March 21, 2023 • 50 mins
In 1978, the Golden State Warriors drafted 6'3" guard Raymond Townsend, the first Filipino-American in the NBA. Since then, the Utah Jazz's Jordan Clarkson and the Houston Rockets' Jalen Green have carried the torch, representing the NBA dream to Filipinos around the world. In this episode, ESPN's Cassidy Hubbarth and Titan's Nikko Ramos talk with Raymond Townsend and the Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra, the first Asian-American NBA Head Coach, about their pioneering careers and the power of representation as they pave the way for Filipinos in the NBA.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
God gifted me with. If he gifted me with anything,
it was a great sense of humor and a jumper.
Raymond Townsend. A lot of basketball fans might not know
that name, but for the Filipino American community and Filipino's
back home, he's a legend up there with Bill Russell,
Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, all the pioneers and icons who
(00:23):
gave the NBA a foundation to grow into the global
league it is today. Raymond Townsend, a six three guard
from San Jose, California, is the first Filipino player in
NBA history before Jalen Green came along and became the
first Filipino lottery pick in NBA history. Rip the second
pick in the two twenty one NBA Draft, the Houston
(00:46):
Rockets select Jalen Green and Jordan Clarkson became the first
Filipino player to win the NBA's six Man of the
Year award. Clarks had doubled with two, now triple. Clarks
had asked to hoist it. They're gonna call a foul
and count the basket. Raymond Townsend carried the torch Filipinos
all over the world who grew up dreaming of playing
basketball at the highest level, looked up to him, and
(01:09):
that's what this episode is all about, the NBA dream.
We're going to be talking with the Filipino Trailblazers who
were the first players and coaches to break into the NBA,
as well as telling the story of an all time
great from the PBA who almost became the first player
born and raised in the Philippines to make it to
the league. Welcome to episode five of Hoops Paradise. The
(01:32):
Philippines love of the game basketball were all right, Nico,
can we compare notes real quick on the Filipino American
experience here in the States versus the experience in the Philippines. Basically,
(01:54):
I'm wondering if, for as long as you can remember,
everyone in your extended family has been able to name
seemingly every Filipino celebrity in Hollywood and professional sports. Are
you kidding? Of course, we know all the Pinois who
even made the slightest impact on US pop culture. One
because for a long time, there weren't a lot of them, right,
(02:15):
And two because it's almost like an unspoken requirement of
Philippine citizenship. But we identify any public figure anywhere in
the world with even the slightest, smallest Filipino roots and
then claim them as some sort of honorary national hero,
exactly like the average American moviegoers saw eighties classics like
La Bamba or Stand in Deliver and thought Lou Diamond
(02:37):
Phillips was Mexican American, but not us because there was
always a cousin or Auntie Ordita or Lola nearby to
interrupt the movie and say, you know he's Filipino. You
know ye Yan yan yan, and you know yan Blue
Diamond Phillips. Tia Carere, who inspired about a billion crushes
(03:00):
with her roles in Wayne's World one and two classics.
By the way, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, we
really caught a break with her being the star of
the group Star. And then there's Apple d App of
the Black Eyed Peas the group let him record one
song in Tagalog aka Cassidy Hubbert's favorite song of all
time time. BeBot is a showstopper at every Filipino wedding
(03:23):
in the States, or at least all the ones I've
been at. I think, Cassidy, we are about a year
away from having the pull for that song to be
played anytime you walk onto any NBA arena. As soon
as you walk in, they just have to blast bebbot.
I mean we already. No, it doesn't even need to play.
I say it to any Filipino I see, I just
start singing it like a crazy person and look, like
(03:45):
I said, not just at weddings. It is a staple,
not just in my house, but in NBA arenas, especially
when franchises hold Filipino American heritage. Nice. That's jail And
Green guard for the Houston Rockets at Filipino Heritage Night,
(04:07):
talking about the support he gets from Filipino fans. Filipino
fans have been rooting for jail And Green's basketball career
since he was a sophomore in high school. Yes, high school.
Who's your guys favorite player in the NBA. Uh, he's
(04:29):
your favorite player in the NBA. Uh it's Green. Of course,
it's Green from Houston Rockets. Since Green is one of
the best players in the Philippines. It's really uh. What
called this a pride for us to represent Philippines in
the big league like the NBA and the Utah Jazz Is.
(04:51):
Jordan Clarkson echoed that same sentiment at the twenty twenty
three NBA All Star Weekend talking about the support he
gets from Filipino fans and how proud he is to
be Filipino. I really always appreciate and a lot of
support Philippines have gave me since I've been in the league,
and you know, since I men on my hoop journey
(05:13):
and I'm proud wear it every day. I got my
grandma chattering on my heart. She Filipino. You know how
we do, man, Filipino blood. Till the end, we're throwing
the sandals off and we barefoot. We get straight to
the hoop and the Philippines. Man. By the way, I
know you know this, but we also claim Vanessa Hutchins,
(05:35):
the former MTV VJ Vanessa Manilo, who's yes, married to
that you know boy band guy from ninety eight degrees.
And for a while everyone was convinced that Rachel Bilson,
the actress who started in the OC, was half Filipino.
But kind of turns out she's not. No, I don't know.
I'm still investigating that one. Still want that one to
be true. Right. We also all know that nineties Saturday
(05:57):
Night Live funny man Rob Schneider is half Foy. Of course,
it is like they taught it in Sunday school or something.
Everybody knows, yet none of us are quite sure how
or why. The same goal as for former pro wrestler
turned Marvel avenger Dave Batista. Right. And even though these
examples are probably dead giveaways that we're a couple aging
(06:19):
nineties kids, we can't forget the younger generation of Filipino
American entertainers and artists like Sweetie and the Grammy Award
winning R and B singer Her who just played Belle
in Disney's thirtieth anniversary special remake of Beauty and the Beast. Anyway,
to get back to the point here, I'm wondering what
has happened when the Philippine appetite for representation has collided
(06:42):
with our passion for NBA basketball over the years. The
first was real, by the way, your shot at our
collective ages felt that one a little bit. But also
me and Cassidy people are the first to tell you
Olivia Rodrigo, Yeah, our girl, Olivia, Yeah, got that got.
(07:02):
She may be a gen zer and we may be
some cheriatric millennials, but we wrap her hard. Yeah. Absolutely,
now before Jordan Clarkson debuted with the Lakers of all
teams in twenty fourteen, Jeremy kicks at the Clarkson timeout.
See what I mean about Clarkson. I jail right away
that this is a guy that understands the game and
(07:24):
he's not afraid and gave Filipinos all around the world
one of our own to root for for the first
time since Raymond Tausend retired in nineteen eighty two. We
were on the hunt for any connections to the league
we could find. When stars like Jon Rondo and Wayne
Wade slash of the basket and scored using footwork and
touch and deception ways that reminded us of the PBA,
(07:47):
we treated it almost like a moral victory and joke
that Rondo and d Wade must be bussom PINOI or
Filipino at heart. When Nate Robinson's mom mentioned to a
reporter that her grandfather had been Filipino, it sparked a
rumor that the five foot nine, two times slamdown chap
who would go off for forty on any given night,
(08:08):
was one eighth Filipino. By the way, more than enough
in mind yea, we claimed claim yeah, even though as
far as I'm aware, no one ever did the legwork
to truly confirm Nate Spinoy roots by following up with
his mom, learning her grandfather's name, and tracking down his
birth certificate or relatives in the Philippines. And you know,
to be honest, why bother a short guy who could
(08:32):
score in bunches, played with a ton of emotion, and
had crazy hops. There's a version of that player in
every barangay in the Philippines and in every Filipino neighborhood
in the States. We even have a beloved newspaper reporter
and PBA TV analysts who calls himself the Dean mister KENNETHA. Henson,
who's made a cottage industry out of reporting on any
(08:54):
connection between Filipinos and the NBA that you can possibly imagine.
Shout out to Dan I loved him, Atita from Zimbalist Province,
who migrated to New England and found a job in
the accounting department of the Boston Celtics. The Filipino American
photographer who Jordan Pool trusts to snap action shots at
games so the Warriors guard can post them to social
(09:16):
media after the final Buzzer, the tailor on Passy Road
in Makati City, or Dell Demps, the former San Antonio
Spurs front office figure who also played as an important
the PBA for teams like seven up Encola's would order
custom made suits for himself and Spurs guard Bruce Bowen
to where it to NBA games. We'd read about these
(09:36):
tiny connections between our world and the NBA in the
Dean's columns, and no matter how trivial they might have
seemed from an outsider's perspective, they resonated with Filipino readers
of what basketball means, saw us and with the NBA
represents for all basketball fans all over the world. Anyway
that we could trace a line from our hoops, met Archipela,
(09:58):
go back to the league where Robertson, Larry Bird, Magic, Michael,
and Lebron played. Because all the validation we needed preach Nico.
I mean, we out here. You may have to search
a little bit, but we out here. And if that
doesn't set up our conversation with Raymond Townsend, I don't
know what will. But the incredible thing about his story
(10:19):
as the first Filipino player in NBA history is that
he came along at a time when Filipino American identity
wasn't as widely understood as it is today. I could
stand on the mountaintop and tell you I was Filipino,
but you have to understand at that time, there were
no Filipino basketball players. Even though Raymond's mom served Lupia
and ponsitt to legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. When the
(10:42):
Wizard of Westwood visited the Townsend family home in San
Jose to recruit Raymond out of high school, barely anyone
outside of their immediate family thought of Raymond as Filipino.
