PBA backs wheelchair initiative

MANILA, Philippines - PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa has assured Canadian Ambassador John Holmes of the pro league’s full support for a wheelchair basketball project initiated by the Canadian Embassy in line with the celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary this year.

Ambassador Holmes and the Canadian Embassy’s Political/Public Affairs Counsellor Elizabeth Baldwin-Jones paid a call on Narvasa to explain the project at the PBA office in Libis last Wednesday. PBA Executive Assistant to the Commissioner and Administration/Special Projects Director Pita Dobles also attended the meeting.

“We’re keen on sports and we’re excited about presenting wheelchair basketball as a mainstream sport while at the same time, providing support for vulnerable groups,” said Ambassador Holmes who admitted to playing basketball as a 12th man in high school. “With the PBA, we hope to do a serious wheelchair basketball five-on-five exhibition involving the Philippine team, skills demonstrations to show how difficult it is to play and a fun game where we plan to invite PBA players and sports personalities to try it out.”

Former Canadian wheelchair basketball player and coach Mike Frogley, 51, will head a group of visiting experts to conduct player and coaching clinics and participate in exhibitions and skills demonstrations in Manila on April 19-22. Frogley, who survived a car accident in 1986, saw action for the Canadian team that finished fourth at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics. He was the national coach from 1996 to 2004, leading Canada to the Paralympics gold medal in 2000 and 2004. A Master’s degree holder in education, Frogley is now director of  the Wheelchair Basketball Canada National Academy which is the world’s first full-time, year-round, daily training facility for elite wheelchair basketball players.

Accompanying Frogley in the Manila trip are Canadian national wheelchair hoopsters David Eng, 40, and Bo Hedges, 37 and Fil-Canadian Jason Naval, 31, who plays for the Canadian national sitting volleyball team. From Manila, the group will conduct a similar tour in Cambodia.

Baldwin-Jones said she is coordinating with Philippine Paralympics Committee president Mike Barredo and Philippine national wheelchair basketball team coach Vernon Perea for the project.

Narvasa said the PBA will go all out to support the initiative. “It’s always been the PBA’s mission to be an inspiration for all, regardless of physical or educational limitations,” he said. “Our task is to provide opportunities for those who work hard at their craft.” Narvasa assigned Dobles to work with Baldwin-Jones on how to involve the PBA audience and media in embracing wheelchair basketball.

Narvasa also said he intends to tap the PBA’s Fil-Canadian players to participate in the project. The players include Sean Anthony of NLEX, Norbert Torres and Matthew Wright of Phoenix and James Forrester of Blackwater. Anthony’s mother Angie is the daughter of former Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See and Malta Howard Dee. Anthony attended McGill University in Montreal, the alma mater of both Ambassador Holmes and Baldwin-Jones.  

Narvasa said he will study the possibility of scheduling the wheelchair basketball exhibition, skills demonstrations and fun game in place of the regular first contest in a PBA doubleheader during the next conference.  That way, it will be shown on national TV using the coverage panels of both TV5 and Cignal. “We are so thrilled to partner with the PBA and are humbled by their support, too,” said Baldwin-Jones.  

Ambassador Holmes said Canada’s basketball program has produced a long list of outstanding athletes.  He pointed out that for two years in a row, Canadians were the top overall picks in the NBA draft – Anthony Bennett in 2013 and Andrew Wiggins in 2014. Last year, the Canadian team was in Manila for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and made it to the final with NBA players Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Tyler Ennis, Bennett and Joel Anthony. NBA legend Steve Nash, who is Canadian, came to Manila to support the team and was mobbed by Filipino fans wherever he went.

At the ASEAN Paragames in Singapore two years ago, the Philippines won bronzes in the five-on-five and three-on-three events of wheelchair basketball. A five-on-five game is played over four quarters of 10 minutes each while a three-on-three game is played over two halves of seven minutes each. Players are classified according to degree of handicap from one as the most severe to 4.5 as the least. In a five-on-five game, the combined handicaps are limited to 14 and it is 8.5 in three-on-three for players on the court. A player may push the chair and dribble simultaneously but if the ball is on his lap, he is allowed to push only twice before passing, shooting or dribbling again – if not, it’s a turnover.