Gilas sparks rebirth of Philippine basketball

MANILA, Philippines - Team Philippines wages war against five of the best in the world starting with Team France today,as it resumes its quest to claim its old place in the world cagedom following the birth of the Gilas Pilipinas program in 2009.

Gilas Pilipinas joins France’s Les Bleus, New Zealand’s Tall Blacks, Turkey’s Dev Adam, Team Canada and Team Senegal in another big international event Team Phl reached since order was reestablished in the national cage federation.

The formation of the Gilas program in 2009 served as the impetus to the renaissance of Philippine basketball marked by its return to the FIBA World Cup in 2014 then its qualification to this FIBA OQT.

Under the aegis of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas under president Manny V. Pangilinan and with support from the PBA, the Gilas program has enjoyed tremendous success with coach Tab Baldwin and his Fighting 12 in Changsha, China making possible this shot at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next month.

Now manning Gilas Pilipinas 4.0 that will chase the Olympic dream in the Manila OQT are naturalized player Andray Blatche, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Ranidel de Ocampo, Marc Pingris, Troy Rosario, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, Bobby Ray Parks, Ryan Reyes, Jayson Castro and Terrence Romeo.

Blatche, De Ocampo, Pingris, Norwood, Castro and Romeo are carryovers from the national squad which vied in Changsha where they churned out a silver-medal feat in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship with Asi Taulava, Calvin Abueva, Dondon Hontiveros, JC Intal, Matt Ganuelas Rosser and Sonny Thoss. They’re the third assembly of Gilas players or Gilas Pilipinas 3.0.

Gilas 2.0 went all the way to the world meet in Spain after a swashbuckling run in the Asian joust at the MOA Arena in 2013. The Manila FIBA Asia heroes were Marcus Douthit, Fajardo, Aguilar, De Ocampo, Pingris, Castro, Norwood, Chan, Larry Fonacier, Gary David, LA Tenorio and Jimmy Alapag. Blatche and Paul Lee came on board in the World Cup in Seville, taking over from Douthit and Fonacier.

The original Gilas program was patterned after the highly successful Northern Consolidated Cement team of Ambassador Danding Cojuangco and late coach Ron Jacobs in the 80s.

Aguilar, Greg Slaughter, Chris Tiu, JV Casio, Rabah Al-Hussaini, Mark Barocca, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Lutz, Mac Baracael, Dylan Ababou, RJ Jazul, Aldrech Ramos and Jason Ballesteros went under the program with naturalized player Douthit under coach Rajko Toroman.

But before playing their first major international competition – the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games – came in pro reinforcements in Taulava, Kelly Williams and Sol Mercado. They finished sixth place behind China, Korea, Iran, Japan and Qatar with a 5-4 win-loss record.

Alapag and De Ocampo were also added in the succeeding FIBA Asia Championship, and Gilas gained an initial breakthrough, giving the country a Final Four finish for the first time since 1987.

A thought that came to mind after that was the potential and prospect of an all-pro team built around Douthit.

Chot Reyes was tapped to take over Toroman, and Gilas 2.0 was an instant success, making a stirring championship run in the 2012 Jones Cup topped by a conquest of Team USA on the final day.

Tenorio stood tallest among the Nationals in their upset of the Americans, and the former Ateneo stalwart went home with the Jones Cup MVP award.

The Nationals were impressive in the 2013 FIBA Asia at the MOA Arena, roaring all the way to an outright World Cup passage as they ended a streak of sorry losses to longtime rival Korea with a rousing 86-79 victory in the semifinals.

Behind the exploits of Alapag, Castro, De Ocampo and Pingris, Gilas 2.0 completed the big win over Korea even with Douthit sidelined by an injury.

But the absence of Douthit weighed on the Filipinos in the finale. Gilas settled for the silver, bowing to 7-foot-1 Hamed Haddadi and his Iranian teammates, 85-71, in the gold-medal match.

 In the World Cup, Gilas put up a performance to remember, barely losing to Croatia, 81-78, in overtime and having other close encounters with Greece (82-70), Argentina (85-81) and Puerto Rico (77-73).

In their final game in Seville, the Filipinos scored the country’s first “WC” win in 40 years in beating Senegal, 81-79, in a classic overtime battle.

Strong showing in the FIBA Asia and the FIBA World Cup had the Philippines jumping several rungs up to third in the Asian ranking behind China and Iran and No. 28 in the world.

And Gilas was far from done.

In the last FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha, the Nationals snapped Iran’s long winning streak in the biennial meet, pulling off a king-sized 87-73 triumph in the second round of elims play.

That victory had the Philippines getting in a lighter playoff bracket with Lebanon, Qatar and Japan while sending China and Iran in an early playoff collision.

The Filipinos crushed the Japanese, 81-70, while the Chinese drubbed the Iranians, 70-57, to arrange a final showdown.

An outright Rio Games entry was not meant to be for the Filipinos as they succumbed to the Chinese in the finale, 67-78.

But they’re not giving up hopes.

Gilas hopes to rekindle those 11 glorious nights at the MOA Arena in August of 2013.

Blatche and his teammates are determined to notch at least a win in the elims either against France and New Zealand. And they believe anything can happen in the knockout semis and in the finale.