Is Gilas Relying Too Much on Fil-Fors, Naturalised Players at Expense of Locals?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 19 Aug 2025
Australia made a threepeat as FIBA Asia Cup men's basketball champion by nosing out a gritty China team, 90-89 in the finals held at the King Abdullah Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
What stood out in that championship game, and the tournament for that matter, was that both Australia and China played with entirely local squads, without half breeds or naturalized players.
The Boomers have always played with pure Aussies since I could recall while China had fielded before Kyle Anderson, an American with Chinese ancestry who has been playing in the NBA. Anderson in fact was with the Chinese team which was shamefully edged by the Jason Brownlee led RP Gilas team for the Gold in the last Asian Games held in Guangzou, China.
I remember Chinese NBA great Yao Ming giving the losing host team the cold shoulder in the aftermath. He could have given them a dressing down in their locker room.
Chinese basketball authorities could have gotten the message.
In this tournament, China showed up with a youth-laden, all-local team which was as usual tall and with the physique to tussle against Western-oriented teams like Australia and New Zealand as well as the big Middle Eastern squads especially Iran and Lebanon. China likewise went back to their old strength-outside shooting-which came very handy against sharpshooting Asian teams as South Korea.
This is the first time since 2015 that China had advanced all the way to the Finals of FIBA Asia Cup which was until that time was known to us as the ABC. China last won the Asian championship in 2015 by beating the Philippines. It had won thirteen straight ABC crowns previously dating back to the last time an all amateur Philippines team won the title in Manila.
Australia had won the succeeding tournaments now known as FIBA Asia Cup that has included teams from Oceania and began to be held every four years in 2017, 2021 and this year.
A Chinese fan texted me via messenger that since the retirement of Yao Ming, Chinese authorities have been trying to institute reforms in the Chinese national squad, including fielding half breeds with NBA experience as Anderson but this is the only time that China nearly hit pay dirt. "I don't know why suddenly the Chinese team became this good," he said.
But there's no mystery in China's resurgence.
Chinese authorities have returned their faith on the native-born and while not entirely giving up on the preponderance of size, have given more premium on accurate outside shooting. Even their bigs can swish the hoops from afar reminiscent of Allan Caidic.
This is the exact opposite of our approach and program since years ago. Often at the expense of our locally grown cagers.
It broke my heart to hear of comments from opposing teams and their fans that we are not fair for fielding mostly "American" players.
Actually, we have just Brownlee as naturalized player. I don't know about Chris Newsome who played all his college years with Ateneo and has been in the PBA since his graduation. As well as a few others with foreign sounding surnames.
But if we have the likes of Scottie Thompson who is actually a local with an American sounding surname and AJ Perez who has a Filipino sounding name but a very American look, it is hard to explain our side.
FIBA Asia Cup publicities said this could be sunset for the old stars and the dawning of the new ones. It could be true as the likes of Junemar Fajardo and Aguilar looked they have lost a step or two. Alas, Fajardo and Aguilar are two of our true blue local bigs.
We could have finished higher than 7th had Rhenz Abando and Kai Sotto were around. I just hoped that the SBP approach on developing and strengthening our national team that depends too much on Fil-Foreigners and naturalized players has not turned them off.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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