Philippines banks on history for FIBA-Asia Hosting Bid
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 05 Sep 2012
Forty years after it last hosted the Asian Basketball Confederation men?s championship, the Philippines is again knocking at the door of the FIBA-Asia to stage anew in Manila the 2013 World Championship qualifying tournament.
No less than Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas president Manny V. Pangilinan, will be in Tokyo when SBP executive director Sonny Barrios and former ABC secretary general Mauricio ?Moying? Martelino make a presentation of the Manila bid to the FIBA-Asia executive board on November 18 in connection with the city?s hosting of the Asia-Cup.
?Yeah, I?ll be there,? Pangilinan, MVP to sports and business community, confided to this writer via text message yesterday. ?We?ll do our best to prove anew our world renowned capability to stage international events, not only in sports.?
Pangilinan and company, of course, will be banking on the very successful hosting of many international basketball tournaments held in the nation?s capital, foremost of which is the 1978 Eighth World Championships, in their efforts to convince the FIBA-Asia?s high priests of the country?s capabilities to manage events of such magnitude.
The 1978 world bash, in fact, is still the talk of the town up to the present time in the FIBA International community as, for the first time, of the championship, the Philippine Government, in coordination of the with the then local basketball?s governing body, the Basketball Association of the Philippines, then headed by Gonzalo ?Lito? Puyat II, who was also the FIBA president, made sure that participants would have gone home happy.
Venues of that year?s world tilt were the spanking air-conditioned Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City and the centuries-old Rizal Coliseum in Manila ? a pair of hoop houses that put premium on the comfort and convenience of the competing teams and the general public.
In stark contrast with the playing conditions offered by the previous hosts ? Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1950, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1954 and 1963, Santiago in Chile in 1959, Montevideo in Uruguay in 1967, Ljubljana in Yugoslavia in 1970 and San Juan in Puerto Rico in 1974.
The first championship, for instance in Buenos Aires, games were held at the old Luna Park Stadium, a decrepit but revered wire-encased playing court. In Chile, teams had to content playing in a dangerous open court in the heart of the City of Santiago. The famous ?frigidaire? court in an old building swept by biting snow winds from the Pole had players gnashing their teeth in freezing atmosphere in Montevideo.
The amenities offered by the Big Dome, site of the Muhamad Ali-Joe Frazier world heavyweight championship bout called ?Thrilla In Manila? held three years prior, indeed, came as a welcome treat to the participants, including Yugoslavia, which dethroned Russia (USSR) as world champion.
The presence of Chess World Champion Anatoly Karpov during the Yugoslavia-USSR title playoff added prestige to the championship.
The Philippines, incidentally, was also hosting the World Chess Championship between Karpov and Swiss-based Russian Viktor Korchnoi simultaneously in Baguio City and the defending titlist cancelled his game that day to go to Quezon City to watch the game. He went back to the Pines City disappointed seeing his compatriots dethroned.
Besides that 1973 hosting, Manila also gave birth to the now FIBA-Asia when it also staged the inaugural tournament in 1960.It is also worth mentioning to the FIBA-Asia board that the Philippines has also supervised the conduct of seven Asian Youth Championships from its second edition in 1972 until 1995 as well as several Asian Cup tournaments.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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