I don’t know if I’m alone in this but listen up, fellas: How about joining me in my call to present the members of the Philippine Team to the 1978 Fiba World Cup during the opening ceremonies of the 2023 Fiba World Cup on Aug. 25, 2023 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan?
No less than Al S. Panlilio, the president of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), is receptive to the idea. With the country’s top basketball gun backing us up, who else do we need?
“Sure, Tukayo,” said Panlilio to me last week. “Nice idea. I’m forwarding it to the organizing committee.”
As host of this event in 1978, we were seeded outright to the semifinals.
We didn’t do well then. No surprise there. I should know. I covered the event for the Bulletin Today. We were but Lilliputians in a world of giants. Thus, our eighth-place finish in the eight-team semifinals was as sure as night follows day.
In 1978, our players weren’t the nation’s best. The best were in the pro ranks.
Our ill-fated crew of Ramon Cruz, Bernardo “Joy” Carpio, Nathaniel Castillo, Alex Clarino, Gregorio Gozum, Pol Herrera, Padim Israel, Bokyo Lauchengco, Edward Merced, Cesar Teodoro, Steve Watson and Cesar Yabut (coached by the late Nic Jorge) were but pawns in the rift then between the amateur Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the professional Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Basketball wasn’t open yet then — meaning, pros were still barred from Fiba-sanctioned events.
The PBA was formed in 1975 as a breakaway group to disengage itself from the BAP’s vise-like grip on the nation’s basketball affairs to the detriment of companies’ cash-driven stakes in the sport.
Still, our BAP gurus plodded on, dispatching their 12 chosen ones if only to comply with Fiba rules.
Despite facing great odds, our boys fought on with all their might, heart and soul. In the end, it was their will that mattered.
To a grateful nation, their defeat wasn’t their downfall but a badge of decency amid a cause that was lost from the start but it had to be waged anyways.
For, isn’t the cause worth fighting for is the lost cause?
C’mon, fellas, let’s give them their due.