If the 20-minute audio-visual masterpiece presented by both the Philippines and China during the Fiba central board meeting last Friday was the only basis for choosing the host of the 2019 Fiba World Cup, no doubt this basketball-crazy nation of our would have been the hands-down choice.
It would be difficult to approximate, much less surpass the emotional impact of our well-scripted, heart-tugging documentary, with no less than Hollywood Fil-Am actor-director Lou Diamond Phillips doing the annotation.
Phillips captivated his audience. You could feel the emotion flowing from every word he uttered with clarity and emphasis. He was flawless.
* * *
Unfortunately, the beauty and art of the audio-visual presentation and the perfect performance of Phillips all went to naught.
After all had been said and done, it became apparent that Fiba did not appreciate the intangibles. They were only looking at one direction, not the Chinese infrastructure nor their venues, not even their wealth of experience.
The international federation had its eye on the coffers which would be filled with China’s pledge to mobilize a massive market of 1.3 billion people.
Bottomline, basketball is business to Fiba, not passion as we all thought. It’s as simple as that.
* * *
“It is unfortunate that we lost our chance to stage the 2019 Fiba World Cup here,” texted former PBA governor Buddy Encarnado of Sta. Lucia. “No explanation was given by Fiba’s demigods but obviously, they chose China over the Philippines because of what the country can offer in terms of infrastructure, facilities, and transportation system.
“It’s sad that they ignored the most important factor, as far as basketball is concerned, and that is the passion for and devotion of the Filipinos to the game,” Encarnado added. “Our love for the sport is unmatched by any country. This makes basketball not only everything to us but the only thing. I’m sure the seriousness of our presentation will not be forgotten by Fiba and every basketball-loving fan all over the world like me.”
Encarnado was recently elected chair of the Pilipino Commercial Basketball League (PCBL), a newly formed commercial basketball league with a format similar to that of the now-defunct Philippine Basketball League.
Tentatively scheduled to be launched in September, the PCBL now has eight member-teams and, according to Encarnado, may accept more. The eight are Jumbo Plastic, EuroMed, Racal Motors, Foton 5, Tanduay, TeraMix, Cagayan Rising Suns and Sta. Lucia.