The Philippines is an archipelago. Yes, we learned that in our first grade classes. Seven thousand one hundred seven islands of varying cultures, customs, festivals and languages. Not to mention that the blood that runs through our veins is a melting pot of races. Even in my short (yes, I admit that I am, however, I'd like to call myself average) 5'5 stature, I have a bit of Chinese and Spanish blood in me. I don't even know the country of origin of my family name.
Filipinos are very much open to the idea of mixed races, take for example our football national team, the Azkals. We have players of Danish, British, Dutch and Spanish descent. People from other nations may call them Europeans (and some of our compatriots might, due to their insatiable hunger for Krabby Patties) due to their strict notion of purity of race. However, majority of the Filipinos don't care much about mixed bloodlines. They're pouring it out on the pitch all for the glory of their mother's and their homeland. That's all that matters.
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| They are Filipino as the people waving the three stars and the sun in the stands. From www.azkalsfootballteam.com |
The scenario is no different to that of our national basketball team, composed of some Fil-American players like Gabe Norwood and Matt Ganuelas Rosser and naturalized Filipino Marcus Douthit, who was quoted saying: “ I'll never have Filipino blood, but as far as becoming a Filipino, I'll always have it in my heart."
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| A Filipino he is - Yoda. From pba-online.net |
We've embraced several foreigners and considered them our own as well, like Alex Compton whose Filipino is a lot better than mine (I'm Ilonggo by the way), Rafe Bartholomew who wrote what I call the "Bible of Philippine Basketball", The Pacific Rims. If you haven't read it yet, you're not worthy to be called a basketball fan. Point is, I'm starting to think that blood isn't all important in making you a full-fledged Filipino. Internet "geniuses", crabs and journalists and politicians poking fun and ridicule at their own countrymen aren't really the type that I'd call Filipino. I don't see the logic behind calling them one of my own. I want to name names but an internet libel case wouldn't be an ideal jumpstart to a career in journalism, which happens to be my chosen field of study.
With that said, we're now off to the main topic at hand. We've all been aware of the Azkals exploits in the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup. Some may call it a failure or a stagnancy, but I call it an improvement. Yes, we also reached the semifinals of the 2010 edition, but we proved this year that it wasn't a fluke. Our guys fought tooth and nail against the likes of Thailand and Singapore and triumphed against Vietnam and Myanmar, who we never hoped to beat until two years ago.
Unbeknownst to everyone, the AFF Suzuki Cup ran SMACK into the United Football League (or UFL) Cup schedule. The finals between Stallion FC vs Global and the battle for third between the Green Archers United and Loyola Meralco Sparks had to be moved to a later date, to which the UFL gladly obliged. Despite only relying from sponsors, team owners and aficionados and suffering from (I presume and I'm sure that this notion wouldn't be contested) shortage of monetary budget, these guys gave way. Admirable.
Segue to basketball. Our beloved Smart Gilas Pilipinas, mostly made up of amateur players, finished fourth in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championships. Despite being two victories short of qualifying to the Olympics, many saw this as the reemergence of Philippine basketball in the Asian scene, after dismal performances in the last decade. Only this year, our Smart Gilas 2.0, shocked everyone by winning the Philippines' fourth crown in the annual William Jones Cup. What made the campaign amazing is that most victories came from behind (games vs USA, Japan and Anyang KGC of South Korea) and all, sans two, were nailbiters (remember David's clutch jumpshots vs the SoKors? LA Tenorio's heroics vs the USA? Norwood's clutch treys that came out of nowhere? How we all held our breath when Mehdi Kamrani launched what could have been the game-winner?). Watch this video as a reference:
Yeah. TE-NO-REE-YOW! We were all screaming and jumping for joy when the screen flashed, Philippines 76-75 USA. "Congrats Philippines" and "LA Tenorio" were the top trends WORLDWIDE on Twitter that day. Nostalgic. We all long for the day that we can experience the same euphoria.
Despite all this, there are entities that seem to connive with the purpose of not allowing us to gain a much-coveted place in the Basketball World Cup in 2014. I don't mind us not being the hosts of the Asian Championships, it's FIBA's loss anyway. What I'm referring to is the inability of certain sectors to sit in a room, make an agreement that would benefit the motherland. But hey, we're talking about ticket sales, championships, business rivalries and pride, aren't we?
Our basketball league runs a full 10 months a year, generating millions of pesos (as opposed to those who say that it is a dying league). It's all about profit. It's all about pride. It's all about disunity and inability to give way to what is direly needed.
Money and pride, enough to make cooperation nearly impossible and stop two potential national team players from carrying out their inborn duties to serve the country when it seems to be so easy when don't have enough. Look at the people behind the UFL, Loyola Meralco and Global FC. True Filipino sportsmen.
~Kaiziken_Pinas (KP)
