THE BIG DIFFERENCE
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 10 Aug 2013
Loyzaga.
MANILA (PNA) -- He never played in the United States? National Basketball Association unlike Chinese behemoths Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and Li Jianlian and Iran?s Hamed Ehadadi.
Filipino basketball great Carlos Loyzaga never dreamed of seeing action in the world?s biggest professional league as present day heroes of the game in Asia, Europe and other continents aspire for as the ultimate prize in excelling and be considered ?great.?
Loyzaga, ?Caloy? to friends and in the sports community, earned more than a place in any of the NBA team, however.
King Caloy, who learned the game from the sandlot of the Sampaloc district in Manila, powered the Philippines to a third place finish in the Second World Championship held in 1954 in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, which, up to the present time, still the highest by any Asian country in the quadrennial conclave.
That, too, overshadowed a fifth place (which could have been a silver medal wind up) another PH squad fashioned out in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. For his feat, Loyzaga, who will turn 83 on August 29, was named to the world?s mythical selection, which, again, is the highest accolade given to an Asian player, not one of the present day NBA campaigners from the region has accomplished.
For that, Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas, host of the on-going 27TH FIBA Asia World Championship qualifying tournament, and FIBA Asia itself could have done well by honoring the guy as the ?greatest player? the continent had produced as both organizations could have recognized, too, other Asian basketball heroes that made their names in the international arenas.
Especially because this year?s 27th edition of the erstwhile Asian Basketball Confederation happens to be the 53th celebration of the continental organization founded in 1960 with Filipino Ambrosio Padilla, who was to become senator as its first president and Dionisio?Chito? Calvo as secretary general.
Nicknamed the ?Big Difference,? Loyzaga earned the moniker simple reason that every time he was named member of the national squad, the Philippines always emerged champion in all the regional championships be it the Asian Games or the ABC.
The father of basketball-playing siblings Chito and Joey, for instance skippered both the 1960 and 1963 Philippine champion teams before the Filipinos were dethroned in 1965 when he was no longer around.
Loyzaga?s teammates in the 1960 squad were his Tucayo, Carlos ?Boom Boom? Badion, who was adjudged the tournament MVP, Emilio Achacoso, Kurt Bachmann , Narciso Bernardo, Loreto Carbonell, Nicolas Carranceja, Eduardo Lim, Alfonso Marquez, Ed Ocampo, Constancio Ortiz Jr., Leonardo del Pilar, Mariano Tolentino and Roberto Yburan with Arturo Rius as coach.
Like Loyzaga, Bernardo came back in 1963 in Taipei along with Engracio Arazas, Geronimo Cruz, Manny Jocson, Eddie Pacheco, Renato Reyes Alberto Reynoso, Edgardo Roque and Elias Tolentino gifting the Philippines its back-to-back title.
King Caloy could have actually made it to the 1965 ABC and 1966 Asia had he not injured his right wrist while playing softball during the 1964 ELizalde Group of Companies inter-department tournament that led to his permanent retirement.
His love for basketball did not end there, in 1967, Loyzaga coached the Philippine team in regaining the ABC crown in Seoul with a lineup built around veteran internationalists Bernardo, Ocampo, Reyes, Roque and rising stars Robert Jaworski, Orlando Bauzon, Danilo Florencio, Jaime Mariano, Rogelio Melencio, Lawrewnce Mumar, Adriano papa Jr., Reynoso, the team captain, and Joaquin Rojas.
Forty years ago, the last time the Philippines played as host prior to this year, Loyzaga, despite being an ABC champion coach, accepted an offer for him to be an assistant coach to Tito Eduque, considered as a supreme sacrifice on his part, in the country?s reclaiming the ABC throne.
Like its 1960 predecessor, that 1973 team, considered as the best side the county has produced, won all its 10 games, including a 90-78 drubbing of eventual runner up South Korea.
The team was made up of Mariano, team captain, Jaworski, William Adornado, Melencio, Reynoso, Francis Arnaiz, Joy Cleofas, Ramon Fernandez, Alberto Guidaben, Rosalio Martirez, Manny Paner and David Regullano. Team manager was Dante Silverio, trainer Nilo Verona and conditioning coach Juan Cutillas.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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