised to buy himself an NBA Team and purchase some shares in another one, really tells you that things are looking bright for Philippine Basketball.

The Philippines' hosting of the FIBA Tournament is really very good for this basketball-crazy country, whose craziness has even already been written about in Rafe Bartholomew's Pacific Rims. If MVP keeps on showing as much support for the country's basketball program, sooner or later we may yet have a talented enough player to make it to the NBA (Johnny Abarrientos and Renren Ritualo apparently came close) and even have our national team make it to the Olympics, a feat that has not been done in a long, long time.