The All-Star basketball team that’s in town this weekend has to be the most glittering NBA lineup ever assembled to play in Manila. Kobe Bryant was the Finals MVP in 2009 and 2010 and has five championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers. Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans were all Rookies of the Year. Rose was named MVP this past season, the youngest ever to win the award. Durant was the MVP of the FIBA World Championships last year and has led the NBA in scoring the last two years. Paul is only the fifth player in history to top the NBA in assists and steals the same year and he’s done it twice. CP3 was the league’s top thief in 2008, 2009 and 2011.
Derek Fisher, like Bryant, owns five title rings and will forever be known as Mr. 0.4 – a Laker shirt commemorating his 18-foot swisher to win Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference semifinals against San Antonio with 0.4 of a second left was a huge seller. Derrick Williams was this year’s second overall draft pick and is expected to enjoy an auspicious debut this season – whenever it starts. James Harden was one of only four Oklahoma City players to average in twin digits this past season, joining Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green, and he’s only 21. Finally, there is Washington Wizards center JaVale McGee, a seven-footer with pedigree (his mother Pam played on champion teams in the Olympics and NCAA) and upside (he posted his first career triple double last March).
The remarkable thing is all nine players are active in the pros. None is retired. If not for the lockout, it would probably be next to impossible to gather the players under one roof to play two games in two nights in an Asian country about 10,000 miles away from home. We could be so lucky.
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The first high-caliber NBA All-Star team to visit Manila was in 1974. Nine players showed up to play against the Philippine national team bound for the World Championships in Puerto Rico. Among the players were legend Elgin Baylor, Eddie (The Man with the Golden Arm) Miles, Elvin (The Big E) Hayes, Gail Goodrich, Geoff Petrie and Calvin Murphy. A year later, Walt Frazier brought over a cast of 32 players for a summer tour that had the visitors coming and going for at total of 12 games. The players included Tiny Archibald, Scott Wedman, Mike Bantom, Hank Bibby, Lucius Allen, Charlie Scott, Jim Cleamons, George McGinnis, Randy Smith, Bob Love, Ron Behagen, John Drew and Lucius Allen. Two NBA referees Richie Powers and Jake O’Donnell even accompanied the guests.
In 1979, the Washington Bullets invaded Manila and played an exhibition before an overflow crowd at the Araneta Coliseum. Coach Dick Motto came with only eight players – Hayes, Wes Unseld, Kevin Porter, Roger Phegley, Greg Ballard, Steve Malovic, Dave Corzine and Andrew Parker – but that was enough to crush a PBA selection, 133-123. The PBA team was made up of Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Philip Cezar, Arnie Tuadles, Atoy Co, Jesse Sullano, Rudy Kutch and imports Cyrus Mann, Larry Pounds, Glenn McDonald, Larry McNeill and Dean Tolson. Fernandez scored 21 points while Porter, who would later end his playing career as a PBA import with Toyota, delivered 31 points and 25 assists.
In 1980, the NBA’s first and only Fil-Am player Raymond Townsend of UCLA visited with his father Ray Sr., mother Virginia Marella of Balayan, Batangas, brother Kurtis (a University of Kansas assistant coach since 2004) and three sisters. Townsend brought along NBA players Jamaal Wilkes, Cliff Ray, Derrick Dickey and Greg Lee to play exhibitions in Manila, Olongapo and Cebu. In 1984, an NBA “legends” squad came here to play the Philippine team. The “legends” were former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Earl (The Pearl) Monroe, Rick Barry, Pistol Pete Maravich, Dennis Awtrey, Mel (Killer) Davis, Cazzie Russell, Connie Hawkins and Fred Brown Jr. Only eight players suited up when the “legends” defeated coach Pilo Pumaren’s national squad, 84-77. Maravich couldn’t play because of a bum stomach. The national team was bannered by Hector Calma, Naning Valenciano, Elmer Reyes, Tonichi Yturri, Alfie Almario, Yves Dignadice, Jeff Moore, Dennis Still and Chip Engelland (now a San Antonio Spurs assistant coach).
In 1987, NBA coaches Lenny Wilkens and Bernie Bickerstaff led a troupe of 15 players, a rookie draftee, two trainers and two referees to play an exhibition series here. The cagers included Adrian Dantley, Mark Eaton, Jerome Kersey, Tom Chambers, Alvin Robertson and Tim McCormick. The games, however, failed to materialize due to a coup attempt to topple the government. The NBA group stayed in Manila four days and left without playing a single game. In 1995, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in a 40-minute exhibition at the Big Dome with NBA veterans Lester Conner, Jim Farmer, Mike McGee, John Williams, Reggie Fox and John Long. Two years later, Shaquille O’Neal led a band of ballers, including Chris Gatling, Duane Cooper and Juaquin Hawkins, in crushing a PBA selection, 107-68, at the Big Dome. The PBA team listed Alvin Patrimonio, Johnny Abarrientos, Jeff Cariaso, Marlou Aquino, Dennis Espino and Bonel Balingit.
In 2006, Dennis Rodman spearheaded a cast that included Darryl Dawkins, Murphy, Alex English, Otis Birdsong and Sidney Moncrief to play two exhibition games at the Araneta Coliseum. The tour created an emotional commotion when Rodman’s estranged father Philander, who lives in Angeles City, showed up at courtside to reach out to his son. Rodman’s father abandoned his wife and three children when the Worm was only three years old.
Through the years, several NBA stars and coaches have come to Manila on promotional visits or holidays. Abdul-Jabbar was here for two days in 1973 on a hush-hush holiday after attending his friend Bruce Lee’s funeral in Hong Kong. In 1979, Bill Walton arrived to accompany an ABC-TV crew filming a segment for the series “American Sportsman” on the baby monkey-eating eagle found in Davao City. Walton was in town for about two weeks and squeezed in a basketball clinic for the Gilbey’s Gin PBA team. In 1981, Abdul-Jabbar was back to conduct youth clinics at the University of Sto. Tomas gym for Magnolia. Kareem was slated to act as a celebrity judge at the Miss Young International beauty pageant during his trip but on the day of the competition, flew out without notice to the organizers. In 1986, Kevin Johnson, now Sacramento City Mayor, came to promote Converse in Manila. In 1987, A. C. Green visited for the Champions for Christ movement. He has since returned thrice. In 1995, Lakers guard Mike Cooper and team trainer Gary Vitti conducted basketball clinics in Manila for Gatorade.
Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Sebastian Telfair, Gilbert Arenas, Tim Thomas, Dave Jamerson, Steve Burtt, Grant Hill, B. J. Armstrong, Dwight Howard, Luke Walton, Chris Webber, Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond, Glen Rice, Malik Rose and Paul Pierce were others who’ve done Manila tours. NBA referees Manny Sokol, Jim Capers, Lee Jones and Darrell Garretson also came over. Capers and Jones even worked a few PBA games in the course of a lecture tour. Engelland and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra have visited, too. Spoelstra is due back to promote the NBA Fit program next week after visits the last two years.
The Filipinos’ passion for basketball is what brings NBA players to the Philippines – it’s a passion that’s shared. It doesn’t matter that no full-blooded Filipino has ever played in the NBA. The love for the game will never die and the dream of a Filipino someday playing in the NBA or a Filipino owning an NBA franchise lives on.