New challenge for Lipa

MANILA, Philippines — Joe Lipa has been involved in basketball for over 50 years and at 73, now faces a new challenge as Kia team manager in the PBA. In the course of his cage odyssey, he was commissioner of the UAAP, NCAA, Coca-Cola Hoopla and PCCL and head coach of the national team, UP, Ateneo, Shell and Air21. As a player, Lipa wore the UP jersey and suited up for San Miguel Beer during the MICAA era.

Two of Lipa’s fondest memories in his hoop career came when he piloted UP to the UAAP senior men’s title in 1986 and called the shots for the Philippines at the 1986 Asian Games where the national squad took the bronze medal.

At Kia, Lipa said he’s hoping to write another memorable chapter in his storybook. “My job is to put everything in order,” he said. “It’s different from a coaching perspective. I look at things from an overview of a season, not game-to-game or conference-to-conference. I’m fortunate that our PBA governor Mr. (Bobby) Rosales is very supportive of our efforts. He consulted me on reforming our coaching staff and we brought in key pieces that work well together. Chris (Gavina) is head coach with Ricky (Dandan) the lead assistant. They do game-planning, strategizing and run our practices. Art (de la Cruz) is a PBA veteran who has experience as a defensive role player and trains our bigs. Johnedel (Cardel) works with our perimeter players. Robert de la Rosa and Emerson Colina are focused on the management side. We’re all on the same page when it comes to coaching philosophy and direction.”

Lipa said his goal is to transform Kia into a serious title contender within a year. It’s a tall order but the team isn’t backing down from the call. “We’ve got a long way to go in terms of getting to a level of being consistently competitive but we’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “We’ve only been together about two or three weeks. It takes time to adjust to our new system. In our first game against NLEX, you saw the will to win, the effort. We had some minor lapses but we fought until the end. NLEX is a tough team that knows how to win yet it took that four-point play by Larry Fonacier in the last few seconds to seal it. We were good but not good enough. We’ve improved from last year and the team attitude is positive. It’s like we’re a pro team playing with the college spirit.”

Lipa said Kia is adopting an “unconventional” approach to the game. “We have no roles for our players, we don’t have a one, two, three, four or five because all five players do multiple things,” he said. “Anyone can bring up the ball, post up, shoot from outside, depending on the defense and the situation. We run motion and everybody has an equal opportunity to do things. It’s not a matter of getting a good shot but a matter of getting the best shot. That’s what we need to work on, shot selection.”

Lipa explained that in conventional basketball, the premium is on height and heft. “In Southeast Asia, we’re like the Americans who dominate with height and heft but beyond our region, we don’t have that luxury,” he said. “We don’t have a designated go-to guy because all five players on the floor can be go-to guys.”

Kia underwent a major personnel overhaul in the offseason, displacing nine veterans, retaining eight while enlisting three rookies JonJon Gabriel, Jan Jamon and Dan Sara and four transferees, JayR-Reyes, Rashawn McCarthy, Ronald Tubid and Dylan Ababou. “Ronald is our captain,” he said. “In our first game, he had cramps and couldn’t play in the homestretch where we needed him most. He plays well within our system. JonJon is a project. We traded for him because you can’t teach height. He’s a  legitimate 6-5. We’re investing in him for the future. Dan isn’t intimidated by anyone. He’s our conductor, he makes good decisions and plays selfless basketball. Jan is from EAC and played in Thailand last season. He’s a winner, not afraid to take the big shot to win the game.”

Lipa, who walks around with a cane because of arthritis, said sitting on the Kia bench is something he’s used to and gets the juices flowing. Would he entertain an offer to become the next PBA commissioner? “That would be a big honor but I think there are more qualified people out there to do the job,” he said.