By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Gilas Pilipinas team under head coach Tim Cone and spearheaded by Justin Brownlee has developed a habit of ending droughts and scoring breakthroughs for the country.
It all began when the Nationals finally ended a 61-year gold medal drought in the Asian Games when Brownlee’s heroics propelled Gilas to a pulsating 77-76 win over host China in the semis and then a 70-60 triumph over Jordan in the Final.
Gilas also ended another dry spell, this time against European teams, when the Filipinos pulled off a stunning 89-80 victory over then No.6 Latvia in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament – breaking another 64-year wait for a Philippine team to finally notch a victory against any team from Europe.
Even in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, Gilas scored a breakthrough win over New Zealand, 93-89, effectively ending a four-game winless run, spanning eight years against the Tall Blacks.
With the Nationals now on another quest in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 which fires off next week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a 40-year-old title drought is what Gilas is hoping to end when Cone declared that they are coming into the tournament with the intention to win it all.
No doubt it is a bold and daunting mission although one that isn’t entirely impossible according to Brownlee
“It’s an incredible challenge. You got some really good teams out there. Now, I think we kind of have put Asia on notice as far as saying that we’re here and we really want to be able to compete,” said Brownlee.
“The Philippines is growing and I think it got to a point where, like coach Tim said earlier, we want to be able to dominate Asian basketball. I think with the team we have; I think that’s very possible to do,” he added.
To show how serious they are in this mission, the PH delegation landed in the oil-rich Kingdom almost a week before the start of the biggest basketball competition in the region.
The last time the Philippines won the continental tiff was back in 1985 in Kuala Lumpur where the Nationals actually swept the tournament to qualify to the 1986 FIBA World Championships
That Philippine team was coached by Ron Jacobs with guys like Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim, Hector Calma, Yves Dignadice and Jerry Codinera leading the team to 6-0 slate in the tournament including a 3-0 card in the championship bracket that also had China, South Korea and Malaysia.
And the closest Gilas had come to breaking the title drought was when it finished back-to-back silvers in the 2013 and 2015 editions with teams under Chot Reyes and Tab Baldwin losing to Iran and China, respectively.
“It’s just going to take us an extreme amount of hardwork and dedication from everybody to buy into that. With everybody doing that, I think it’s a bright future to be honest for Gilas program,” said Brownlee.
