I got this email from Coach Eric Altamirano last Monday, and I figured that readers of this blog would be interested to hear updates from him on the preparations of the youth program for the upcoming Fiba-Asia U-18 championships in September.

Hi Jaemark,

Congratulations on your sports blog. My apologies for not acknowledging any sooner your kind remarks last December about what we are doing with the youth basketball program of the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas.

As you have already mentioned, the Nokia U-16 team placed fourth in the Fiba U-16 championship. We were a game short of a medal, but I think this should not take anything away from what we have achieved with the team in a matter of months. We were able to get enough seasoning the players through a camp in Australia and sharpen their fundamentals through the Nike Elite Camp. We might not have achieved this without the support of TAO Corporation (the largest distributor of Nokia phones in RP) and Nokia Philippines.

You might be familiar with the names in that lineup like Kiefer Ravena, Jeron Teng, Paolo Romero, Cedric Labing-Isa, Mike Tolomia, Kevin Ferrer, Roldan Sara, Von Pessumal, Gelo Alolino, Jeoffrey Javillonar, Nestor Bantayan and Michael Pate. Their names might not ring much for now, except for Ravena and Teng, but I’m sure that international experience has worked wonders to their game as they move up the basketball ladder.

This time, I am forming the Nokia U-18 team (with hopefully majority of the Nokia U-16 players) for the Fiba-Asia U-18 championships in September. There’s also the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (August) in which the Philippines was given a wildcard slot based on our minor achievement in Johor Bahru.

Admittedly, things are even more difficult in U-18. If U-16 players are practically boys, the U-18 players are close to being grown men. While speed and teamwork helped us (we needed to go full court in our offensive sets to offset our lack of height) in the U-18, we might need to add a few more inches to our frontcourt to match up with big men from other countries. That is why I am still in the lookout for tall Filipino players locally or foreign players of Filipino descent in this age group to help us in this regard. I even joked in Johor Bahru that we might need a pill to make our players grow taller.

I couldn’t agree with you more on the fact the most big time players come from the provinces. And for this, I thank the SBP, Tao and Nokia Philippines for helping me out in establishing the Nokia National Basketball Training Center (NBTC) D-League. It’s not your garden-variety league in which the end-all is always winning the title. We come up with unified training programs for the 108 teams and also for the coaches. I believe that in a few years time, we might see more fundamentally-sound players and coaches through this technology transfer during the Nokia NBTC D-League. It is rewarding that the provinces have acknowledged the importance of the Nokia NBTC D-League as a feeder program for leagues like the UAAP, NCAA, PBA, PBL and Liga. Having more fundamentally-sound players in the future is definitely a win-win for everyone who loves basketball.

Thanks for being a believer.

Anyone out there know a tall Fil-Am prospect who’s under 18 years old?

I wanted to write about this big development a couple of days ago, but more important things at my day job kept me busy. Rey Joble broke the news that erstwhile Talk N Text team manager Frankie Lim was taking over the management of Smart Gilas, whose day-to-day operations were being handled by Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas executive director Noli Eala. Interestingly, Joble was the same guy who reported that the SBP had offered the controversial Japeth Aguilar an P18-m contract to jump ship from Burger King to Smart Gilas, which belied earlier claims by Eala that they had not offered Aguilar anything.

The SBP issued a statement officially announcing the move on Thursday evening. It quoted SBP Vice Chairman and Talk N Text team governor Ricky Vargas explaining the decision.

SMART APPOINT LIM GILAS TEAM MANAGER

FRANKIE Lim, the multi-titled NCAA champion coach of the San Beda Red Lions and former national player, has been appointed team manager of the Smart Gilas national team effective Feb. 1.

Lim, who sits as team manager of the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters in the Philippine Basketball Association, will be “on loan” to the RP team now in deep training for the coming Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

Assuming the top managerial post with the Tropang Texters is former national juniors and De La Salle Green Archers coach Virgil Villavicencio.

Former PBA chairman and Talk ‘N Text governor Ricky Vargas made the announcement yesterday afternoon, saying Smart Gilas needed a team manager who would be “more focused on the day-to-day operations, has coaching experience, and has been part of the national team as a player.”

Added Vargas: “We’re redefining accountability in the national team.”

Former PBA commissioner Noli Eala, who has been serving as Smart Gilas team manager in his capacity as executive director of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, the national sports association governing local amateur basketball, will now “have more time to take care of his many responsibilities” with SBP, Vargas said.

“We’re taking some of the burden from the executive director,” said Vargas. “After all, aside from generating more membership for SBP, he still has to take care of our grassroots development program and our involvement in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association, the SEA Games, and the FIBA tournaments.”

Lim, according to the SBP vice chairman, will assume responsibility for the “day-to-day operations of Smart Gilas, its financial management, contracts, and recruitment of players.”

And having been a national player, Vargas said, Lim can work with Smart Gilas’ Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman “from a technical standpoint.”

A management committee, mainly comprised of SBP chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, Vargas and Eala, will oversee the Smart Gilas team’s overall preparation.

