The importance of the FIBA Asia Championship

As the excitement for the 27th FIBA Asia Championship here in Manila continues to grow, the participating teams from all over Asia have arrived hoping to achieve different goals.

Defending champion China aims to keep its supremacy in Asian basketball, while former two-time champion Iran hopes to reclaim the throne it held in 2007 and 2009.

Korea, which has the most second-place finishes with 11, sets its sights on winning the gold this time for only the third time in the 27-year old event, while host Philippines seeks to relive its old basketball glory in the region after a long dry spell.

There are also those simply wanting to gain some respect in the region by improving on their previous records, like Saudi Arabia, India, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Malaysia and Thailand.

And of course, some simply want to increase their FIBA world ranking after the tournament.

But other than winning the tournament, most of the participating nations are hoping to land in the Top 3 spots in order to qualify for the prestigious FIBA World Cup in Spain next year. And this 27th edition is certainly one of the most competitive ever, with at least eight countries believed to have a crack at the three slots for the 2014 World Championship.

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Former National Team skipper Chris Tiu considers the coming event as the most prestigious basketball competition in Asia. “It is where all (Asian) countries send their most formidable teams. This determines who is the best team in the region. And it serves as a qualifier to the World Championship next year, which is the biggest competition in the world, where you get to play against the best countries like the USA, Spain and Argentina,” said Tiu.

It is surely every Asian team’s dream to make it to the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, where only 24 nations will battle it out for the right to be called the world’s No. 1 basketball country. Of the 24, three berths are reserved for Asia, which will be granted to the Top 3 placers in the Manila joust to be held on August 1-11, 2013.

Europe has the most number of berths with six, followed by the Americas with four. Africa also has three slots, while Oceana has two. The defending Olympic champion, in this case the United States, gets one slot and so does the host country (Spain). Then, FIBA will select four countries to be awarded wild card berths, three of which are usually given to European teams.

There was a clamor from Asian members for FIBA to increase the number of slots for Asia, citing the size of the continent, which is the largest in the world. However, FIBA has turned down such request as only China (No. 11) and Iran (No. 20) landed in the Top 20 world rankings in men’s basketball. The third-highest Asian country is Lebanon, at No. 25.

Although a tall order, the Philippines is hoping to get one of the three tickets to Spain in 2014. The last time the country qualified in the World Championship was in 1978, which was held in Manila.

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes believes it can be achieved. “This is going to be the biggest, toughest challenge of our lives. But we are honored by the privilege of fighting for our country, and nobody is going to try harder,” said the multi-titled mentor.

Reyes assembled a solid crew of mostly PBA standouts to build a quick and skilled team that can offset a clear size disadvantage. Although this current roster is the tallest Philippine squad ever formed, with 6’11” naturalized import Marcus Douthit, 6’10” Cebu hotshot June Mar Fajardo and 6’9” forward Japeth Aguilar, it’s still undersized compared to the likes of China, Iran, Jordan and Qatar.

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But history is on the side of Gilas. The Philippines hosted the Asian Championship twice, in 1960 and 1973, and in both occasions, the Nationals bagged the gold.

Actually, the Philippines has a total of five FIBA Asia Championships, second only to China's 15. It was the first ever Asian champion in 1960, before repeating in 1963, 1967, 1973 and 1985. Korea, Japan and Iran have two crowns each.

This time however, most of the participating teams have beefed up their squads to be competitive with the usual powerhouses like China, Iran and Korea. In fact, this tourney will set the record for the most number of naturalized players in the FIBA Asia Championship history. Eight countries will be parading naturalized players – Bahrain (CJ Giles), Chinese Taipei (Quincy Davis III), Jordan (Jimmy Baxter), Korea (Eric Sandrin), Japan (JR “Sakuragi” Henderson), Qatar (Jarvis Hayes), Kazakhstan (Jerry Johnson) and the Philippines (Douthit).

In the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, Douthit topped both the scoring and rebounding departments with 21.9 points and 12.2 rebounds per game. The Philippines then managed to enter the semis for the first time in 25 years but lost to Korea in a close encounter for the bronze.

This year, Gilas will attempt not only to improve on the fourth place finish in 2011 but also to earn the right to return to the world stage in basketball. But more importantly, they will do their very best not to disappoint the basketball-crazy home crowd, and keep the Filipinos’ hopes alive of once again becoming the kings of hoops in Asia.