The Ball is the Key

Basketball, as we all know, is the most famous and most celebrated sport in the Philippines. The Philippines is known as a great basketball country. In fact next year, the Philippines will join its second Federation Internationale de Basketball Association (FIBA) World Cup after the Manila hosted the said event.

            The Gilas Pilipinas showed their Pinoy blood and skills last FIBA Asia Cup and ranked the 2^nd in the region.

            Now that the brown hardcourt warriors are on the spotlight again, a question hits my mind: If we can excel in basketball, why didn’t we excel in World Basketball?

            Our country, despite of being a great basketball area, is not that known as one of the strongest in the field. In fact, this is the only the second time that we will play in the World Cup.

            You can’t say that Filipinos are not really good players because in history, the Philippines marked the Basketball world. For example: The Philippine Team was the first team to score a hundred points in an Olympic games. Now, we can’t even go in the Olympics.

            After I talked with some of my friends and a professor, I came to realize that we don’t have the problem on the players. The reason why Philippine basketball is hardly to reach the world rankings is that the Government is lacking for support to these.

            Not only in basketball, but all te other sports needed a focus by the government. If Pacquiao attained his achievements now, what if the athletes like him were helped by our government.

            The government can’t see that Filipinos have a great potential in the world of sport. If only we have a better system for the development of both the athletes and the sport itself, we can bounce back and be on top of the world again.

            The government also can’t see that through the sports development, our economy will rise because we are on the rankings and well known internationally. We can use the sports to showcase our Filipino blood and have benefits from it.

            Right now, I believe that the sports development, especially basketball, is one of the keys in putting up a better Philippines.