I've said it in a past post, but our genetics aren't the reason we're not excelling in ball. It's our CULTURE. If Japan can mass produce fast twitch muscles which aren't genetic in an East Asian body (and anybody who's on top of Japanese sports will see that they're starting to all be everywhere in world mainline sports) then we can too. But our culture is holding us back.
Basketball culture in the PH is always emphasis on offense than defense but our fixation on offense is what's holding us back entirely, the root of the problem. Back in FIBA 2013 the commentator said that "you never know who's going to score next", which if you think about it is a thinly veiled criticism about how inconsistent we are as a team, that Gilas has 0 defined roles. We are not playing the same basketball as everyone else, like that 1998 Korean coach and Julio Lamas said about us. Our roles are all best scorer, secondary scorer, tertiary scorer, etc etc. We barely have any locals that don't look at the basket during offense, the only one I can think of in the modern era is Dorian Pena during his stints in Ginebra and Globalport. Culture is also why lineups in the grassroots are based on height, not role. If the biggest guy on the team can play PG, during intramurals or inter-school games he'll be slotted at C. The next coach will do that, then the next, then the next...what happens is that we grow stagnant as a basketball country and our defense will also suffer as a result, since it's tailor-made for what the PH game is, not what everyone else in the world is playing. We're getting by with our individual skills, but as our placement on the FIBA rankings is showing, it's not enough.
Genetics will give you the best possible result, yes. But it's not so much genetics as it's about effort and knowing your role. Mbappe is a genius of football and has superior genetics over Messi, but we know who won the World Cup. It's about that teamplay and knowing the game inside out.
Tab Baldwin is trying to change that, but ironically it's sometimes doing more harm internationally. Angel Baby Oppa (Dave Ildefonso) has been chastised by Korean fans saying that he's not being "selfish" enough, a result of trying to do all the little things in ADMU, not to mention his defensive footwork which is suffering because of the slow paced offense here. Kai had to relearn his footwork during his 2 seasons in the NBL to start keeping up with the Aussie bigs, and even then you still have people who aren't acknowledging the physical limits of a 7'3 giant. Kai is already way faster than Abai and Barney, or EJ Feihl, Bonel Balingit, etc. Any faster and you're expecting somebody of Joel Embiid status, which Kai doesn't have (yet). Kai is one of the proofs that we can overcome the cultural limit of what has been instilled in the Philippines. Carl Tamayo has superb handles and footwork that hasn't been seen yet in PH basketball, while Oftana is stuck here playing big man ball as a small man.
We need more willing screeners, more big men willing to shoot 3s and run, more teammates willing to hustle like Scottie and Calvin Abueva, etc. That starts in the grassroots and if that doesn't change, then our current predicament will never change too.
