ALLAN THE MAN

For annexing the silver medal in the recent FIBA Asia Championship, the Philippines regained its place in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, ending years of futility in.

If Philippine basketball’s living legend Robert Jaworski will have his way, the next target would be to get back to the Olympic Games hoops tournament for the first time since the Munich Summer Games 31 years ago in 1972.

“Yes, I believe that in succeeding in our target to play anew in the World Cup, the next we should aspire for is for us to see action again in the Olympic Games,” Jaworski told the Philippine News Agency in a telephone interview upon arriving from a business trip to China the other day.

“Let’s continue to strike while the iron is hot, as the saying goes,” he reasoned out. “We’ve just proven once again that we’re one of the best basketball players in Asia, let’s show all and sundry naman na that we’re also one of the best in the world.

“We’ve shown that before, having ended up No. 5 once in the Olympics, No. 7 and No. 9, we can again do that, ” said the former stalwart of multi-titled Toyota in the PBA and playing-coach of popular club Ginebra San Miguel. The Philippine basketball team placed fifth in 1936 in Berlin, seventh in 1956 in Melbourne, and ninth in 1952 in Helsinki.

The Philippines also finished 11th in 1960 in Rome, 12th in 1948 in London, and 13th both in 1968 in Mexico and 1972 in Munich, in the other times the Filipinos made it to the quadrennial “Greatest Sports Show on Earth.”

“As I told the team before the FIBA Asia, they were given an opportunity to be great, grab that opportunity, win the championship,” said Jaworski, a member of the Philippine team to the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

“Well, they failed to bring home the bacon, but, a second place finish is not to be ashamed of. Being the No. 2 basketball-playing nation in the region is something to brag about,” added Jaworski, the coach of the silver medalist 1990 Beijing Asia Games team. “We should be very proud of such an accomplishment, which we have been searching for a long time.”

Qualifying in the Olympics won’t be easy, just as making it to the World Cup wasn’t also a walk in the park.

“We need a more serious, more extensive preparation. We need everybody here, every Filipino in their offices, schools, the men and women on the streets. Just like we’ve seen in the recent FIBA Asia,” he said.

“The next FIBA Asia, the qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympics two years from now,” according Jaworski, won’t be held here and therefore tougher than the one held before our countrymen.

“We can use the World Cup and the Asian Games, both scheduled next year as part of preparations,” he said. “Kailangan nating magtulungan, kailangan teamwork. Everybody who will be involved in preparation, from the players, coaches, whoever they will be. Sports officials must be ready to sacrifice their personal interest for national interest.

“And, by the way, speaking of the World Cup, we might not duplicate a third place finish by another Philippine team in 1954. But, based on what I saw for 11 days in the last FIBA Asia, I believe we have the capacity to wind up fifth or sixth,” he said.

“Not only (did our team show) they have basketball skills, they have the heart, plenty of them. Very big heart, indeed that offset the oppositions’ tall and hefty physique,” he said.

“Basketball a game of tall men? Well yes. Tall men can be beaten, that’s what the Filipinos had just displayed for all of Asia to see.”

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