NGBL readies new platform for HS standouts

With the goal of helping unearth young talents outside the country’s conventional leagues, the Next Generation Basketball League takes the lid off its inaugural season this Aug. 11.

A field of 15 high school teams from the UAAP, NCAA and the Filipino-Chinese community duke it out in a tournament that will not only serve as a tuneup for the Philippines’ premier varsity tournaments, but also a platform for new basketball talents.

“I belong to a generation where Ato Badolato was a mentor, and looking at what the coach has done for young players in the last four decades, I wanted to follow and emulate what he has laid down for future professional players,” said league commissioner Ronnie Magsanoc, a three-time PBA champion who came from the San Beda and University of the Philippines talent pipeline.

“The quality of teams is important. As they say, you build it and they will come. The executive committee had a vision and it’s not every day that people with the same goal of helping young players get together,” he added. “We all have the same pathway, the same runway.”

The competition, which will be held at Tanduay Gym in Manila and Aero Sports Center in Quezon City, will feature two groups, one featuring National University-Nazareth School, Perpetual, University of the East, Mapua, Ateneo High School, La Salle Greenhills, and Jose Rizal U.

“The breaks are usually in the UAAP and in the NCAA. Here, they (players) will have another kind of exposure, and they may play differently here,” said Alfrancis Chua, the San Miguel sports executive who sits as NGBL chair.

“One of our goals is to have a ranking, like a ‘five-star recruit,’ ‘four-star recruit,’ that we have an organized way to get to know all these talents until they graduate from high school,” Christian Cheng, an art collector and foam scion, added of the showcase, that will dangle a grand prize of the P300,000 for the champion.

Cheng said the games will be live-streamed on the league’s Facebook page.

NorthPort coach Bonnie Tan, the architect behind Letran’s three-peat in the NCAA senior’s basketball tournament, is on board as program director. He will be joined by Ginebra’s elder statesman LA Tenorio who will act as the league’s tournament director. PBA’s chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III is also coming in as operations manager. UST’s Eric Ang has been tapped as finance head.

“[Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas’] Al Panlilio texted me, congratulating the group while letting me know that the venture could help scout more young players,” said Chua. “Like LA and I would say, we go abroad [to look for] Filipino-American [talents]. I think it’s about time we look [for talent] here (in the country).” INQ