Beyond the World Cup

The country’s major basketball stakeholders are coming together to make sure the hosting of the 2023 FIBA World Cup is a resounding success. And they’re also united in supporting the effort to assemble a well-prepared, competitive national team to play in the 32-nation conclave. The Philippines holds the record of the highest finish by an Asian country in the World Cup, taking third in Rio de Janeiro in 1954.

In the run-up to the 2023 FIBA World Cup, the Philippines will play in three FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying windows and the SEA Games in Cambodia on May 5-16. A pre-World Cup goal is to regain the SEA Games men’s basketball title that Gilas yielded to Indonesia in Hanoi this year. SBP is pulling out all the stops in getting ready for the World Cup. The PBA will play one less conference next year to allow its players maximum training time with Gilas. The plan is for the national team to train for three months, mainly in the US, with the objective of making it at least to the second round of the World Cup. The Philippines didn’t advance beyond the first round in 2014 and 2019.

While the focus is on the World Cup, the real challenge is how to sustain a competitive national team for the competitions ahead. The World Cup is scheduled on Aug. 25-Sept. 10 next year. The Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 23-Oct. 8.  Will the Gilas team in the World Cup remain intact for the Asian Games? It’s highly doubtful. Jordan Clarkson will be called to the Utah Jazz training camp and Kai Sotto to the Adelaide 36ers camp after the World Cup. The Gilas players from the Japanese B.League may also not be available so that would strike out Bobby Ray Parks, Dwight Ramos and the Ravena brothers. In the previous Asian Games in 2018, Clarkson suited up for the Philippines and Gilas finished fifth, its highest placing in 16 years.

Then, the next round of Asia Cup qualifiers will begin for the Philippines in November 2023 with other windows in February 2024, November 2024 and February 2025. Let’s not forget the Paris Olympics on July 26-Aug. 11, 2024. The highest Asian finisher in the World Cup books a ticket to the Olympics. That’s how Iran made it to the Tokyo Games. In the 2019 World Cup, Iran wound up No. 23, ahead of No. 24 China, No. 26 South Korea, No. 28 Jordan, No. 31 Japan and No. 32 Philippines. If the Philippines isn’t the highest finishing Asian country in the 2023 World Cup, it can still make it to the Olympics via the qualifying tournament. But to play in the Olympic qualifiers, the Philippines must be among the 16 best-placed, non-qualified teams from the World Cup or one of two highest-ranked Asian countries in the FIBA ladder. How the Philippines will be competitive beyond the World Cup is a systemic problem that SBP must address.