The Nokia Pilipinas Under-16 National Team, coached by Eric Altamirano and led by Ateneo Blue Eaglets star Kiefer Ravena, was all over the sports headlines today after winning a pocket tournament in Cebu that featured Chinese Taipei, Japan, and Iran. The team had a very impressive 77-57 victory in the finals over Iran, whose senior men’s team is the two-time defending Asian champions.

I don’t know exactly the caliber of the other teams who participated in the tournament, if these really were their countries’ national youth teams, although two of Iran’s top scorers, Soheil Yousefi and Mohammad Ojaghi, also represented the country in last July’s Asian Youth Games 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Still, this was a very impressive performance for Nokia Pilipinas.

It also came as a surprise, because just last August, Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas executive director Noli Eala expressed his concern about the team’s talent, and mulled the formation of creating a Smart Gilas-type program for the age group. In the piece, Eala said that Altamirano was having a tough time discovering talents while talking up the SBP’s extensive preparations for Smart Gilas. This came almost a year after the much-publicized tiff between Eala and former youth team coach Franz Pumaren, after the latter left the squad team in the middle of the tournament in Iran.

The statement from Eala seemed to suggest that Altamirano’s program was somehow less than effective. Altamirano, who also heads the National Basketball Training Center conducting programs aimed at developing young players all over the country, has been working quietly away from the spotlight – the only person who seemed to be writing about the youth program was Altamirano himself – in stark contrast to Eala’s work with Smart Gilas, where every move came with a glowing press write-up from media mouthpieces about the team’s awesomeness and how great the program is.

Today, it’s Altamirano’s program that’s looking good, as they head into the Fiba-Asia U-16 Championships brimming with momentum. On the other hand, Smart Gilas got its bubble burst after disappointing performances in the PBA, even as the team is having serious difficulty attracting top-tier talent; elite big men from Cebu, Greg Slaughter and June Mar Fajardo, have been apprehensive about joining the team, as is dynamic UE guard Paul Lee.

When the Smart Gilas program started, Noli Eala made a big show about signing the players to huge contracts; an early report said that the program will be spending P14-million on the first year, P24-million on the second, and P36-million on the third on player salaries alone. Eala also said that won-game bonuses for the team are as lucrative as those in the PBA.

Does anyone else wonder if the SBP has its priorities backwards? Contrary to what is written in each glowing press release about it, the Smart Gilas three-year program is not really a long-term plan; it just seems longer compared to the ragtag teams we’ve trotted out. Would you rather pour all this money to Eala’s pipe dream that’s more like an effort to show up the PBA, the league that forced him to resign from its commissionership after his disbarment? Or would you rather support the efforts of people like Altamirano, Ato Badolato, and Alex Compton in discovering young basketball talent and helping them improve their skills at an early age?