Finding a solution

The introduction of a new qualifying format for the FIBA World Cup and Olympics has brought leaders of the SBP and PBA together to brainstorm a solution to the puzzle that puts Philippine basketball in a state of flux.

Because FIBA will unravel six qualifying home-and-away windows from November 2017 to February 2019 in the process of determining the 32 countries participating at the World Cup in China in 2019, the PBA will be in a shambles if it continues to lend players for the national team. The same conflict faces the NBA except that with the depth of talent in the US, the problem is hardly an issue. College or NBA D-League players can take care of the early qualifying windows until the critical stages where NBA stars may be called in.

Under the transformed setup, the FIBA Asia Championships will become the FIBA Asia Cup by 2021. The last FIBA Asia Championships will be held in 2017 before the first qualifying window is staged. However, the FIBA Asia Championships will not be a qualifier for either the World Cup or Olympics. It will only be a prestige tournament. In 2021, the Asian and Oceania countries will merge under a single continental tournament called the FIBA Asia Cup. Before then, there will be a qualifying process from November 2019 to February 2021. The 2021 FIBA Asia Cup will be an eliminator to send two teams to the 24-nation qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Olympics.

Over a four-year cycle from 2017 to 2021, national teams will play regular home-and-away games to qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup and the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup. The teams in Asia and the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand from Oceania, will be classified into Division A and Division B.

FIBA said the radical transformation will usher in a new era for basketball. The concept is to regularize the appearance of the national team throughout the year. FIBA has described the national team as “the locomotive for basketball in each country.” The goal is to create renewed interest for the sport with the all-year visibility of the national team. On a given day, FIBA said the format will involve 1,680 players in 70 national team games around the world.

While the format is exciting, the repercussions on the PBA are severe. The FIBA qualifying windows cut through the PBA’s schedule like a knife. Take what’s on the table for 2017-19. The FIBA Asia Championships will be held in September 2017 then the first qualifying window is set on Nov. 20-28. The second window is scheduled on Feb. 19-27, the third on June 25-July 3, the fourth on Sept. 17-25, the fifth on Nov. 26-Dec. 4 and the sixth on Feb. 28-26, 2019. The World Cup will be staged in September 2019.

If the PBA calls for a moratorium to allow pros to represent the country every step of the way, its season will be shot full of holes. Although only 12 players are in the national team, at least 24 will be involved in the training period. Those are 24 of the best PBA players and their mother clubs won’t be able to avail of their services during the tour of duty.

Likely SBP incoming president Al Panlilio and PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa have started the ball rolling with an initial exploratory, brainstorming session last Wednesday. They’re looking for a win-win solution to protect the interests of the country and the PBA franchise owners. The aim is to lock in a permanent solution. FIBA has made known its schedule up to 2021 so it’s up to the SBP and PBA to figure out how to build a competitive national team to fit the calendar.

The option of forming a 14-man Gilas Cadets pool is a take-off from the successful formula of the ‘80s with the Northern Cement experiment of Ambassador Danding Cojuangco. That formula led the Philippines to the 1985 FIBA Asia title and the country has not won the continental crown since.

From the 14-man pool will be formed the nucleus of the national team. It will be composed of collegiate players handpicked by national coach Tab Baldwin. Whenever there is a call for an international tournament, the Gilas Cadets will be armed and ready to battle. They will not be allowed to play in the PBA while with the pool. However, as Alaska team owner Fred Uytengsu suggested, they should be made available in the PBA draft after leaving school. Teams that draft the Gilas Cadets run the risk of not lining them up until they’re released from the pool.

It’s important that the Gilas Cadets subject themselves to the draft so that at any time they are released for whatever reason, they can immediately join the PBA teams that drafted them. The option does not preclude the possibility of certain PBA players loaned to the national team to augment the Gilas Cadets pool.

A certain degree of flexibility is necessary when addressing the problem. The SBP can’t be restricted to sending only the players in the 14-man Gilas Cadets pool for international competitions. In the course of representing the country, Baldwin may cut certain players and bring in replacements, possibly from the PBA with the approval of the PBA Board of Governors since the recruitment will be on a highly selective basis. The core of the national team will come from the Gilas Cadets pool so if there are PBA reinforcements, they will be only a handful. This way, the implications of disrupting the PBA will be diffused.

As the SBP and PBA continue to exchange ideas, it’s likely more options will emerge. For as long as they’re on the same page, working together for the good of Philippine basketball, it’s difficult to go wrong. Panlilio is a member of the PBA Board of Governors representing Meralco where he is a senior vice president while Narvasa served for over 10 years as president of the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines. Their backgrounds show a cross-mix of SBP and PBA affiliations. They’re in the best position to find a solution to the problem.