It was the seventies and Raymond was by Rachel Waras
Haren and Afro, and most Americans just saw him as black.
Raymond had a basketball career that wouldn't make anyone proud.
(11:02):
He won an NCAA championship playing for John Wooden at
UCLA and got selected by the Golden State Warriors with
the final pick in the first round of the nineteen
seventy eight NBA draft. He played three seasons in the
NBA with the Warriors and then the Indiana Pacers, averaging
about five points per game as a backup point guard,
and then he went on to play three more seasons
(11:24):
of pro ball in Italy. But it wasn't until long
after that that the NBA's first Filipino was truly recognized
for his contributions to the game. I was really fortunate
with being recruited. You have to understand, I was averaging
twenty nine points a game without a three pointer. God
gifted me. If he gifted me with anything, it was
(11:44):
a great sense of humor and a jumper. And I
loved for my family, and my journey started real early
because we had five kids in one room, eight hundred
square foot home. A Raymond's family didn't have the money
to pay for week long basketball camps, so he worked
as a cook at basketball clinics and camps just so
he could attend. I was serving on breakfast. I was
(12:06):
cleaning up after him. I was pretty humble cockey, but
when they asked me for kool aid or whatever, meant
I was filling up their cups or refills or going
to do this. And then I wasn't able to participate
in the camp until after I washed the dishes and
did that. And I didn't do that three meals a
day because I couldn't afford the fees to go to
these one week camps, but by the third day there
(12:28):
were guys. Coach Wooden I was at Maryland at that time,
Marquette al McGuire. Maryland was big duke. Everybody was there
by the third day because this was the place to
be in California for the players. They found out that
the cook was a pretty good players a sophomore, so
for about two or three years played in the best
(12:49):
league in northern California, Archbishop Mity High School. I was
working out with Santa Clair University Sandsey State varsity players
as a sophomore in high school, I didn't want to
be a good player. I used to tell everybody there's
millions of good players. I wanted to be great, And
because I was humble, I appreciated everything my mom and
(13:10):
dad opened up for me, which never gave me a
sense of entitlement. You know. I had to serve people
as the way I had to get a hit. Once
I was on the radar, it was kind of a
done deal and it it just snowbold after that. And
it's kind of funny, even though it was one hundred
and twenty five UCLA wasn't one of those picks yet.
(13:32):
It was everybody but UCLA. And UCLA came in about
the last two weeks. We had a game in a gym.
It was filled up two thousand capacity. There were fifteen
hundred people outside with speakers. It was just an unreal
environment for back in the mid seventies. I ended up
(13:52):
having like thirty eight. I had a triple double and
just turned it out and UCLA happened to be there,
so and what ended up happening is obviously Coach Wooden
came to my house a week later and Mom and
Dad they were you know, we had Filipino, we had
pounds it, we had chicken adobo, we had yeah, we
(14:14):
had everything for Coach Wooden. We all had our assigned
seats were my brother and my three sisters. I'm the eldest.
And the minute Coach walked in, he really could have
just given me a paper and just said, you know
what we want you to sign, and I would have
signed immediately, but instead he checked out my integrity. His
(14:37):
first words were, you know, Raymond, we respect your ability.
We run a program of honesty and integrity, you know,
And you don't hear people talk like this. He goes,
we run a program of honesty and integrity, and I
want to be honest with you. Even though we've won
nine championships in eleven years, you're not my number one pick?
Are you okay with that? And he being the cocky
(15:02):
high school kid, I like, coach, no disrespect, but who's
your number one pick? He goes, well, you're averaging twenty
nine points a game without you know, we had no. Three,
but there's a guy in LA that we want, but
we figure he's averaging thirty nine a game, so if
we can get you and him. He goes, at sixty
eight points, we think you could be one of the
(15:23):
top UCLA backcourts in the history of our school. And
I said, okay, what's his name? And he told me
his name and I said okay. And then he said
something interesting. He said mind you. He goes, you're okay
with not being my number one? I said yes, Sir,
I said I will be eventually. And he said, but
(15:44):
mind you, I'm going to recruit fourteen other All Americans
every year, So are you okay with that? I said, yeah, Coach,
bring them on. I also need to hear a deep
dive on John Wooden's Filipino dinner at the Townsend Household, Like,
what kind of what's it? The Raymond's mom cock, Because
there's a world of difference between the goat and hard,
(16:06):
which is pretty much garbage. I mean, where did she
even get the ingredients? There wasn't no seafood City back then.
What else was on the menu? Like what did the
Wizard of Westwood like the most? I mean, duh, it's
gotta be lumpia. It's always lumpia, all right, let's just
find out. You know, it's funny. See, he wasn't really
(16:27):
exposed to it because there were no other Filipinos ever
came through, and Coach wood was so humble. He stayed
in this little two bedroom condo out in Encino, and
you know, Filipino restaurants weren't big in La that then.
So yeah, he loved it. He loved the lumpia, he
liked the ponds. It he didn't like I shouldn't say this,
God rest his soul. He'll turnover and his great if
(16:48):
I tell you he didn't like the dinner go on
chocolate meat. You know, he wasn't tough, kind of shy
away from the dinner go on, but he loved everything
else and Turan, I'm gonna let he was all over
my mom's maruya and my mom so everything was home cooked.
(17:08):
So I stand by it. I don't play a coach
Buden for shying away from the gun. I mean, that
is a tall, tall task. It's it's a it's a
tall order. But Tron, it's a top five dessert. Fight me. Yeah,
it's a top five dessert anywhere in the world. Were
other people outside your family starting to recognize celebrate your
(17:29):
being Filipino American in the NBA? And if it wasn't,
then when do you think that started? That recognition of
your of your roots as a Filipino American. It never
existed back and that day in the mid seventies. And
if you think about first of all, there was a
lot of subtle racism back then. It was only black
or white. Nobody cared about Asians, mexicans'n care because the
(17:53):
whole league was either black or white. And to be
honest with you, prenominantly black and me running around with
the big Afro help. I told everybody I was Filipino,
and nobody believed me because all of our all Americans
at Uclay were black, and we had black in our family.
We have a lot of Filipino family members that married
(18:14):
into black families, so we have a black constituency, probably
have sixty seventy black Filipinos. So nobody really knew. And
I could tell you till I'm blue in the face,
no I'm Filipino. But Sports Illustrated, it's a good example,
came out with an article we were on the front
page and says the Golden State Warriors, one of the
new teams in the New Movement, have a head coach,
(18:36):
two assistants, and they were all black. They showed the
whole bench and they said eleven black players and one
white player. And the white player I knew wasn't me.
It was Tom abertin Atty from Indiana. He was sitting
at the end of the bench and I was in
the midst of the middle. And I even told him,
I said, no, no, we're all black. When one Filipino
(18:57):
and one you know, white player, and they're gonna, no,
you're black. And so they never ever changed the article.
So I could stand on the mountaintop and tell you
I was Filipino. But you have to understand at that time,
there were no Filipino basketball players, and there were some
great Filipino basketball players, and you know, I say this
very sincerely, a lot of great Filipino you know, I'm
(19:21):
talking about Robert Jaworski, you know, Moan Fernandez, some of
these great great Filipino basketball players. These guys had a
life of hard work success, they earned their their great reputations.
And not many Filipinos wanted to come over to the
United States and try it with an YNVA team, because
(19:43):
then if you don't make it, now, all of a sudden,
you're the greatest Filipino or ever played basketball and the
Philippines but got cut by so and so back in,
nobody wanted to risk that. I still feel, and I
speak this very strong, I still feel there'll be a
Filipino born athlete. But I really think they need to
(20:06):
come over to America, play to Kansas, a DUCA, Kentucky,
and there's players out there that can do these things,
but they've got to like step out and get into
something that's risky, but be on TV every day. And
you know, gratefully, thirty eight years later, I carried that
torch for thirty eight years, and now you know, we
(20:27):
got Jordan and Jaylen, but still everybody's waiting for the
first Filipino born Filipino to make the NBA, and I
think we're knocking on that door. We'll get back to
that MBA dream in episode six, but this episode is
about right here, right now, the Filipinos and the Filipino
(20:50):
Americans who made it to the NBA in one way
or another. Up next, we're talking to Miami Heat coach
Eric's Folstruck. Let me ask you something, Nico, do you
(21:11):
think that maybe we meaning the NBA's devoted Filipino fan
base take erik'sposture for granted, that's a little too strong
for what I mean. I guess do you think we
should celebrate spoke the first Filipino American head coach at
NBA history, who has led the Miami Heat to five
NBA Finals appearances and two championships, even more than we
(21:31):
already do. I mean, we get so wrapped up in
the ups and downs of Jalen Green and Jordan Clarkson's
career as Jalen shows flashes of becoming a brilliant scorer
for the Rockets and Jordan shines in a new role
as a starter for the surprising Jazz this season, and
then we always are looking out for who's next the
next Filipino American prospect with MBA size and potential, or
(21:52):
who has the best chance to become the first NBA
player born and raised in the Philippines. Meanwhile, a guy
who'd be on the short for the best NBA coaches
of the last ten years is Filipino. Gives Spo his flowers,
Now give him your nickname, Filipino Jackson. You are preaching
to the choir, sister. I am as much of a
(22:16):
defender of how we should just throw love at Filipino
Jackson every single day. But at the same time I
understand how that can happen with coach Spo for starters,
he's just naturally so low key, and he and pat
Riley run such a tight ship in Miami that some
years it feels like the entire regular season passes with
(22:38):
fans clinging to every trade rumor every scoop about tension
between two star players on this or that team, and
the occasional wild story where a bowl of chicken tortilla
soup gets hurled across the locker room and the heat
are never in fall. Then the playoffs roll around, and
all of a sudden, they're Spo and Jimmy Butler and
bam Adebayo and the rest of the Heat back in
(22:59):
the mix with a chance to go to the finals.
