The Unicorn That Got Away
In sports, an athlete is considered to be a unicorn, if he/she possesses tremendous talent.
An example of a unicon is Kristaps Porzingis. Other noteworthy unicorns that played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) were the late Kobe Bryant and of course, MichaelJordan. Currently, another unicorn is the Lakers superstar Le Bron James.
The NBA draft was just concluded and another unicorn was drafted as the second pick of the Houston Rockets—Fil Am Jalen Green.
Green is considered as a unicorn considering his athleticism, shooting prowess, and his ability to play defense. He is going to be a key piece for the Houston franchise and surely more Filipinos will be following the Rockets, which performed poorly in the 2020-2021 season.
While Green’s mother Brie Puruganan, has Filipino ancestry, he is not eligible to play for Gilas due to the Fiba eligibility rule. It is quite a remote possibility to have Green play for Gilas considering he already played for the USA in the under-18 and under-19 competitions. The Philippines was unable to recruit him unlike players like Jordan Heading or Matthew Wright, who are eligible for Gilas as they played in the Batang Gilas program. Fiba eligibility rules also prevents Jordan Clarkson from suiting up with Gilas because he was unable to secure a Philippine passport before turning 16 years old. Green, because of NBA restrictions, will not be able to play for Gilas in the Asian Games—and the Rockets might not allow him to play in the first place.
For this reason, I can say Jalen Green is the Philippines’ unicorn that got away. We cannot blame Green for being unable to get a Philippine passport because no one guided him or his family about the passport rule or getting dual citizenship or a call up from the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP).
It is not Jalen’s fault that he learned about his Filipino roots only lately. It is our faulty scouting, which is to be blamed why Gilas will no longer be able to secure the services of Green. In the event Green will decide to play international basketball, it is more likely he will be playing for the USA given the fact it is less complicated and his chances of getting a gold medal is bigger compared to playing in Gilas.
Even if Green will play eventually with Team USA, he still recognizes his Filipino roots and even signified his intent to represent the Philippines in the NBA. It would be a similar scenario with Heat forward Bam Adebayo, who plays for the US team in the Tokyo Olympics, but still proud to represent Nigeria—as his father is Nigerian.
Many Filipino fans are lambasting Green saying “ginagamit lang nya ang Pilipinas para sumikat”. The reality is that Green doesn’t need the Philippines for him to become famous, he already has a following based on his social media accounts. We should be glad that Green did not shun his Filipino lineage and proud to say he loves to eat some Filipino food. We should be glad that a unicorn in the NBA has Filipino blood and will proudly represent Filipinos worldwide.
For me, we should learn from this situation and improve our scouting of new talents. There are now organizations formed which primary function is to help the SBP scout for new talents. We already lost Quentin Miloria-Brown, we already lost Sage Tolentino, who are both 7-footers because of the passport rule. The sad thing is that we have to resort to getting Ivorians or Africans to become our naturalized players when we have players with Filipino blood that could bolster our ability to gain respect in international basketball.
The good thing is that there are plenty of talented players who can be tapped for Gilas in the future— and it will start with proper scouting.