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Top hoops guru Joe Abunassar says Pinoys among his favorite trainees

Impact Basketball’s Joe Abunassar and Andrew Moore pose with Filipino coaches during a coaching clinic in Greenhills (Photo by Global Link Travel and Tours).

Joe Abunassar has always known that Filipinos are not only passionate in the sport of basketball but also highly skilled. After all, he has trained so many teams from the Philippines for years.

“Filipinos work very hard. Sometimes we like them better than the NBA guys because they have such great approach to training. They really want to get better,” said renowned basketball trainer, who visited Manila for the first time last week to hold a two-day camp for kids and as well as a one-day clinic for local coaches. About 100 kids attended the clinic held at the Roosevelt Park Gym in West Greenhills.

Abunassar heads one of the top basketball camps in the US called Impact Basketball, which has a stellar list of NBA stars that underwent training there. The list includes NBA veterans Kevin Garnett, Derek Fisher, and Chauncey Billups, young superstars John Wall, Kyle Lowry, Dion Waiters and Rudy Gay, and international stars Ricky Rubio and Yi Jianlian.

Abunassar had coaching stints alongside the legendary Bobby Knight at Indiana University and Wyoming University. In 2006, he founded Impact Basketball and has since then been known as a topnotch basketball trainer. Tyronn Lue, an NBA associate head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, described Abunassar as “the Kobe Bryant and LeBron James of trainers.”

Abunassar gives young players some tips during the 2-day basketball camp in Greenhills (Photo by Global Link Travel and Tours)
Abunassar gives young players some tips during the 2-day basketball camp in Greenhills (Photo by Global Link Travel and Tours)

For over ten years now, several teams and players from the Philippines have come to the Impact Basketball training centers in Los Angeles and Las Vegas to hone their skills. But two of the more frequent clients are college basketball giants San Beda Red Lions and Ateneo Blue Eagles. Both Ateneo and San Beda have won five straight titles within the last ten years.

Each year, Impact Basketball becomes the most sought-after training camp for NBA draft hopefuls. These aspiring NBA rookies undergo rigid skills, strength and conditioning training under Abunassar’s watch. The same trainees get to work out with the Red Lions and Blue Eagles during the teams’ annual summer training. Impact Basketball has training facilities in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Florida.

This time however, Abunassar, along with associate Andrew Moore, decided to visit the Philippines for the first time and see for himself the country’s love affair with the sport. “Manila’s beautiful. We had an excellent stay. People are extremely great and nice to us. We realize how many people we know here through all of our years in basketball. One thing we know for sure is that there’s probably no place where basketball is so popular and loved than in the Philippines,” said Abunassar.

During their brief three-day stay here, Abunassar and Moore also took time to visit San Beda’s training and watch the Meralco-Kia PBA game. Incidentally, one of Impact Basketball’s former students is Meralco’s Jai Reyes, who was the Bolts’ hero in their win over the Carnival.

In collaboration with local travel agency Global Link Travel and Tours of former Batang Gilas team manager Andrew Teh, Abunassar and Moore came to Manila to introduce Impact Basketball’s methods of training. “We conducted clinics for kids and coaches. We wanted to introduce our program and what we do in the states. We also introduced to the coaches our new program where we try to certify coaches to become Impact trainers. They can check it out by visiting www.impactball.com and clicking Get Certified.”

Abunassar revealed that Impact Basketball plans to conduct clinics in the country every year and even hopes to find a regular training facility in Manila and even in other parts of the Philippines.

In the meantime, Filipino players aged 12 years and older can get a chance to train with Abunassar under a special package arranged by Global Link Travel and Tours in Impact’s training facility in Las Vegas. The special camp is set on May 4-18. The package is worth $ 3,980 per person, which includes round trip airfare, quadruple sharing hotel accommodation, daily breakfast and training fees. The 10-day training will allow the students to experience the same skills training and strength and conditioning drills that the NBA trainees underwent.

Interested parties may contact Global Link Travel and Tours through the contact numbers 0920-9702246 and landlines (02) 400-7826 to 28.