For a town as wild and glamorous as Miami, the
Heat are strictly business. And you know, future Hall of
Famer Eric Spoelstra likes it that way. And also we
say it all the time. The NBA is a players league,
and it should be. Of course, every team needs a
(23:20):
great coaching staff to be successful and a front office
to support them and all the rest of the people
up and down the franchise who enable the players to
perform at their best. But when winning time rolls around,
it's the players out there on the floor. So yes,
one of the very best coaches in the league is Filipino.
But there will always be more interest in the players.
(23:41):
That's just the nature of things. I guess. When we
were growing up and learning to play and love the game,
we dreamed of making game winning buzzer beaters and dunking
on fast breaks, not orchestrating the action from the sideline.
And I'd bet anything Spo wouldn't want things any other
way he was a player first too, Nico, You're just
reminded me of an incredible Philippine basketball What if? Do
(24:04):
you remember how Spo said he almost moved to Manila
after finishing his college career at the University of Portland.
How good would Spo have been if he came to
the PBA in nineteen ninety three, Oh, with his resume,
Spoke would have been a transformational player in the PBA.
He was a four year starter at the Division one
level six foot three point guard. That's huge for the PBA.
(24:28):
Six foot three point guard who still number four on
the Portland Pilot's all time assist list. He would have
been one of the biggest playmakers in the league and
could have guarded any position except center. It might have
taken Spo some time to adjust to the rough and
tumble style of nineties PBA basketball and also to figure
out the right balance of scoring and playmaking for the league,
(24:49):
because the PBA team would absolutely expect the guy with
the one pettigree to just put up scoring numbers. Those
hard nosed coaches would be ready to strangle Spo if
he just went out there trying to play like a
glue guy. You really had to be aggressive. But would
spose basketball mind. I'm sure he would have figured it out.
To me, though, this what if isn't about whether Spo
(25:10):
would have been a PBA All Star or a PBA
Hall of Famer. It's about all the things that might
never have happened if he had been leading the I
don't know Sun Miguel Berman to an All Filipino Cup
title in nineteen ninety five instead of getting his foot
in the door with the Miami Heat organization as a
video coordinator. Maybe we would have gained a Philippine basketball
(25:31):
legend if Spo had played in the PBA. But at
the same time, we probably would have lost the first
Filipino NBA head coach because Spo, the PBA superstar was
unlikely to get back on track to become Spo the
leader who would win back to back championships with Lebron James,
Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh. It hurts my head to think
(25:52):
about it. The heatles without Spo. I mean, we're talking
about rewriting an essential chapter in NBA history. Would you
take that trade off? I mean, who cares what I think?
Let's ask it's a it's a big regret of mine.
I don't have any regrets other than that. And that
was always a plan. I mean, since I was a
small kid, my family over there would always send VHS
(26:16):
tapes of the PBA, and so I was familiar with
the PBA. And you know Billy rate Bates who was
a legend over there. He actually played for the Portland
Trailblazers and he was kind of a two year legend
in Portland where they still talk about him while he
finished his career in the Philippines. So I felt a
(26:36):
connection to Billy rate Bates, but also to the PBA.
I followed it. I always had him back in my
mind that I would go play there after college. That
was kind of a bigger goal of mine than to
try to play in the NBA. And then my course
shifted and I ended up playing in Germany for a
couple of years, and I thought I would just barnstorm
around Europe for you know, five years, and then finished
(26:59):
up playing in the PBA. And I remember during the
off season I met with Jim Kelly, who was now
a scout and longtime scout in the NBA, and he
tried to recruit me over there, and I was going
to sign, and I just pushed it off because I
wanted to travel the world first. And then I ended
up getting the opportunity with the heat and so I
never had that opportunity to go back to the PBA,
but I was always a fan. And then when I
(27:21):
had the opportunity my first year going with the NBA
to do the clinics, that's when I had an opportunity
to meet Tim Coombe, and I'd already knew who he was.
He was a legendary coach over there. He's like the
equivalent to pat Riley and Phil Jackson combined and Pop,
you know, basically all three guys. That's his reputation over there.
(27:41):
And so I was able to meet with him and
we struck a friendship that still goes to this day.
You are a legendary coach in the NBA, one of
the all time great coaches here in the States, but
or in the Philippines. You're like Michael Jackson, you know,
Michael Jordan's status, like crowds probably following you. I mean,
(28:04):
if I were to say that, or you were to
mention that in my household, my mother would just roll
her eyes that. Oh yeah, you're famous. She doesn't want
to hear that or people call me coach SPO. I
remember we won our first championship, and you know, I've
been called many worst things, but coach SPO is I
think the people would call me. And then over there
(28:24):
they made up T shirts and everything. My family sent
some to my mom when she was rolling her eyes
about that. But when we won our first championship, the
celebration here in Miami, and then immediately I flew to Portland,
Oregon to visit my family. That's where I'm from, and
we went on vacation, and right as I walked into
the place where we were staying, my mom had a
place on the floor with a nice sign with all
(28:47):
the T shirts that said Coach SPO's spot. And that's
where I had to stay, is on the floor for
the whole vacation. So she doesn't want to hear about that,
Like if people think I'm famous over there, you know,
she would prefer that I stay under the radar and
everything we asked Coach Spolstra. Now, out of respect for
his mother, I will resist calling him coach SPO about
(29:07):
the craziest experience he had while visiting the Philippines. Yeah,
we had some wild experiences. I remember one time, you know,
we were doing clinics all over Manila and outside of Manila,
and we just basically made an agreement that hey, we're
gonna be here for ten days or two weeks. We
want to do as much as we possibly can to
give back, and so if that meant we got to
wake up at six thirty, hit the first bus to
get you know, it would take us two hours to
(29:29):
get anywhere, even if it was only ten miles away,
and we would try to stack maybe three, four five
clinics in a day. We'd finish up after dinner, but
a lot of times they were usually like two or
three hundred kids. Yeah, that's it, God, sure, God Yes.
(29:49):
And then we went outside of Manila and we showed
up one place and there must have been eight to
ten thousand people there, and probably there's thousands of kids.
So we pull up in the bus or rocking our
bus and everything, and the coaching staff and the NBA
staff we get off the bus and there's no way
security could stop them. So somehow we tried to carve
(30:11):
out a court and do a clinic with the kids,
and then as soon as we were done with the clinic,
they just swarmed us and they just wanted pictures, selfies
and autographs from everybody on the staff and my staff
and the NBA staff. And it got to the point
where Fizz and my other assistant, Chad camer were signing
kids foreheads. They didn't even have pieces of paper, there
(30:34):
was nothing to sign, so we had penns and sharpies.
They're just signing kids heads. But it was a blast.
We have some really cool pictures. In the middle. It's
like try to find Waldo, myself or anybody on our
staff and a sea of thousands of people. But that's
why I wanted to invite, you know, staff members to
come over and really experience it that it is more
(30:54):
than a sport. It's like a religion over there. The
fan base is really incredible. Thank you so much hospitality
here and is welcome. It's really overwhelming. We were not
expecting this. I'm very humble to be here. They love
the Lakers and the Celtics. We've gotten them now to
(31:16):
really love the Miami Heat and that's been a really
cool part of it. So I wanted everybody to really
kind of understand that, and I basically made an agreement
with NBA that will do this every year. We'll do
as many clinics as you possibly want, but there's going
to be some people in charge. My cousin Hannah, who
grew up in the Philippines and then she came over
(31:38):
her high school, the family and college and now she
still lives in the States and their family, but she
would be the point person. So anybody wanted me to
do anything, you had to talk to my cousin Hannah,
and then my uncle Tony, her dad. He basically was
or is the patriarch of that side of the family.
And every trip would end where we'd have to drive
(32:02):
an hour and a half to Laguna, where my mother
is from, and we would have a big party at
my uncle Tony and Titaminda's house where roasted pig and everybody.
But it was mandatory that everybody had to go on
that trip, and he had to get on the bus
and go I dour and a half to three hours
to get there, and we would just have an amazing party.
My uncle Tony does his own spread with pig and
(32:24):
lumpia pen set everything, and then he has a small
coconut farm, so he makes this coconut moonshine. Everybody has
to drink it, and it was really fun to be
able to have my staff come out there and then
the entire international NBA staff would climb on these buses,
and that was part of the agreement, you know, to
(32:46):
travel there and have an awesome party at the end
of the week. Basketball is a very famous sport here
as compared to footballer b spot that right there is
Fatima Fatstlenttito, former player of the Rate University of the
Philippines and the women's national team. So when we heard
that he was going to talk to us and teach us,
(33:08):
we were all excited because not only because he's a
head coach in the NBA, but also because he's Filipino,
So I guess we have that sort of connection. That's
why we were so interested and excited to get to
know him thet What does it mean to you to
be the first Filipino head coach, really, the first Asian
head coach in North American sports? At first, I didn't
(33:32):
think anything of it, really because when I got the opportunity,
I was thirty seven years old and I didn't really
think I was ready anyway. Pat kind of had to
push me and tell me to get my sh i together,
and you know this is the direction we're going, So
wrapped your mind around and get ready for the press. Confidence.