“There will be a proper turnover of functions from now to Feb. 1, and then Frankie will be taking over,” Vargas said.

A couple of things struck me about the statement. First, there was the curious line about “redefining accountability in the national team,” suggesting that there’s more to this than meets the eye. Was Eala less than accountable while managing the team?

In prior posts, I have raised questions about the trend of the Smart Gilas team having problems getting or holding on to players, as well as the sloppy job that the SBP has done in trying to find reinforcements for the team. (How’s Jamal “I’m injured every other game” Sampson working out for everyone?) Are these issues related to the move?

Second, Vargas’ statement underscored the importance of the SBP executive director attending to other duties within the organization. When grassroots basketball pioneer Nic Jorge resigned from the SBP last year, he complained that Eala’s only concern seemed to be the Rajko Toroman-coached national team. Other programs such as youth basketball development took a backseat.

Indeed, the SBP’s grassroots efforts have been handled by Eric Altamirano’s National Basketball Training Center, a program that was already in place prior to Eala assuming office, and that has been operating autonomously, with its own machinery and sponsorship. Apart from projects aimed to discover and develop young talent around the Philippines, the program has also prepared modules to provide training for coaches across the country.

It should be noted that Eala announced that Altamirano, fresh off coaching the youth squad to an impressive fourth place finish in the Fiba Asia U-16 Championship, was going to join Smart Gilas as an assistant coach. A few weeks later, however, Altamirano denied that he was joining the team, stating that the youth program was his top priority.

Full disclosure: Eric Altamirano is one of my favorite Philippine sports personalities ever. He was the architect of the mini-resurgence of the UP Fighting Maroons in the mid-‘90s, after recruiting RP Youth members Bryan Gahol, Paolo Mendoza, and Ogie Gumatay to the team. I was studying at a public science high school at the time, and the Maroons’ build-up, along with the Eraserheads’ university roots, made me really excited about the idea of attending the Unibersidad ng Pilipinas for college.

But Altamirano, who was also an assistant coach at Purefoods, had to abruptly leave UP when he was tapped by the pro team to replace the acerbic Chot Reyes. Altamirano promptly led the team to the 1997 All-Filipino Championship. That was still my favorite Purefoods championship team of all time, despite the fact that they were called (ugh) the Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys. (At the onset of the name change in the previous season, management even made the coaches wear cowboy chalecos.)

It was a masterful coaching performance for the much-maligned Altamirano. At the time, he was rumored to be the lowest-paid coach in the league – before being acquired by the San Miguel Corporation, Purefoods had a reputation for being a spendthrift ballclub – and the tension between Altamirano and the team bubbled over during the next season. After a disappointing performance in the 1998 All-Filipino, he ended up leaving in the middle of the season to coach the Mobiline/Talk N Text franchise.

By then, most Purefoods fans couldn’t muster any resentment towards their former coach; he did a great job – he led the team to a championship and a runner-up finish in four conferences coaching the team – and the barat management didn’t take care of him. Meanwhile, basketball consciousness in UP had thrived so much that by the end of the decade, the Philippine Collegian featured Altamirano (and fellow Maroon Benjie Paras) among the university’s most important alumni in its Dekada ’90 issue, alongside other luminaries such as the Eraserheads, Jessica Zafra, Yano, Malou Mangahas, Manny Villar, and Nur Misuari. (The feature on Altamirano was full of errors, but still.)

In 2001, Altamirano returned to Purefoods, but Alvin Patrimonio’s star was fading, and they were going through a rebuilding phase. A couple of years later, Altamirano shocked the PBA world when he announced, just before the season started, that he was stepping down to dedicate his time to a new mission: developing young basketball talent.

(He also handed over the reins of the team to a youthful assistant by the name of Ryan Gregorio. UGH.)

Still, I can’t blame him for his choice, because Purefoods’ loss has been the youth program’s gain. Apart from short stints as team manager and interim coach for other SMC teams in the PBA, Altamirano really has devoted all his energies towards developing the country’s young basketball talent. In 2007, he was appointed by former SBP executive director Patrick Gregorio to head the country’s National Basketball Center (NBTC), and soon afterward, was appointed by the current executive director Noli Eala to handle the country’s youth team after Franz-gate.

In the recently-concluded Fiba-Asia U-16 Championship, Altamirano’s squad finished fourth, just behind perennial powerhouses China, Korea, and Iran. They narrowly missed a medal, dropping an overtime game against Iran in the battle for third. Altamirano’s squad, led by the spectacular Kiefer Ravena, was bannered by standouts coming mostly from Metro Manila high schools.

Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that this team might not even be the best we could have sent to the tournament. Let’s take a quick detour, and think about the roster of the Powerade Team Pilipinas National Team. In Yeng Guiao’s 15-man pool, there were 7 players who played high school basketball in the Philippines. Can you guess how many of those players played high school basketball in Metro Manila? The answer, and the rest of my point, after the jump.

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?