Lost gold, impending trouble

“To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.” – Confucius

It’s a very uncomfortable subject to talk about, losing the men’s basketball gold at the Southeast Asian Games. As the only newsman with a Philippine TV crew at the 1989 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this writer remembers how we were repeatedly cheated out of the one medal that mattered most. But it’s something that has to be discussed, simply because this time, the national team legitimately lost all on its own. Indonesia was hunting the Philippines, which wasn’t ready. It’s difficult to stay objective, having been involved in the sport in one capacity or another for over half a century, and having been in love with the game from the age of five. But things have to be said, some for the nth time.

We all know why the team lost: too little preparation, a system that no longer works, dismantling a previously successful squad mere weeks before going into battle. But the deeper question is why it all was allowed to happen that way in the first place. And the answer is not pleasant.

Within the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, there seems to be a repetitive process of doing things that are counterintuitive. Why would Tab Baldwin let go of the national team with a little over three months to go before the Southeast Asian Games, which would be a great tune-up for major FIBA events just a few weeks after Vietnam? Why would he let go of the bigger prize in favor of steering a collegiate team that has repeatedly won championships? Baldwin obviously found the situation untenable. And since Baldwin kept his dignity and has been quiet, we’ve only heard the other side, the one with vested interest. It appears that someone has not been forthright about what really happened. Someone took something the wrong way, and out of spite it seems, derailed the basketball program. Worse, they got a couple of hacks to make up accusations against the coach.

The answers have been obvious for decades: build and maintain a full-time national team (with naturalized players if possible) that can learn the latest techniques from foreign coaches and winning programs overseas. The Northern Cement team proved this for the first time in the Jones Cup 41 years ago. A succeeding iteration of that team defeated the US in the same tournament. The obvious question is why this hasn’t been the template, given the overabundance of resources in basketball today. Again, the answer is that somebody decided it didn’t have to be done that way. So it wasn’t, and here we are.

The problems are internal intrigue and politicking. Personal agendas and interpersonal conflicts are seemingly given more weight than progress and success. In a true professional setting, those things shouldn’t derail a high-stakes project. You’re all grown-ups. You can disagree. You can yell and swear. You can calm down, swallow your petty pride and let the right people do the job. As Teddy Roosevelt once said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, “Somoza may be a son of a b__ch, but he’s our son of a b__ch.” Roosevelt got what he wanted. Just because other people don’t sugarcoat things to our liking, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing a good job. In the fallout, who’s left but the same people doing the same things that didn’t work before? And it’s not their fault. They’re just being good soldiers.

Now, UAAP and NCAA players will most likely be asked to suit up for Gilas Pilipinas in impending FIBA events, like inexperienced lambs to the slaughter. One possible reason for this is that some PBA teams are reluctant (or outright refuse) to lend players to people in the SBP that they don’t like. Here we go again. Of course, they may not say it outright. I would.

The SBP would be better served to disabuse its people – top to bottom – from insisting on doing things their way simply because they want to (or they don’t like somebody), even if it is ineffective. That helps no one, and doesn’t succeed at higher levels of competition. Learn from your history, or be condemned to repeat it. Unless pride – not basketball – is your priority to begin with. That’s a waste of a generous patron’s money and effort by misguided underlings.