(33:54):
So I was kind of in my head more insecure
and thinking that I needed more experience. But I think
subconsciously I probably knew in the back of my mind, like,
all right, I felt like I didn't have experience. I
also felt somewhere subconsciously that I didn't look like your
typical NBA head coach. I wasn't an older veteran coach,
(34:18):
wasn't white. You don't really know what box to put
me in. And I probably looked a lot younger than
even thirty seven. So I just knew subconsciously that I
didn't look the part, and that kind of messes with
you a little bit. And then my family started to
tell me that I was the first Asian coach and
the first Filipino head coach in any sport, and then
(34:39):
it became a source of pride. You know that you
can take a different path, you can look different, you
don't have to look like the stereotypical whatever square jaw
head coach looks like, and you can still perform and
be a caretaker for your organization. And that's what I
took pride in And if that opened some eyes and doors,
(35:01):
you know, for somebody else who has a dream that
may be Asian or maybe a different ethnicity, or even
a female, you don't have to look and be the stereotype.
And I think that helped me find a deeper sense
of purpose, you know, for myself in this coaching profession,
where it wasn't just about doing the job and just
trying to get wins. It became about taking the baton
(35:23):
and you know, hopefully changing perceptions. The passion for basketball
is so amazing in the Philippines, and what you hope
for is that young kids cannot put limits on what
their dreams may be. And so if they see more
role models and see more possibilities of what could be
(35:45):
and it maybe you know, to be an NBA player,
you know, like Jordan Clarkson or Green, but it also
may be a dream just to work in NBA, to
work for the NBA main offices, to work in NBA International,
to be able to work in the video room, you know, somewhere,
to be involved somehow, some way in this great association
(36:08):
that there are so many different opportunities and possibilities now,
and hopefully like you and I, you know, and everybody
else can kind of pull back the curtain and for
kids that may have just been fans before, they may
be able to think bigger now, bigger possibilities that, Hey,
I can be a part of that association and it
can be a lifetime of opportunities. That's the way I
(36:30):
look at this the NBA, no matter what our jobs are,
we're doing what we'd love to do. I mean, this
round ball and ninety four feet in two baskets allow
us to travel the world, to be able to play
and compete in the best arenas with the best fan
base in the world. And you know, now we're able
(36:50):
to share these experiences with so many different kids of
this new younger generation. Hey, if we could be partial
contributors to being dreammakers, I'm all four, all right, I
(37:12):
think it's time to address the elephant in the road.
So far, we've covered the figures who made history as
the NBA's first Filipino American player and coach. But there's
one more piece of this story that remains incomplete. For
a country that likes to think of itself as a
global leader. When it comes to basketball's cultural imprint, the
Philippines has never never produced an NBA player was born
(37:37):
and raised in the country, and throughout the nation's long
history of playing the sport, it's been easy to point
to one reason why there still hasn't been a homegrown
Filipino player in the league. Height. For the most part,
that reasoning holds at the highest level. Height and length matter.
Who's the current NBA draft prospect that scouts think has
a chance to create an entirely new geometry of it's
(38:00):
possible on an NBA floor Victor Wimbanyama, the seven foot
four prodigy from France. Meanwhile, you can still find back
to the basket big men in today's PBA who stand about,
I don't know, six feet four inches tall. Don't get
me wrong, these are incredibly skilled players, some of whom
flash the kind of low post footwork that hasn't existed
(38:20):
in the NBA since the days of Kevin McHale. But
a six four center who likes to operate within fifteen
feet of the basket and is shorter than several NBA
point guards not a recipe for success, and the spaced
out modern NBA, where many of the most successful teams
emphasized attributes like speed, length, and of course, three point shooting.
(38:42):
But here's the thing. Of all the players throughout Philippine
basketball history who've explored the possibility of trying to make
the NBA, only one had a real training camp offer
from a team, and it wasn't one of the handful
of skilled big men six ft nine and above that
the Philippines has produced. No by all accounts, the local
(39:02):
player who had the best chance of anyone to date
of making an NBA roster, who, as a story goes,
chose the security of his PBA career over a training
camp invite, was the smallest MVP in PPA history, five
foot seven Johnny Abarrientos, also known as the Flying A
or just Johnny A. Here do me a favor and
(39:25):
read off some of his accomplishments, some meaning that there's
more than Johnny A's body of work dependss. If I
gave you his entire Hall of Fame resume, we'd be
(39:45):
here all day, believe me, all right? Here goes um
member of twelve PBA championship teams, YEP two time PBA
Finals MVP, two time nineteen ninety six PBA Most Valuable
Player shortest ever Best Player of the Conference award for
the nineteen ninety seven Commissioners Cup. You bet six time? Wait, Nico,
(40:12):
what's a mythical team? Oh? Yeah, about that? That's just
what we in the Philippines call our all league team.
Say all NBA instead of saying all PBA, we say
mythical team. Um okay, So I do love how we
find a way to put some completely unnecessary but still
fabulous Filipino flair onto perfectly functional categories like all PBA teams. Hey,
(40:37):
it's just like that old tourism slogan goes, it is
more fun in the Philippines. Although although I do like
your version of it is more fabulous in the Philippines,
I think that applies better. Okay, back to the show.
Otherwise I've never going to finish the store of Johnny
A's trophy case. So six time PBA Mythical First Team,
(40:58):
six one time PBA Mythical Second Team, robbed, eight time
PBA All Star h see, that's a simple name. Five
time PBA All Defensive Team at five seven PBA All
time steals leader with one thousand, three hundred and fifty eight.
His career average of one point eight three steals per
(41:20):
game is higher than any other player on the top
twenty all time list. You Bet named one of the
PBA's Top twenty five Greatest players during the league's twenty
fifth anniversary celebrations. M Original Idea named one of the
PBA's Top forty greatest players during the league's forty anniversary celebration.
Current wait till the fiftieth. But okay, and stop me
(41:42):
if you've heard this before. Shortest MVP in PBA history
seven five ft seven on a good day. All right,
that's it, I think. Let me catch my breath now,
But I get the point. This overwhelming list of achievements
means that Johnny A was a very bad slash good
man on the court. That's exactly the thing. The resume
(42:06):
is only the tip of the iceberg, though. His greatness
really comes into focus when you hear the way Johnny's
peers talked about playing with and against him, Like the
Hall of Famer Jeff the Jet Caryasso, Johnny's teammate from
the Alaska ass You know, he could be the leader,
he could be the guy that's running the show. But
at the same time MVP from day one, from his
(42:27):
first year, he's already you know, established as the up
and coming point guard and you know everyone is talking
about him already and how especially is but it you know,
when you get two or three years of experience under
your belt, you know you get someone that that's you know,
going to be a future Hall of Famer. And we
knew that during that time. So when you see him play,
(42:47):
you know, the first time I heard this description about
you know, basketball and it being a group of five
kind of being in the same motion was Coach Tim
described in our triangle as like a dance. You know,
you all got to be, you know, working together and
dancing together, or it's just gonna it's not gonna look good,
it's not gonna work. So that's already described Johnny. Just
(43:09):
when he was playing out there, it was like on
his own. He was kind of just dancing, you know,
on a different mode. While everyone is either going super
slow or super fast. He's kind of taking his time
and just those want attack, those want to slow down.
He just out there on a different level. And you
noticed that already. Noticing me being a player, one thing
that stood up for me also is the fact that
(43:32):
he just made everyone look good. Just run the floor,
wings and I get to the ball, set a good screen,
bigs and roll and I get to the ball and
you get an easy too. So yeah, that's why you special.
Every day in practice, Tea made say he would make
a play or three that would make a team full
of other professional athletes stop dead in the tracks and
(43:53):
look at each other like, did Johnny really just do that?
He'd go weeks, they say, without missing a jump shot
in drill imports, you know, the foreign reinforcements to get
flown in and paid extra to be the best players
on the floor. They called Johnny the best player on
the floor every time he suited up for the Alaska
Aces in his prime, he routinely inspired awe and the
(44:14):
hardest audience to impress fellow pro ball players. When you
ask Johnny's contemporaries to name one of his weaknesses, they're
genuinely stopped. His playmaking, his creativity with a ball, shooting,
his defense, even his rebounding. At five to seven, often
the smallest guy on the court, he was pulling down
close to five boards per game at the point guard spot.
(44:37):
Throughout his late nineties, prime. There was nothing that guy
couldn't do on a basketball court. Conventional wisdom might lead
you to name height as a weakness, but good luck
finding many examples of opponents who would be able to
exploit Johnny's short stature. I know, I know, I'm gushing
over here, but let me get off one more thoughts,
just one more. It wasn't just Johnny A's talent that
(45:00):
left fans and fellow PBA players calling him the best
point guard in league history. He was also a born winner,
the most important player on the most dominant PBA dynasty
the league had ever seen. Starting with a nineteen ninety
four Governors Cup, Johnny A's Alaska aces appeared in the
finals of every PBA conference but one for the next
(45:20):
four years. In PBA years, that's eleven finals appearances in
twelve tries, with an eight three record in the finals
for eight total championships in four years. That's just staggering.
