Despite a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, the San Antonio Spurs can still raise their heads high as one of the National Basketball Association’s elite teams.
Misfortune and probably luck had something with their not contending for the NBA title this time around. With 61 wins to their credit, the Spurs looked formidable in shutting off the door to inter-state rival Houston, 4-2.
That was early on. Against the Warriors in the first game of what promised to be a hard-fought series, the Spurs sprinted to a 25-point lead entering the third quarter when tragedy struck. Kawhi Leonard, the San Antonio Spurs do-it-all, reinjured a toe and had to limp off the court, and from the rest of the series.
With Leonard out, the Warriors counter-attacked and the Spurs’ vaunted defense simply wilted under overwhelmingly firepower. The succeeding games merely accented the obvious and the inevitable.
Of course, it could have shaped up differently had not point guard Tony Parker been injured earlier and then Leonard.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. But trust Coach Greg Popovich to be thinking of next year and the years to come with a revitalized and more matured Leonard and a healthy Parker back in the line-up.
Of course this is not to discount the rise of other teams in a league where there is established parity, with a few standing out only because they had in their folds the likes of Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russel Westbrook and James Harden.
Here at home, in an archipelagic collection of islands we refer to as our motherland, the idea of fielding a basketball team in a bid to win an international title is not only an impossible dream. It is like dreaming for the moon regardless of how a few Manila-based oligarch would like to see how Philippine basketball turns out to be.
First, we are not a nation of six-footers. We simply do not have the height as I adverted to in previous columns. But we have what it takes to excel in boxing, in chess, in martial arts and in other fields.
All is not lost, however. For like the mythical phoenix risen from the rubble, the Philippine Sports Commission is slowly but surely bringing us to the Holy Land of salvation in sports by cranking all in its cylinders in the development of grassroots sports. It is a mantra all its own and its activities in the past months were consistent with this objective.
The PSC is now in everybody’s lips. My nephew who manages a boxing gym in Baguio City said the PSC had just wrapped up a regional meeting up north and left a good impression. There is now reason to believe and a meaningful sports program to implement.
Last month, PSC head William ‘Butch’ Ramirez and his team ‘invaded’ Moro territory by preaching the cause of grassroots sports to Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao officials and to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front itself!
As reported, Ramirez showed up at the MILF camp and sought out Vice-Chair Ghazali Jaafar himself with whom he broached the idea of setting up a grassroots sports program in Moro territory as part of the government’s peace process.
He was not to be disappointed. The trip was not in vain. Both the ARMM and the MILF were won over even as they expressed support to the program. If I got it right, they even pitched strongly for the inclusion of indigenous Moro sports.
Ramirez was quoted as saying he wanted to plant the seeds of a consistent and progressive agenda where the youth can eventually play in the Batang Pinoy and the adults can see action in the Philippine National Games. Evidently, he was also looking forward to the participation of Moro youths.
Tomorrow, in continuation of its momentum, the PSC will host a barangay sports education seminar at the Royal Mandaya Hotel with some 100 participants from 30 barangays in Davao City expected to attend.
One topic stands out: “The local government units’ role in Barangay Sports Program as part of the national goals in developing a healthy and peaceful citizenry.”
For some LGUs, this is virtually a new territory that certainly does not welcome fence-sitters. The results may not be immediate but for so long as PSC stays on course, there is reason to hope for the light at the end of the tunnel in this our lifetime. (30)
