A most valuable player and patron
As a basketball fan, I’ve been intrigued by the Japeth Aguilar saga. I have to admit that I admire the kid for preferring to play for Smart Gilas, which serves as a de facto national team, instead of the PBA team that drafted him.
For a while, it looked like Aguilar would be prevented from ever playing pro ball, but everything has now been settled. All thanks to Manny V. Pangilinan, who has become a patron of our favorite sport. Through a series of clever trades, Aguilar is now officially with Smart Gilas, which is playing as a guest team in the PBA. I congratulate Aquilar and the other members of the team for opting to play for flag and country instead of turning pro.
Manny Pangilinan was able to pull off a win-win situation for all parties, and Philippine basketball has become the richer for it. Smart Gilas is one of his pet projects, by the way. But you all know that, I presume.
At 6’9” or 6’10”, the national team needs the height of young Japeth, who has been honed and hardened by his stint with a US NCAA team. He’s certainly come a long way from his UAAP days when he played for the Ateneo. He only played for one season with the Blue Eagles, if memory serves. This was a three or four seasons ago. At that time, he was just another extra tall player.
Today, he has the promise of becoming the next dominant center in Philippine basketball, something like Mon Fernandez back in the day. Only much taller, of course.
I agree that the country should have a permanent team made up of the best of the best for international competitions. That the country is even eyeing a possible return to the Olympics is a pretty tall order. But at least we can aspire to again be the number one basketball power in the region.
China , Japan and South Korea have taken turns dominating the Asian basketball scene. The last time we won a major title was when Danding Cojuangco served as basketball godfather and his Northern Consolidated team pulled off the hat trick. But we had naturalized players like Chip Engelland playing for us then.
Today, we have Aguilar. The Smart Gilas team needs some more ceiling if we are to become contenders in the region. In all positions, not just the center post.
China with guys like Yao Ming will be the biggest roadblock. He’s what, 7’6” or something?
With Manny Pangilinan now playing the role of basketball godfather, maybe he can send scouts to the US to look for the really tall FilAm basketball players. Our first difficult but achievable goal is to win the Asian Games title.
Japeth and company may be able to do this. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
JOEY III
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