I mean, yeah, when you put it that way, I
guess it's not that surprising that MBA scouts would catch
wind of this little guy in Manila who they needed
(45:43):
to see and the situation in which an MBA franchise
recruited Johnny A made sense. It was nineteen ninety seven,
right after Johnny's MVP season, and an international scout named
Joe Bettencourt, who worked with the Charlotte Hornets, believed that
Johnny just might be able to fill the hole in
Charlotte's rotation left by five foot three point guard Muggsy Bogues,
(46:05):
who was battling knee injuries at that point in his career.
Us Muggsie the crowd. Bettencourt's theory was that if Johnny
could translate his game to the NBA, he'd fit right
into Muggsie's role when Bogus was off the floor. Similar
in height, speeds, smarts, leadership abilities, and an ability to
(46:29):
single handedly prevent opposing teams from getting into their offense
with their ball hawking defense, the scout envisioned Johnny A
as the ready made replacement in case Muggsie's recovery from
knee surgery took longer than expected. Bettencourt discussed the possibility
of Johnny A coming over two different times that season. First,
(46:49):
he tried to set Johnny up with an invite to
Hornet's training camp, but for the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player,
putting his Philippine career on pause for a couple months
to go try out in Charlotte with no guarantee of
landing an MBA contract, was too risky to pursue. Once
the NBA season began, Bencourt flew back to Manila and
proposed another idea sign a ten day contract to jump
(47:12):
right into the Hornet's roster. Now NBA fans know that
a ten day deal is far from a sure path
to a long MBA career, but Johnny A and the
Alaska franchise were ready to accept the offer. What's the
worst that could happen? Johnny doesn't make it in the league,
and he flies home to Manila after a couple of
weeks as not just the first born and raised Filipino
to make the MBA, but the league's first player from
(47:35):
all of Asia. Yeah, I'll take that deal. Unfortunately, it
never quite came together. But Johnny A's teammates remember just
how close he was to writing his name in the
MBA history books, and to hear guys like his former
backcourt partner Jeff Carriasso tell it, Johnny might have lasted
more than just ten days in the league. Would he
(47:56):
have done well? I think so what did it have
been tremendous challenge on his end? I would say, I
think so awesome, because you know, there are a lot
of good players. There are a lot of good guys
who were three or four intis taller than him, but
just as quick, you know, longer arms, get pressures of
wall like he does. But would he have been able
to kind of handle his own a little bit? I
(48:17):
say yes, he was that talented where you know you
really have to take a second look at him. To me,
that says a lot. And would he have gone there
and killed it right from the get go? That would
have been a challenge. That would be asking for a lot,
to be honest with you, but to be out there
and compete and to be able to kind of handle
yourself a little bit and be able to show kiss
what you have for sure, no question. And if he
(48:39):
had that opportunity with a little bit of a time,
then who knows what could have happened. Dang, we're talking
about what answer earlier? Well, what if Johnny A Had
actually taken the leap and made it onto the Hornet's
roster in ninety seven? Imagine a Filipino point guard and
those classic purple and teel uniforms. What do you think
(49:00):
have just flown over for training camp instead of waiting
for that ten day contract. I mean, judging by that
list of achievements, he would like seven more championships between
nineteen ninety seven and the end of his career. So
Johnny probably doesn't have much to regret. Well, that's true,
and although it does sound like Charlotte was genuinely interested
in giving Johnny a look, and Scott's like Bencourt, must
(49:20):
have believed he really did have what it took to
succeed in the NBA. But a camp invite isn't a
guaranteed contract, which is what he already had in Manila,
where he was the reigning PBA MVP at the height
of his powers. That's tough to walk away from without
a guaranteed deal. Also, the NBA still hadn't truly welcomed
international talent at that point in time. Durk Navitsky hadn't
(49:43):
even been drafted yet, there had never been a player
from Asia in the league. Yaoming was still eight years away. Nowadays,
I think a player in Johnny's position would be more
likely to take that chance because there are so many
other athletes from around the world thriving in the NBA
and plus, Johnny's brush with history almost feels more legendary
(50:04):
because he didn't go to Charlotte. He's this mythical Filipino
point guard who came closer than any of his countrymen
before or since to making an NBA roster, and that
means he left the generations of players coming up behind
him with a goal to pick up where he left
off and finished what Johnny a started. It's been twenty
(50:24):
five years since Johnny earned that shot. Now it's time
for the Philippines next great talent to step up. Jas
God gifted me with. If he gifted me with anything,
it was a great sense of humor and a jumper.
Raymond Townsend. A lot of basketball fans might not know
that name, but for the Filipino American community and Filipino's
back home, he's a legend up there with Bill Russell,
Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, all the pioneers and icons who
(00:23):
gave the NBA a foundation to grow into the global
league it is today. Raymond Townsend, a six three guard
from San Jose, California, is the first Filipino player in
NBA history before Jalen Green came along and became the
first Filipino lottery pick in NBA history. Rip the second
pick in the two twenty one NBA Draft, the Houston
(00:46):
Rockets select Jalen Green and Jordan Clarkson became the first
Filipino player to win the NBA's six Man of the
Year award. Clarks had doubled with two, now triple. Clarks
had asked to hoist it. They're gonna call a foul
and count the basket. Raymond Townsend carried the torch Filipinos
all over the world who grew up dreaming of playing
basketball at the highest level, looked up to him, and
(01:09):
that's what this episode is all about, the NBA dream.
We're going to be talking with the Filipino Trailblazers who
were the first players and coaches to break into the NBA,
as well as telling the story of an all time
great from the PBA who almost became the first player
born and raised in the Philippines to make it to
the league. Welcome to episode five of Hoops Paradise. The
(01:32):
Philippines love of the game basketball were all right, Nico,
can we compare notes real quick on the Filipino American
experience here in the States versus the experience in the Philippines. Basically,
(01:54):
I'm wondering if, for as long as you can remember,
everyone in your extended family has been able to name
seemingly every Filipino celebrity in Hollywood and professional sports. Are
you kidding? Of course, we know all the Pinois who
even made the slightest impact on US pop culture. One
because for a long time, there weren't a lot of them, right,
(02:15):
And two because it's almost like an unspoken requirement of
Philippine citizenship. But we identify any public figure anywhere in
the world with even the slightest, smallest Filipino roots and
then claim them as some sort of honorary national hero,
exactly like the average American moviegoers saw eighties classics like
La Bamba or Stand in Deliver and thought Lou Diamond
(02:37):
Phillips was Mexican American, but not us because there was
always a cousin or Auntie Ordita or Lola nearby to
interrupt the movie and say, you know he's Filipino. You
know ye Yan yan yan, and you know yan Blue
Diamond Phillips. Tia Carere, who inspired about a billion crushes
(03:00):
with her roles in Wayne's World one and two classics.
By the way, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, we
really caught a break with her being the star of
the group Star. And then there's Apple d App of
the Black Eyed Peas the group let him record one
song in Tagalog aka Cassidy Hubbert's favorite song of all
time time. BeBot is a showstopper at every Filipino wedding
(03:23):
in the States, or at least all the ones I've
been at. I think, Cassidy, we are about a year
away from having the pull for that song to be
played anytime you walk onto any NBA arena. As soon
as you walk in, they just have to blast bebbot.
I mean we already. No, it doesn't even need to play.
I say it to any Filipino I see, I just
start singing it like a crazy person and look, like
(03:45):
I said, not just at weddings. It is a staple,
not just in my house, but in NBA arenas, especially
when franchises hold Filipino American heritage. Nice. That's jail And
Green guard for the Houston Rockets at Filipino Heritage Night,
(04:07):
talking about the support he gets from Filipino fans. Filipino
fans have been rooting for jail And Green's basketball career
since he was a sophomore in high school. Yes, high school.
Who's your guys favorite player in the NBA. Uh, he's
(04:29):
your favorite player in the NBA. Uh it's Green. Of course,
it's Green from Houston Rockets. Since Green is one of
the best players in the Philippines. It's really uh. What
called this a pride for us to represent Philippines in
the big league like the NBA and the Utah Jazz Is.
(04:51):
Jordan Clarkson echoed that same sentiment at the twenty twenty
three NBA All Star Weekend talking about the support he
gets from Filipino fans and how proud he is to
be Filipino. I really always appreciate and a lot of
support Philippines have gave me since I've been in the league,
and you know, since I men on my hoop journey
(05:13):
and I'm proud wear it every day. I got my
grandma chattering on my heart. She Filipino. You know how
we do, man, Filipino blood. Till the end, we're throwing
the sandals off and we barefoot. We get straight to
the hoop and the Philippines. Man. By the way, I
know you know this, but we also claim Vanessa Hutchins,
(05:35):
the former MTV VJ Vanessa Manilo, who's yes, married to
that you know boy band guy from ninety eight degrees.
And for a while everyone was convinced that Rachel Bilson,
the actress who started in the OC, was half Filipino.
But kind of turns out she's not. No, I don't know.
I'm still investigating that one. Still want that one to
be true. Right. We also all know that nineties Saturday
(05:57):
Night Live funny man Rob Schneider is half Foy. Of course,
it is like they taught it in Sunday school or something.
