Basketball is not the problem

A recent post on Facebook was shared more than 3,000 times. That’s not entirely unusual, but what made this particular post distinct for me was how it looked at the Philippines’ performance in the current Asian Games in Jakarta and used it to pin the blame (albeit satirically) on basketball as one of the main reasons for the country’s not-so-impressive medal haul.

In the TL;DR (too late; don’t read) post, the writer posited ( assuming he was at the very least half serious with his assertion) that the Filipinos’ seemingly nonsensical fascination for basketball is the biggest (if not sole) reason for our country’s “consistently poor showing in both the Asian Games and the Olympics.”

He hinged his argument on how the Philippines is just not a good fit for basketball, iterating the oft-referenced idea that, given our average height of 5’4, we are just not going to excel at a “tall person’s sport.”

Never mind, of course, our 5 FIBA Asia Cup titles, 4 Asian Games golds, 5 FIBA World Cup appearances, 7 Olympic Games appearances and status as 4th ranked FIBA Asia team.

Never mind the current strides of our Batang Gilas squads in both the Asian and global scenes. Never mind how undersized Philippine teams have beaten teams like Iran and China.

Nope, we just cannot succeed in this “tall person’s sport.” Filipinos and basketball just don’t mix.

To paraphrase the writer, our fixation with hoops is costing the Philippines scores of medals that could be raising our international profile.

Because Filipinos love basketball so much by way of the UAAP, PBA, NBA, Gilas Pilipinas or what have you, many athletes in other sports “just never got a chance to make it because the coaching, programs and funding they may have gotten went to basketball.”

It’s an old, tired argument and one that, sadly, just doesn’t hold water.

Again, it’s clear that the writer is mocking, seeking to ignite discussion. But satire is a tricky tool. It can mask overly simplistic thinking with well-meaning humor and I certainly hope that was not the case here. I hope the writer was sincere with his desire to help Philippine sports.

The true culprit, however, is not basketball. It’s politics in Philippine sports.

When we send athletes off to train or compete abroad, they go through certain processes to find sponsors, backers and people who’ll believe in them, support their teams or NSAs. This entails political capital, especially in a national sports system that’s heavily predicated on inadequate government funding coupled with increasing private or corporate presence, which always comes with strings attached.

Politics is an unavoidable and necessary evil given the context of Philippines sports. It affects the most popular sports like basketball, volleyball and boxing while also certainly making an impact on others like gymnastics, figure skating, swimming, athletics and more. Of course, basketball doesn’t really have anything to do with the micro-politics affecting these sports.

Basketball is not the reason why government funding is not up to snuff. It’s not the reason politics has shaped Philippines sports into, at best, a mediocre performer in the quadrennial games.

Basketball is not the problem and that’s without sarcasm.