A Filipino in the NBA

Philippine Panorama

August 19, 2012

Vol. 41, No. 34

For a nation that expects every male citizen to have played at least a game of basketball in his lifetime, not having a Filipino player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is a tragedy as big as the country’s basketball trophy cabinet lacking an Olympic gold medal and a FIBA Championship title.  So fervent is the country’s desire for a Filipino NBA player that scuttlebutt about NBA scouts eyeing a local player can send some fans into basketball nirvana.

A modest people, Filipinos may not be wishing for someone who is Lebron-ish to represent them in the NBA.  Any Filipino or half-Filipino stocked with enough talent, size, and athleticism that will earn him significant playing time and respectable statistics in any of the league’s thirty ball clubs will do.

If Filipinos will only open their eyes and broaden their minds, they can stop looking at the stars for signs about the coming of a Filipino player in the NBA for the country already has a representative and a very prominent one at that.  The basketball world knows him by name even if he has not had a nanosecond of NBA playing time.

His entry into the NBA did not generate a mad scramble for interviews from Philippine media.  Then again, his first job in the league was low profile and he was one of its pioneers.  No, he was not a water boy nor a mascot wearer.

Basketball is in his blood, having played for four years as a point guard for an NCAA Division I team before assuming a playing and coaching job in Germany.  Like some athletes, he did not fall to a powerful opponent but to his own body.  Back problems forced him to quit his post.

His illness was a stroke of good fortune on hindsight because an NBA team hired him to edit its videos and run its video room after his stint in Germany.  He occupied several positions for more than a decade until he was one of the ball club’s assistant coaches when it bagged its first Larry O’Brien trophy.  Things got sunnier for him when the head coach climbed to the top of the team’s executive totem pole and left his coaching position to him.

Yes.  He has Filipino blood in him, thick because his mother is a daughter of San Pablo City, Laguna, and he proudly tells the world about it.  Meet Erik Celino Spoelstra.  He may not dribble, shoot, rebound, or dunk for an NBA team, but he can set Lebron James and Dwayne Wade into doing all that.

Filipinos are only wishing for an NBA player of Filipino heritage, a player who may end up as just one of the more than 300 names in the league’s roster of players, someone whose luster may sadly fade from competition, age, and injuries.  Fate gave the Filipino a better gift in Erik Spoelstra, head coach of NBA champion Miami Heat.

-By Prospero Pulma Jr.

The Gatekeepers of the East by Prospero Pulma Jr.

The Gatekeepers of the East

For the past five seasons, any team in the NBA Eastern Conference has to add the Detroit Pistons to their playoffs plans. Michigan's Bad Boys don't only own the record of humiliating a star-studded L.A. Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals, they also earned the distinction of making five consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals with little changes in its lineup, with Ben Wallace's defection to Chicago as the most prominent. So, if any club is dead serious in displaying the Larry O'Brien trophy in its cabinet, it must solve the Detroit puzzle first. Okay, the Miami Heat solved that one last year but the Heat got drubbed by the Chicago Bulls in this season's first round elimination. In turn, Detroit sent the Bulls packing after six games and are now facing a resurgent Cleveland Cavaliers under King James. The Pistons are battle-scarred veterans while the Cavaliers are relatively green in the playoffs department, so the Bad Boys (a misnomer because the Pistons are mild mannered, with the exception of Rasheed Wallace, compared to other teams,) are the natural favorites.

Is Detroit destined to receive a second ring after three years? Hopefully. But upsets do happen. Just remember the 2004 NBA Finals. And oh, yes, the huge kick in the butt that the Dallas Mavericks got from the Golden State Warriors and, of course, the Bull run that gored the defending champions.

By Prospero E. Pulma Jr.

The Giant Killers Part 3 by Prospero Pulma Jr.

The Giant Killers Part 3

Puny but not helpless are the words that best describe the Chicago Bulls as they face the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA's 2007 Eastern Conference Playoffs. The Bulls apparently don't believe in all those publicity about the Shaquille O'Neal-Dwayne Wade tandem that has brought Miami its first NBA crown as unstoppable. And they have proven that with two consecutive drubbing of the defending champions. To win one game against the Heat is good enough, but to rack up two victories is very impressive, given the relative youth of Chicago's roster. Okay, they played at home, but still they have done enough damage that the series will certainly stretch to six games at the least, if Miami is lucky enough to win four consecutive games and if Chicago is stupid enough to lose all four outings. Even if the Heat will eventually win the series, the Bulls have already softened them for their next opponent, who might last the seven-game series, until the Heat runs on a dry tank when they face the Pistons. And it will be the clash of the titans, a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Finals that Detroit sadly lost.

-by Prospero Pulma Jr.

The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend

For beating the Detroit Pistons, I hope that the Miami Heat will be crushed by the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. I wonder if my ex-officemates, let's just call them Oliver and Dick to protect their privacy, share the same loathing for the teams that sent their favorite clubs packing.
Oliver is the most luckless among us. He is a diehard fan of the New Jersey Nets and San Antonio Spurs who were sent packing early in the competition; Dick was more fortunate because the Phoenix Suns got booted only in the Western Conference Finals. So, if their minds run parallel to mine, I bet that Oliver is torn between laughing at the two consecutive losses of the Miami Heat (the team that sent the Nets home after winning a token victory) or wishing that Wade and Shaq will make Dirk and his crew pay dearly for eliminating the San Antonio Spurs. As for Dick, he is probably crossing all his fingers for Miami to win.
It's true that you, sometimes, you treat people who make your life miserable as your hero and friend even though you will never meet.
As for misery loving company, Chauncey Billups and the other Pistons will be joined by Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili (Tony Parker is on vacation with Eva Longuria!), and the other ill-fated superstars a Loser's Convention. There, they will sulk, pig-out thanks to depression, and cheer for the team that is avenging them. But I don't think that avenging another team's loss is the primary motive of the title contenders for playing it rough, tough -alright- dirty.

-by Prospero E. Pulma Jr.

The Giant Killers

The Giant Killers

If there is one good thing I like about this year's NBA Playoffs, it's the lack of predictability. Okay, Miami toyed with New Jersey and allowed the triumvirate of Kidd, Jefferson and Carter to claim one win before they sent them home weeping.
The other teams, especially the heavy favorites, are not as fortunate as the Miami Heat. Dallas nearly sent the defending champions, the San Antonio Spurs, to an early vacation with Tony Parker and his very pretty accessory, Eva Longoria (did I spell her name right?) spending more time that they want all by themselves, before they showed some signs of life by racking their second win in five games. But Dallas won't allow the Spurs to win again. And this is where the fun will begin. Watching one team battle for survival while another for supremacy and a chance to prove its mettle against the Miami Heat which should be renamed the Miami Hulks based on the ponderous bodies of its players. The match-up that I hate the most is between the Pistons and Cavaliers. True, the Pistons is my favorite team, but judging by the way they are playing against James and the fiesty Cavaliers, it is possible that Chauncey Billups and Company will watch the NBA Finals from their homes.
And as dessert, the Phoenix Suns and the L.A. Clippers are at each other's throats in the only even match-up in the semifinals. Now that's basketball!!!!

-Prospero Pulma Jr.