Everybody knows, yet none of us are quite sure how
or why. The same goal as for former pro wrestler
turned Marvel avenger Dave Batista. Right. And even though these
examples are probably dead giveaways that we're a couple aging
(06:19):
nineties kids, we can't forget the younger generation of Filipino
American entertainers and artists like Sweetie and the Grammy Award
winning R and B singer Her who just played Belle
in Disney's thirtieth anniversary special remake of Beauty and the Beast. Anyway,
to get back to the point here, I'm wondering what
has happened when the Philippine appetite for representation has collided
(06:42):
with our passion for NBA basketball over the years. The
first was real, by the way, your shot at our
collective ages felt that one a little bit. But also
me and Cassidy people are the first to tell you
Olivia Rodrigo, Yeah, our girl, Olivia, Yeah, got that got.
(07:02):
She may be a gen zer and we may be
some cheriatric millennials, but we wrap her hard. Yeah. Absolutely,
now before Jordan Clarkson debuted with the Lakers of all
teams in twenty fourteen, Jeremy kicks at the Clarkson timeout.
See what I mean about Clarkson. I jail right away
that this is a guy that understands the game and
(07:24):
he's not afraid and gave Filipinos all around the world
one of our own to root for for the first
time since Raymond Tausend retired in nineteen eighty two. We
were on the hunt for any connections to the league
we could find. When stars like Jon Rondo and Wayne
Wade slash of the basket and scored using footwork and
touch and deception ways that reminded us of the PBA,
(07:47):
we treated it almost like a moral victory and joke
that Rondo and d Wade must be bussom PINOI or
Filipino at heart. When Nate Robinson's mom mentioned to a
reporter that her grandfather had been Filipino, it sparked a
rumor that the five foot nine, two times slamdown chap
who would go off for forty on any given night,
(08:08):
was one eighth Filipino. By the way, more than enough
in mind yea, we claimed claim yeah, even though as
far as I'm aware, no one ever did the legwork
to truly confirm Nate Spinoy roots by following up with
his mom, learning her grandfather's name, and tracking down his
birth certificate or relatives in the Philippines. And you know,
to be honest, why bother a short guy who could
(08:32):
score in bunches, played with a ton of emotion, and
had crazy hops. There's a version of that player in
every barangay in the Philippines and in every Filipino neighborhood
in the States. We even have a beloved newspaper reporter
and PBA TV analysts who calls himself the Dean mister KENNETHA. Henson,
who's made a cottage industry out of reporting on any
(08:54):
connection between Filipinos and the NBA that you can possibly imagine.
Shout out to Dan I loved him, Atita from Zimbalist Province,
who migrated to New England and found a job in
the accounting department of the Boston Celtics. The Filipino American
photographer who Jordan Pool trusts to snap action shots at
games so the Warriors guard can post them to social
(09:16):
media after the final Buzzer, the tailor on Passy Road
in Makati City, or Dell Demps, the former San Antonio
Spurs front office figure who also played as an important
the PBA for teams like seven up Encola's would order
custom made suits for himself and Spurs guard Bruce Bowen
to where it to NBA games. We'd read about these
(09:36):
tiny connections between our world and the NBA in the
Dean's columns, and no matter how trivial they might have
seemed from an outsider's perspective, they resonated with Filipino readers
of what basketball means, saw us and with the NBA
represents for all basketball fans all over the world. Anyway
that we could trace a line from our hoops, met Archipela,
(09:58):
go back to the league where Robertson, Larry Bird, Magic, Michael,
and Lebron played. Because all the validation we needed preach Nico.
I mean, we out here. You may have to search
a little bit, but we out here. And if that
doesn't set up our conversation with Raymond Townsend, I don't
know what will. But the incredible thing about his story
(10:19):
as the first Filipino player in NBA history is that
he came along at a time when Filipino American identity
wasn't as widely understood as it is today. I could
stand on the mountaintop and tell you I was Filipino,
but you have to understand at that time, there were
no Filipino basketball players. Even though Raymond's mom served Lupia
and ponsitt to legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. When the
(10:42):
Wizard of Westwood visited the Townsend family home in San
Jose to recruit Raymond out of high school, barely anyone
outside of their immediate family thought of Raymond as Filipino.
It was the seventies and Raymond was by Rachel Waras
Haren and Afro, and most Americans just saw him as black.
Raymond had a basketball career that wouldn't make anyone proud.
(11:02):
He won an NCAA championship playing for John Wooden at
UCLA and got selected by the Golden State Warriors with
the final pick in the first round of the nineteen
seventy eight NBA draft. He played three seasons in the
NBA with the Warriors and then the Indiana Pacers, averaging
about five points per game as a backup point guard,
and then he went on to play three more seasons
(11:24):
of pro ball in Italy. But it wasn't until long
after that that the NBA's first Filipino was truly recognized
for his contributions to the game. I was really fortunate
with being recruited. You have to understand, I was averaging
twenty nine points a game without a three pointer. God
gifted me. If he gifted me with anything, it was
(11:44):
a great sense of humor and a jumper. And I
loved for my family, and my journey started real early
because we had five kids in one room, eight hundred
square foot home. A Raymond's family didn't have the money
to pay for week long basketball camps, so he worked
as a cook at basketball clinics and camps just so
he could attend. I was serving on breakfast. I was
(12:06):
cleaning up after him. I was pretty humble cockey, but
when they asked me for kool aid or whatever, meant
I was filling up their cups or refills or going
to do this. And then I wasn't able to participate
in the camp until after I washed the dishes and
did that. And I didn't do that three meals a
day because I couldn't afford the fees to go to
these one week camps, but by the third day there
(12:28):
were guys. Coach Wooden I was at Maryland at that time,
Marquette al McGuire. Maryland was big duke. Everybody was there
by the third day because this was the place to
be in California for the players. They found out that
the cook was a pretty good players a sophomore, so
for about two or three years played in the best
(12:49):
league in northern California, Archbishop Mity High School. I was
working out with Santa Clair University Sandsey State varsity players
as a sophomore in high school, I didn't want to
be a good player. I used to tell everybody there's
millions of good players. I wanted to be great, And
because I was humble, I appreciated everything my mom and
(13:10):
dad opened up for me, which never gave me a
sense of entitlement. You know. I had to serve people
as the way I had to get a hit. Once
I was on the radar, it was kind of a
done deal and it it just snowbold after that. And
it's kind of funny, even though it was one hundred
and twenty five UCLA wasn't one of those picks yet.
(13:32):
It was everybody but UCLA. And UCLA came in about
the last two weeks. We had a game in a gym.
It was filled up two thousand capacity. There were fifteen
hundred people outside with speakers. It was just an unreal
environment for back in the mid seventies. I ended up
(13:52):
having like thirty eight. I had a triple double and
just turned it out and UCLA happened to be there,
so and what ended up happening is obviously Coach Wooden
came to my house a week later and Mom and
Dad they were you know, we had Filipino, we had
pounds it, we had chicken adobo, we had yeah, we
(14:14):
had everything for Coach Wooden. We all had our assigned
seats were my brother and my three sisters. I'm the eldest.
And the minute Coach walked in, he really could have
just given me a paper and just said, you know
what we want you to sign, and I would have
signed immediately, but instead he checked out my integrity. His
(14:37):
first words were, you know, Raymond, we respect your ability.
We run a program of honesty and integrity, you know,
And you don't hear people talk like this. He goes,
we run a program of honesty and integrity, and I
want to be honest with you. Even though we've won
nine championships in eleven years, you're not my number one pick?
Are you okay with that? And he being the cocky
(15:02):
high school kid, I like, coach, no disrespect, but who's
your number one pick? He goes, well, you're averaging twenty
nine points a game without you know, we had no. Three,
but there's a guy in LA that we want, but
we figure he's averaging thirty nine a game, so if
we can get you and him. He goes, at sixty
eight points, we think you could be one of the
(15:23):
top UCLA backcourts in the history of our school. And
I said, okay, what's his name? And he told me
his name and I said okay. And then he said
something interesting. He said mind you. He goes, you're okay
with not being my number one? I said yes, Sir,
I said I will be eventually. And he said, but
(15:44):
mind you, I'm going to recruit fourteen other All Americans
every year, So are you okay with that? I said, yeah, Coach,
bring them on. I also need to hear a deep
dive on John Wooden's Filipino dinner at the Townsend Household, Like,
what kind of what's it? The Raymond's mom cock, Because
there's a world of difference between the goat and hard,
(16:06):
which is pretty much garbage. I mean, where did she
even get the ingredients? There wasn't no seafood City back then.
What else was on the menu? Like what did the
Wizard of Westwood like the most? I mean, duh, it's
gotta be lumpia. It's always lumpia, all right, let's just
find out. You know, it's funny. See, he wasn't really
(16:27):
exposed to it because there were no other Filipinos ever
came through, and Coach wood was so humble. He stayed
in this little two bedroom condo out in Encino, and
you know, Filipino restaurants weren't big in La that then.
So yeah, he loved it. He loved the lumpia, he
liked the ponds. It he didn't like I shouldn't say this,
God rest his soul. He'll turnover and his great if
(16:48):
I tell you he didn't like the dinner go on
chocolate meat. You know, he wasn't tough, kind of shy
away from the dinner go on, but he loved everything
else and Turan, I'm gonna let he was all over
my mom's maruya and my mom so everything was home cooked.
