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THE
title says it all as it was indeed an experience of a
lifetime for the high-school players who attended the
recent Nike-All Asia Basketball Camp in Beijing, China.
Joshua
Webb of the College of
St. Benilde, Nico
Salva and LA Revilla of San Beda along with Clark
Bautista of Benedictine International School joined 57
other top high-school players from other countries for
seven days of enrichment in basketball skills.
They
made it to the All-Asia Camp after being chosen from the
Nike Elite Basketball Camp that happened at the Brent
Mamplasan in Biñan, Laguna. Other participants in the
event came from China, Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Hong
Kong, among others.
About 40
percent of the delegates were Mainland Chinese and you
could just imagine their excitement for hosting such a
camp. I, too, would not have missed it for the world,
and thanks to the invitation of Nike’s Tony Atayde, as
the opportunity to observe a basketball camp in session
was too much to resist.
The
first six days was filled with workshops that focused on
skills for each position along with the conditioning it
entailed.
The
coaches on hand were renowned Stanford and former Golden
State Warriors head coach Mike Montgomery, Tates Locke
of the Portland Trail Blazers, John Michael Patrick,
Anthony Long, shooting guru Dave Hopla and conditioning
coach Blair Donovan.
During
the morning sessions, the young campers participated in
intense two hours of fundamental skills training
followed by five-on-five games. In the afternoons, Hopla
gave more drills in shooting followed by more intense
full-court games.
Locke
taught the players on the rudiments of the post while
Wing players were placed under the guidance of
Montgomery.
Patrick focused on the point guards while Hopla
instructed the shooting guards.
Each had
a station and Donovan went to each station to introduce
players to strength and conditioning exercises.
Locke,
just like the others, was very effective in teaching the
centers on the proper footwork at the post and shooting
from the area. Overall, the coaches sent the message of
learning fundamentals pretty well and the players were
very enthusiastic in drinking the knowledge that the
coaches offered.
This was
despite the barrier in communication as the Chinese and
Korean players needed interpreters to understanding what
the coaches were saying. But in the process of
translation, much of the substance of what is being
taught was lost. This is where the Filipino players had
the advantage because they could understand English
pretty well.
What the
Filipinos lack in body strength and quickness, they made
up with their skills and IQ. They were able to hold
their own against the much taller Chinese and quicker
Australian players.
Our boys
were wide-eyed as they saw how tall the Chinese were.
There were actually five seven footers and one of them
caught the eye of the American coaches. His name is
Jiang Liyang (215 cms). He impressed the coaches with
his touch under the basket and shooting well with both
hands considering he was just introduced to the sport a
year ago. I heard from one of the coaches that they are
bringing him to US for more training. The Nike All-Asia
Camp is actually where Yao Ming, and the soon to be
drafted to the National Basketball Association Yi
Jianlian trained before they were seen by the world in
the Hoop Summit in the US.
Most of
the American coaches that I talked to agreed with my
observation that the Chinese have the advantage because
of their size but seemed lacking in attitude to get to
the next level. Some of them are somewhat lackadaisical
in their work ethics.
I could
already foresee a problem that would arise when the 2008
Olympics comes up—language barrier. We had a hard time
getting to places as taxi drivers could not understand
English. It is a good thing that we were able to
instruct the front desk in our hotel to write in Chinese
our destinations in the city.
Besides
the basketball camp, the players were given half a day
to visit the Great Wall in Badaling. It was one and a
half hours away from the hotel but it was worth it. This
is one experience the boys would not forget.
When I
asked the players what they learned from this trip, they
said the camp helped them become more confident after
playing against the best of Asia. It also reinforced to
them the value of mastering the fundamentals as what the
coaches consistently had been preaching to them the
whole camp. And of course, at the end of the day, they
made new friends and it is always nice to see people
from different cultures getting closer together because
of basketball.
We
actually got a bonus from this trip as one of our
Filipino players got voted to one of the top 20 in Asia.
Joshua Webb was selected for the All-Star game on the
last day. That was actually the second time a Filipino
made it to the All-Star. Last year, Mike Gamboa of
Ateneo made it. He is now playing for my beloved school,
the UP Fighting Maroons.
But the
one player who really stood tall among was Zhang
Zongxian from Taiwan. He was adjudged the Most
Outstanding Player of the camp. He will be invited to
participate in the LeBron James Camp in the
United States
this July.
Nike,
Alex Compton and I are very proud of these boys, most
especially because they all came from the Elite
Basketball Camp that was held in Brent Mamplasan last
April.
I do
hope that after sending four players from Metro Manila
schools this year, the Elite camp will be able to select
players from the provinces and bring them to China next
year. |
