TWO dreams. One down. One to go.
The first one had appeared easy to achieve. But not quite. We had to struggle to survive. Us placing a mere seventh among eight qualifiers sort of reflected the difficulty of Gilas’ elimination campaign.
I refer to our Fiba World qualifying finish topped by powerhouse Australia. Our fellow qualifiers from Asia/Oceania are Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, New Zealand and China.
As the host, China made it a no-sweat passage to the Worlds proper—a bonus to every country taking pains to stage the quadrennial meet.
The last time we enjoyed that honor was in 1978 when we hosted the event. There were only 16 then; it’s 32 nations now.
That year, the pros were still barred from playing. Thus, our Fiba Worlds players then included such nondescripts like Ramon Cruz, Efren Manila and Alex Clarino.
The nation’s stars then, like Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Atoy Co, Philip Cezar, Abet Guidaben and Francis Arnaiz, had turned pro and were playing in the 1975-born Philippine Basketball Association.
Venues of the 1978 games from Oct. 1-14 were the now-decrepit Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila and the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Q.C.
Yugoslavia beat the Soviet Union for the title, with Brazil finishing third over Italy. Drazen Dalipagic of Yugoslavia was voted the most valuable player and would proceed to play in the USA’s NBA.
It took us 36 years before we could play again in the Fiba Worlds. We finished second behind Iran in the 2013 Fiba Asia to make it to the 2014 Spain Worlds where we beat Senegal for our only win in three World Cups, including the 1974 edition in Puerto Rico.
It is in China from Aug. 31 to Sept. 15 that we would aim for our second dream: Advance from our group by beating two of three countries—Serbia, Italy and Angola.
Next to impossible as they are all formidable foes. But isn’t life, littered with mysteries, also a case of chasing dreams? And aren’t most dreams too hard to achieve or they won’t be called dreams at all?
Dream on, Gilas. Life’s a beach, too.