(17:08):
So I stand by it. I don't play a coach
Buden for shying away from the gun. I mean, that
is a tall, tall task. It's it's a it's a
tall order. But Tron, it's a top five dessert. Fight me. Yeah,
it's a top five dessert anywhere in the world. Were
other people outside your family starting to recognize celebrate your
(17:29):
being Filipino American in the NBA? And if it wasn't,
then when do you think that started? That recognition of
your of your roots as a Filipino American. It never
existed back and that day in the mid seventies. And
if you think about first of all, there was a
lot of subtle racism back then. It was only black
or white. Nobody cared about Asians, mexicans'n care because the
(17:53):
whole league was either black or white. And to be
honest with you, prenominantly black and me running around with
the big Afro help. I told everybody I was Filipino,
and nobody believed me because all of our all Americans
at Uclay were black, and we had black in our family.
We have a lot of Filipino family members that married
(18:14):
into black families, so we have a black constituency, probably
have sixty seventy black Filipinos. So nobody really knew. And
I could tell you till I'm blue in the face,
no I'm Filipino. But Sports Illustrated, it's a good example,
came out with an article we were on the front
page and says the Golden State Warriors, one of the
new teams in the New Movement, have a head coach,
(18:36):
two assistants, and they were all black. They showed the
whole bench and they said eleven black players and one
white player. And the white player I knew wasn't me.
It was Tom abertin Atty from Indiana. He was sitting
at the end of the bench and I was in
the midst of the middle. And I even told him,
I said, no, no, we're all black. When one Filipino
(18:57):
and one you know, white player, and they're gonna, no,
you're black. And so they never ever changed the article.
So I could stand on the mountaintop and tell you
I was Filipino. But you have to understand at that time,
there were no Filipino basketball players, and there were some
great Filipino basketball players, and you know, I say this
very sincerely, a lot of great Filipino you know, I'm
(19:21):
talking about Robert Jaworski, you know, Moan Fernandez, some of
these great great Filipino basketball players. These guys had a
life of hard work success, they earned their their great reputations.
And not many Filipinos wanted to come over to the
United States and try it with an YNVA team, because
(19:43):
then if you don't make it, now, all of a sudden,
you're the greatest Filipino or ever played basketball and the
Philippines but got cut by so and so back in,
nobody wanted to risk that. I still feel, and I
speak this very strong, I still feel there'll be a
Filipino born athlete. But I really think they need to
(20:06):
come over to America, play to Kansas, a DUCA, Kentucky,
and there's players out there that can do these things,
but they've got to like step out and get into
something that's risky, but be on TV every day. And
you know, gratefully, thirty eight years later, I carried that
torch for thirty eight years, and now you know, we
(20:27):
got Jordan and Jaylen, but still everybody's waiting for the
first Filipino born Filipino to make the NBA, and I
think we're knocking on that door. We'll get back to
that MBA dream in episode six, but this episode is
about right here, right now, the Filipinos and the Filipino
(20:50):
Americans who made it to the NBA in one way
or another. Up next, we're talking to Miami Heat coach
Eric's Folstruck. Let me ask you something, Nico, do you
(21:11):
think that maybe we meaning the NBA's devoted Filipino fan
base take erik'sposture for granted, that's a little too strong
for what I mean. I guess do you think we
should celebrate spoke the first Filipino American head coach at
NBA history, who has led the Miami Heat to five
NBA Finals appearances and two championships, even more than we
(21:31):
already do. I mean, we get so wrapped up in
the ups and downs of Jalen Green and Jordan Clarkson's
career as Jalen shows flashes of becoming a brilliant scorer
for the Rockets and Jordan shines in a new role
as a starter for the surprising Jazz this season, and
then we always are looking out for who's next the
next Filipino American prospect with MBA size and potential, or
(21:52):
who has the best chance to become the first NBA
player born and raised in the Philippines. Meanwhile, a guy
who'd be on the short for the best NBA coaches
of the last ten years is Filipino. Gives Spo his flowers,
Now give him your nickname, Filipino Jackson. You are preaching
to the choir, sister. I am as much of a
(22:16):
defender of how we should just throw love at Filipino
Jackson every single day. But at the same time I
understand how that can happen with coach Spo for starters,
he's just naturally so low key, and he and pat
Riley run such a tight ship in Miami that some
years it feels like the entire regular season passes with
(22:38):
fans clinging to every trade rumor every scoop about tension
between two star players on this or that team, and
the occasional wild story where a bowl of chicken tortilla
soup gets hurled across the locker room and the heat
are never in fall. Then the playoffs roll around, and
all of a sudden, they're Spo and Jimmy Butler and
bam Adebayo and the rest of the Heat back in
(22:59):
the mix with a chance to go to the finals.
For a town as wild and glamorous as Miami, the
Heat are strictly business. And you know, future Hall of
Famer Eric Spoelstra likes it that way. And also we
say it all the time. The NBA is a players league,
and it should be. Of course, every team needs a
(23:20):
great coaching staff to be successful and a front office
to support them and all the rest of the people
up and down the franchise who enable the players to
perform at their best. But when winning time rolls around,
it's the players out there on the floor. So yes,
one of the very best coaches in the league is Filipino.
But there will always be more interest in the players.
(23:41):
That's just the nature of things. I guess. When we
were growing up and learning to play and love the game,
we dreamed of making game winning buzzer beaters and dunking
on fast breaks, not orchestrating the action from the sideline.
And I'd bet anything Spo wouldn't want things any other
way he was a player first too, Nico, You're just
reminded me of an incredible Philippine basketball What if? Do
(24:04):
you remember how Spo said he almost moved to Manila
after finishing his college career at the University of Portland.
How good would Spo have been if he came to
the PBA in nineteen ninety three, Oh, with his resume,
Spoke would have been a transformational player in the PBA.
He was a four year starter at the Division one
level six foot three point guard. That's huge for the PBA.
(24:28):
Six foot three point guard who still number four on
the Portland Pilot's all time assist list. He would have
been one of the biggest playmakers in the league and
could have guarded any position except center. It might have
taken Spo some time to adjust to the rough and
tumble style of nineties PBA basketball and also to figure
out the right balance of scoring and playmaking for the league,
(24:49):
because the PBA team would absolutely expect the guy with
the one pettigree to just put up scoring numbers. Those
hard nosed coaches would be ready to strangle Spo if
he just went out there trying to play like a
glue guy. You really had to be aggressive. But would
spose basketball mind. I'm sure he would have figured it out.
To me, though, this what if isn't about whether Spo
(25:10):
would have been a PBA All Star or a PBA
Hall of Famer. It's about all the things that might
never have happened if he had been leading the I
don't know Sun Miguel Berman to an All Filipino Cup
title in nineteen ninety five instead of getting his foot
in the door with the Miami Heat organization as a
video coordinator. Maybe we would have gained a Philippine basketball
(25:31):
legend if Spo had played in the PBA. But at
the same time, we probably would have lost the first
Filipino NBA head coach because Spo, the PBA superstar was
unlikely to get back on track to become Spo the
leader who would win back to back championships with Lebron James,
Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh. It hurts my head to think
(25:52):
about it. The heatles without Spo. I mean, we're talking
about rewriting an essential chapter in NBA history. Would you
take that trade off? I mean, who cares what I think?
Let's ask it's a it's a big regret of mine.
I don't have any regrets other than that. And that
was always a plan. I mean, since I was a
small kid, my family over there would always send VHS
(26:16):
tapes of the PBA, and so I was familiar with
the PBA. And you know Billy rate Bates who was
a legend over there. He actually played for the Portland
Trailblazers and he was kind of a two year legend
in Portland where they still talk about him while he
finished his career in the Philippines. So I felt a
(26:36):
connection to Billy rate Bates, but also to the PBA.
I followed it. I always had him back in my
mind that I would go play there after college. That
was kind of a bigger goal of mine than to
try to play in the NBA. And then my course
shifted and I ended up playing in Germany for a
couple of years, and I thought I would just barnstorm
around Europe for you know, five years, and then finished
(26:59):
up playing in the PBA. And I remember during the
off season I met with Jim Kelly, who was now
a scout and longtime scout in the NBA, and he
tried to recruit me over there, and I was going
to sign, and I just pushed it off because I
wanted to travel the world first. And then I ended
up getting the opportunity with the heat and so I
never had that opportunity to go back to the PBA,
but I was always a fan. And then when I
(27:21):
had the opportunity my first year going with the NBA
to do the clinics, that's when I had an opportunity
to meet Tim Coombe, and I'd already knew who he was.
He was a legendary coach over there. He's like the
equivalent to pat Riley and Phil Jackson combined and Pop,
you know, basically all three guys. That's his reputation over there.
(27:41):
And so I was able to meet with him and
we struck a friendship that still goes to this day.
