On winning our way to the 2019 FIBA World Cup

MANILA, Philippines – Winning the last two matches on the road. Lebanon losing. The Philippines returns to the FIBA World Cup.

How huge is all of this? 

Almost dead in the water and an incredible bounce back. It repays Kazakhstan for the heartache they inflicted in the fourth window. This guarantees three consecutive trips to the premier FIBA event (including the 2023 hosting). 

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and the national team sorely needed this. This is a huge step forward in keeping the faith of the program that was built more than a decade ago. 

For one, it is consistency

That is what you want. I don’t want to be a downer here, but that 2013 win over Korea was “tsamba.” We haven’t beaten them since. For you to really say you are over the hump is to repeat the feat over and over. 

So, this is what this World Cup trip is all about — consistency and going back to the Big Dance. 

The belief in the program will gain a lot more solid footing. 

Furthermore, this win is worth celebrating because of the recent black eyes to national team that began with the infamous brawl with Australia and the two losses in the last home stand. In between there was that Asian Games good finish that was not expected given the lack of preparation.

There are hits and misses, but the important thing is there are finishes that can be pointed out as significant inroads. 

What we can also infer is the luck of the draw

It’s not always that you play two teams eliminated from qualification for the last window. While there is pride in defending one’s home court, there is a different motivation for advancing to the next stage. 

If anything, it added some drama. And this is what you want you win your way in.

The impact of 'The Big Fella'

And speaking of luck, the naturalization of Andray Blatche will go down in the Philippine basketball history as one of the biggest moves. With him in uniform, we’ve seen some huge wins (and galling losses too). But make no mistake, we can’t go anywhere without the Big Fella, who is a legitimate NBA player and a major talent. He is a huge reason why we are back in the FIBA World Cup.

He tallied 41 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and two blocks in the win. Of course, there was support from the locals, but Blatche was the big difference. 

Now, the next task is to learn from the previous mistakes from the last World Cup stint, and to build a team to really compete and get out of the first stage of the Fiba World Cup. 

And that is going to be interesting… the attempt to get into unchartered waters.