The PBA has a D-League and Gerald Anderson wants in

I was on Facebook a few minutes ago when I saw someone post this:

"Teen hearthrob tries out for spot in Road Warriors' roster"

So, out of curiosity, I checked out the link and learned what it was all about -- local actor Gerald Anderson is trying out for a PBA D-League team, the Road Warriors.

Wow! Okay, two things:

1. THE PBA NOW HAS A D-LEAGUE...

2. AND A CELEBRITY HAS A CHANCE TO MAKE IT ON THE ROSTER!

I haven't been following the PBA lately, so while the the PBA-D League is old news, it's still news to me.

What's with the D-League? Do the gods of Philippine basketball think this is the solution to our b-ball problems? Because from where I stand, it isn't.

I have a question. What do Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Lebron James, Amar'e Stoudemire and Dwight Howard have in common? Their the best the game has to offer, and they entered the NBA fresh from high school. I strongly believe that if the NBA still allows preps to go directly to the pros, youngsters like Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love would've also skipped college. 

Now let's talk about Euros. Since the post Dream Team-era, the Europeans are the reason why people believe the rest of the world has caught up with the USA. And they do it with hustle, quick and accurate passes, movement without the ball, excellent touch from beyond the arc, and an offense that would make Samuel L. Jackson proud.

Notable Europeans are Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and of course, the great Drazen Petrovic. These guys started playing for national teams and in the pros at around 18 years old. 

What am I pointing out? Bryant tells you in his interview with Yahoo! Sports after his trip from Barcelona.

“Every single one, it seemed – the 8-year-old, the 9-year-olds – go left and they go right. The older ones shoot the jump hook with the left, and they shoot the jump hook with the right. You’ve got bigger kids who can shoot from the outside, who can handle the ball and play. A lot of young players that look like [Pau] Gasol, who are just so skilled.

“And now, you’ve got kids here in the States, 20 years old, who can’t do those things. Damn, you’ve got max players who can’t do that.”

So you see, even the Americans are having these problems, and we're still emulating them (putting up a D-League) in the hopes of finding a solution. As Albert Einstein puts it, it's insanity when you do the same thing over and over again then expect to get different results.

We always fall in love with whatever Americans do. We love Hollywood. We love Apple products. We love burgers. We love the thought of going to the US to live the American dream. And above all, we love basketball. And we didn't even bother studying the game from a different perspective. We just adopted their habit of posting up even if we don't have 7 footers and athletic cagers amongst us.

If we're really serious about returning to basketball prominence, we have to stop thinking like Americans. Good thing the Euros have already laid out a template for success. Dr. Jose Rizal said it best when he said the youth is the hope of the nation. The same is true in basketball. If we want to establish ourselves as a hoops powerhouse, we have to start putting our money and coaches on the kids, specifically, 12 to 17 year olds. It's in these years that we must teach the fundamentals and have these youngsters know such skills at heart to the point that it will be engraved in their muscle memory. 

I'd also like to see the young ones abandon the post game for a while. Bryant and Michael Jordan are proof that it's okay to work on the post later. It's the guard skills -- court vision, shooting, dribbling, passing, penetration -- that matter now. Because in a country where you'd be blessed to reach 6'0", an excellent post game means nothing when you get to the pros, and in international competitions, where big guards can be anything from 6'2" to 6'8". Guard skills, no matter what your height is and no matter what the position you will be playing, will always come in handy on the hard court. Just ask Mugsy Bogues and Magic Johnson.

And I have to put extra emphasis on shooting. At the start of the new millennium, Nowitzki and Peja Stojakovic showed us the importance of having someone who can knock down the three. These two shooters reminded us that three-point shooting can take teams deep in tournaments, whether it be in the NBA, the Olympics, the Worlds or the Euroleague. So aside from lay-up drills, I think it's about time we start training kids to convert on their three-point attempts at a high percentage. In addition, we should have them working on their jump shots and free throws as well.

In order for us to return to basketball prominence, we also have to stop nurturing ball hogs. I've accompanied my brother to numerous basketball clinics in the past and the common mistake I see parents make is that they discourage their kids from passing so that their offspring can score and have his share of the limelight. So when kids grow up, they have a hard time giving up or sharing the leather, and this translates into forced shots or predictable offense. If the ball dominating stops, kids will develop a pass-first attitude, learn to move well without the ball, develop instincts that'll help them read plays, and ultimately, benefit from less predictable offensive sets.

Of course, we have to work on our defense. Having kids work on their laterals is one thing, but it only addresses one-on-one D. We have to put defensive coordinators in the high school level so kids will learn how to play against different offensive sets, no matter who they are playing with.

Then there's cross-training. Our young ballers shouldn't be exposed to basketball alone. They should play other sports where they can acquire skills or develop parts of their body that can make them perform better on the hard court. It's pretty hard to keep up with Steve Nash's footwork since he played soccer too. You'd think that Tim Duncan would be useless at his age, but the stamina he got from swimming is paying off and he's still dependable as ever. And Lebron most likely got his overwhelming strength from playing football.

Lastly, if ever we're looking for imports, let's get 'em big and strong. We're going to spend big money anyway, so why not spend it one someone worth spending on? Up to now, we always got decent imports who enjoyed great careers in the amateurs and pros, but even with them on board, the best we could come up with is either a runner-up finish in some unknown international tourney or a second round exit in the FIBA Qualifiers. If we're going to offer citizenships and money to foreign ballers, maybe we should just get second-stringers from the NBA (DJ White, Reggie Evans and DJ Mbenga come to mind). Call me crazy but I think that's just how it has to be. At least, these players can put up numbers against the best players in the world. They're still expensive, but at least, not as expensive as starters. 

When getting imports, we should go after second-string NBA big men -- guys who stand at 6'10" to 7'0" -- because these are the kind of people that can help us protect the rim, grab rebounds and set picks. Honestly, I can't understand the point of getting expats to play small forward or guard. Our problem is height, not talent. Let's get foreign bigs and let the locals take care of the rest.

Unless you noticed, I want a role player for an import. Why? Because we can't depend on imports to carry us throughout tournaments, especially not on a FIBA pace and level. If we want to outscore other teams, we'll have to do it on the run and from the outside. And with an import's asking price, I believe we can't afford a big who can man the paint, run and shoot jumpers, again, on a FIBA pace and level. Such talent would be an NBA starter.

That, and some (insert Filipino dialect here) speaking faces and I think we have a recipe for success. In case your wondering why I want people who can speak any Filipino dialect, it's because I'm sick and tired of all these Fil-Am/Fil-Sham crap. The number one reason I don't like Fil-Ams in the PBA is because they take away slots that could've gone to a local. Which is quite ironic, because while these Fil-Ams come here to play for pay, we got millions of OFWs flocking other countries in search of greener pastures. But that aside, I want a pure glory and not some tainted victory. I mean, it's one thing if we got foreign bigs. I think other countries can let that slide. But with Fil-Ams, you know there's always going to be some controversy involved. We're just opening ourselves to inquiries and investigation from committees that are doubtful about the lineage or citizenship of a certain player. 

That said, no offense to Anderson, but if a celebrity who hasn't played competitive basketball for a long time has a shot to make it in a PBA D-League team, that just shows how far behind we are in the basketball world.

Update: Forgot to mention the PBL. My cousin Harold Khan raised a good point. What happens to the PBL if there's a PBA D-League? I know that the NBA can use the D-League to slowly get injured players back into shape, but again, with just 10 teams in the PBA, 9 if you remove Smart Gilas which is a guest team, isn't a D-League an overkill? Two sources of talents? C'mon!