You are a legendary coach in the NBA, one of
the all time great coaches here in the States, but
or in the Philippines. You're like Michael Jackson, you know,
Michael Jordan's status, like crowds probably following you. I mean,
(28:04):
if I were to say that, or you were to
mention that in my household, my mother would just roll
her eyes that. Oh yeah, you're famous. She doesn't want
to hear that or people call me coach SPO. I
remember we won our first championship, and you know, I've
been called many worst things, but coach SPO is I
think the people would call me. And then over there
(28:24):
they made up T shirts and everything. My family sent
some to my mom when she was rolling her eyes
about that. But when we won our first championship, the
celebration here in Miami, and then immediately I flew to Portland,
Oregon to visit my family. That's where I'm from, and
we went on vacation, and right as I walked into
the place where we were staying, my mom had a
place on the floor with a nice sign with all
(28:47):
the T shirts that said Coach SPO's spot. And that's
where I had to stay, is on the floor for
the whole vacation. So she doesn't want to hear about that,
Like if people think I'm famous over there, you know,
she would prefer that I stay under the radar and
everything we asked Coach Spolstra. Now, out of respect for
his mother, I will resist calling him coach SPO about
(29:07):
the craziest experience he had while visiting the Philippines. Yeah,
we had some wild experiences. I remember one time, you know,
we were doing clinics all over Manila and outside of Manila,
and we just basically made an agreement that hey, we're
gonna be here for ten days or two weeks. We
want to do as much as we possibly can to
give back, and so if that meant we got to
wake up at six thirty, hit the first bus to
get you know, it would take us two hours to
(29:29):
get anywhere, even if it was only ten miles away,
and we would try to stack maybe three, four five
clinics in a day. We'd finish up after dinner, but
a lot of times they were usually like two or
three hundred kids. Yeah, that's it, God, sure, God Yes.
(29:49):
And then we went outside of Manila and we showed
up one place and there must have been eight to
ten thousand people there, and probably there's thousands of kids.
So we pull up in the bus or rocking our
bus and everything, and the coaching staff and the NBA
staff we get off the bus and there's no way
security could stop them. So somehow we tried to carve
(30:11):
out a court and do a clinic with the kids,
and then as soon as we were done with the clinic,
they just swarmed us and they just wanted pictures, selfies
and autographs from everybody on the staff and my staff
and the NBA staff. And it got to the point
where Fizz and my other assistant, Chad camer were signing
kids foreheads. They didn't even have pieces of paper, there
(30:34):
was nothing to sign, so we had penns and sharpies.
They're just signing kids heads. But it was a blast.
We have some really cool pictures. In the middle. It's
like try to find Waldo, myself or anybody on our
staff and a sea of thousands of people. But that's
why I wanted to invite, you know, staff members to
come over and really experience it that it is more
(30:54):
than a sport. It's like a religion over there. The
fan base is really incredible. Thank you so much hospitality
here and is welcome. It's really overwhelming. We were not
expecting this. I'm very humble to be here. They love
the Lakers and the Celtics. We've gotten them now to
(31:16):
really love the Miami Heat and that's been a really
cool part of it. So I wanted everybody to really
kind of understand that, and I basically made an agreement
with NBA that will do this every year. We'll do
as many clinics as you possibly want, but there's going
to be some people in charge. My cousin Hannah, who
grew up in the Philippines and then she came over
(31:38):
her high school, the family and college and now she
still lives in the States and their family, but she
would be the point person. So anybody wanted me to
do anything, you had to talk to my cousin Hannah,
and then my uncle Tony, her dad. He basically was
or is the patriarch of that side of the family.
And every trip would end where we'd have to drive
(32:02):
an hour and a half to Laguna, where my mother
is from, and we would have a big party at
my uncle Tony and Titaminda's house where roasted pig and everybody.
But it was mandatory that everybody had to go on
that trip, and he had to get on the bus
and go I dour and a half to three hours
to get there, and we would just have an amazing party.
My uncle Tony does his own spread with pig and
(32:24):
lumpia pen set everything, and then he has a small
coconut farm, so he makes this coconut moonshine. Everybody has
to drink it, and it was really fun to be
able to have my staff come out there and then
the entire international NBA staff would climb on these buses,
and that was part of the agreement, you know, to
(32:46):
travel there and have an awesome party at the end
of the week. Basketball is a very famous sport here
as compared to footballer b spot that right there is
Fatima Fatstlenttito, former player of the Rate University of the
Philippines and the women's national team. So when we heard
that he was going to talk to us and teach us,
(33:08):
we were all excited because not only because he's a
head coach in the NBA, but also because he's Filipino,
So I guess we have that sort of connection. That's
why we were so interested and excited to get to
know him thet What does it mean to you to
be the first Filipino head coach, really, the first Asian
head coach in North American sports? At first, I didn't
(33:32):
think anything of it, really because when I got the opportunity,
I was thirty seven years old and I didn't really
think I was ready anyway. Pat kind of had to
push me and tell me to get my sh i together,
and you know this is the direction we're going, So
wrapped your mind around and get ready for the press. Confidence.
(33:54):
So I was kind of in my head more insecure
and thinking that I needed more experience. But I think
subconsciously I probably knew in the back of my mind, like,
all right, I felt like I didn't have experience. I
also felt somewhere subconsciously that I didn't look like your
typical NBA head coach. I wasn't an older veteran coach,
(34:18):
wasn't white. You don't really know what box to put
me in. And I probably looked a lot younger than
even thirty seven. So I just knew subconsciously that I
didn't look the part, and that kind of messes with
you a little bit. And then my family started to
tell me that I was the first Asian coach and
the first Filipino head coach in any sport, and then
(34:39):
it became a source of pride. You know that you
can take a different path, you can look different, you
don't have to look like the stereotypical whatever square jaw
head coach looks like, and you can still perform and
be a caretaker for your organization. And that's what I
took pride in And if that opened some eyes and doors,
(35:01):
you know, for somebody else who has a dream that
may be Asian or maybe a different ethnicity, or even
a female, you don't have to look and be the stereotype.
And I think that helped me find a deeper sense
of purpose, you know, for myself in this coaching profession,
where it wasn't just about doing the job and just
trying to get wins. It became about taking the baton
(35:23):
and you know, hopefully changing perceptions. The passion for basketball
is so amazing in the Philippines, and what you hope
for is that young kids cannot put limits on what
their dreams may be. And so if they see more
role models and see more possibilities of what could be
(35:45):
and it maybe you know, to be an NBA player,
you know, like Jordan Clarkson or Green, but it also
may be a dream just to work in NBA, to
work for the NBA main offices, to work in NBA International,
to be able to work in the video room, you know, somewhere,
to be involved somehow, some way in this great association
(36:08):
that there are so many different opportunities and possibilities now,
and hopefully like you and I, you know, and everybody
else can kind of pull back the curtain and for
kids that may have just been fans before, they may
be able to think bigger now, bigger possibilities that, Hey,
I can be a part of that association and it
can be a lifetime of opportunities. That's the way I
(36:30):
look at this the NBA, no matter what our jobs are,
we're doing what we'd love to do. I mean, this
round ball and ninety four feet in two baskets allow
us to travel the world, to be able to play
and compete in the best arenas with the best fan
base in the world. And you know, now we're able
(36:50):
to share these experiences with so many different kids of
this new younger generation. Hey, if we could be partial
contributors to being dreammakers, I'm all four, all right, I
(37:12):
think it's time to address the elephant in the road.
So far, we've covered the figures who made history as
the NBA's first Filipino American player and coach. But there's
one more piece of this story that remains incomplete. For
a country that likes to think of itself as a
global leader. When it comes to basketball's cultural imprint, the
Philippines has never never produced an NBA player was born
(37:37):
and raised in the country, and throughout the nation's long
history of playing the sport, it's been easy to point
to one reason why there still hasn't been a homegrown
Filipino player in the league. Height. For the most part,
that reasoning holds at the highest level. Height and length matter.
Who's the current NBA draft prospect that scouts think has
a chance to create an entirely new geometry of it's
(38:00):
possible on an NBA floor Victor Wimbanyama, the seven foot
four prodigy from France. Meanwhile, you can still find back
to the basket big men in today's PBA who stand about,
I don't know, six feet four inches tall. Don't get
me wrong, these are incredibly skilled players, some of whom
flash the kind of low post footwork that hasn't existed
(38:20):
in the NBA since the days of Kevin McHale. But
a six four center who likes to operate within fifteen
feet of the basket and is shorter than several NBA
point guards not a recipe for success, and the spaced
out modern NBA, where many of the most successful teams
emphasized attributes like speed, length, and of course, three point shooting.
(38:42):
But here's the thing. Of all the players throughout Philippine
basketball history who've explored the possibility of trying to make
the NBA, only one had a real training camp offer
from a team, and it wasn't one of the handful
of skilled big men six ft nine and above that
the Philippines has produced. No by all accounts, the local
(39:02):
player who had the best chance of anyone to date
of making an NBA roster, who, as a story goes,
chose the security of his PBA career over a training
camp invite, was the smallest MVP in PPA history, five
foot seven Johnny Abarrientos, also known as the Flying A
or just Johnny A. Here do me a favor and
(39:25):
read off some of his accomplishments, some meaning that there's
more than Johnny A's body of work dependss. If I
gave you his entire Hall of Fame resume, we'd be
(39:45):
here all day, believe me, all right? Here goes um
member of twelve PBA championship teams, YEP two time PBA
Finals MVP, two time nineteen ninety six PBA Most Valuable
Player shortest ever Best Player of the Conference award for
the nineteen ninety seven Commissioners Cup. You bet six time? Wait, Nico,
(40:12):
what's a mythical team? Oh? Yeah, about that? That's just
what we in the Philippines call our all league team.
Say all NBA instead of saying all PBA, we say
mythical team. