NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum. –NBA HANDOUT
MANILA, Philippines — NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum believes the best way for a homegrown Filipino player to make it to their league is to identify and develop his talent as early as possible and expose him to the best competition basketball has to offer.
Tatum said there are already a lot of different pathways to reach the NBA as some of the current NBA players realized their dream from other countries.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before a Filipino homegrown player plays in our league. I think one of the things that we’ve been contemplating is and again, we’ve had success with Jr. NBA alums going off to play professionally, just not in the NBA,” said Tatum on Thursday during a media roundtable at NBA Office.
“Remember, the NBA has 450 people, basketball players, in the world. Right? It is probably one of the most competitive leagues in the world because there are only 450 places of the billions of people around the world who play basketball.”
“I do think the talent is here. The passion for the game is here. The infrastructure is here. I think it’s probably just a matter of identifying that talent early and then putting them in competitive situations, maybe outside the Philippines, quite frankly, early, so they can develop and play against the best competition in the world,” he added.
Sotto went undrafted in the 2022 rookie draft but he is still not giving up on his ultimate dream to become the first Filipino homegrown player in the NBA as he plays for the Hiroshima Dragonflies in the Japan B.League after two seasons in Australia’s National Basketball League.
NBA PROGRAMS
Kai Sotto during his workout NBA team Sacramento Kings. –KINGS TWITTER
Tatum said joining the Jr. NBA program, Basketball Without Borders, and NBA Academy is some of the ideal pathways.
“I think the pathway that we think about is definitely starting early and starting in that Jr. NBA program. As Ramez (Sheikh) said, we’ve had 10 Jr. NBA alums that are now playing professional basketball throughout Asia, then going on, and then we have been identified as in a Basketball Without Borders camp where we actually identify some of the best talents in a particular region or continent and bring them in,” said the NBA Chief Operating Officer.
“We have NBA coaches come in, we have NBA players come in, and we really do this intensive training for them, if you will. Players like Joel Embiid, who’s an MVP finalist this year, and Pascal Siakam were discovered in our Basketball Without Borders program as teenagers.”
“From there, I think it’s going into potentially one of our academies. We have a global academy in Australia where we take some of the best kids from around the world and bring them into this academy system where they are getting the best development, the best thinking around how to develop an elite basketball player,” he added.
VARIOUS PATHWAYS
FILE–Projected NBA Draft top pick Victor Wembanyama. Steve Marcus/Getty Images/AFP
The league also created the Team Ignite in the G-League, which the NBA developed for high-level prospects as a pathway to be drafted.
“There are so many pathways now. I mean, think about Victor Wembanyama, who is this French player who is presumably going to be the number one pick, if all the predictors are right. He is playing professional basketball now in France. But then you have Scoot Henderson, who is playing for G-League Ignite, who will be maybe the two or three or somewhere in the top five pick is what he’s projected to be,” Tatum said. “He joined the G-League Ignite as a 17-year-old, played two years in Ignite, and now he’s going to be one of the top draft picks as well.”
Tatum thinks that a homegrown Filipino basketball player will make it to the league as long as the talent will be developed and exposed to the international stage early in his career.
“I think that next level will be, how do you identify that talent that has potential and put them in situations where they’re playing the best in the world? I think that’s what we’re focused on. I think through that, inevitably, there will be a homegrown Filipino player that plays in the NBA,” he said.