For Christmas, we decided to get out of The Locker Room and to the basketball courts in Anaheim to talk to some of the many promising Filipino-American basketball players who were present in this 2 day private event. This event, called “Building the Bridge Showcase”, organized by Fil-Am Nation Select with founder Coach Cristian Gopez, gives coaches, team managers, agents, and basketball fans a glimpse of the future of Philippine basketball. Some of those who were present in the virtual meet and greet were San Beda University team manager, Coach Jude Roque, Gilas Program Director and ADMU Head Coach, Tab Baldwin, and UP Head Coach, Bo Perasol.
Fil-Am Nation Select also invited some pros and those who have already been recruited to play college basketball into the mix to play against those who are aspiring to play in the Philippines to get an idea on how they would do against those who already have Philippine basketball experience. We saw many very talented Fil-Am basketball players from all over but talent alone is not the real ticket to play in the Philippines. Fil-Am Nation Select’s organizers said that the biggest hurdle that these talented players face is not playing against other talented basketball players but getting their Filipino citizenship paperwork in order.
In the Philippines, there are many restrictions to playing in the pros all the way down in the amateur level in college and even in the high school level in the Philippine NCAA and the UAAP. The opportunity to play as a foreign player or as an “import” in the pros is very very limited. In the NCAA, they no longer allow students to play in the NCAA tournaments who has foreign citizenship. Unless you want to play as a foreigner, and playing in the NCAA is now out of the question, you have to get your Filipino citizenship in order and that should be the priority if you want to play in the Philippines in the pros or even in college as a Fil-Am. These Fil-Am basketball players didn’t lack talent but showing up at the Fil-Am Nation Select event this Christmas week says one thing about their Christmas wish list for sure, they all wanna play basketball in the Philippines!
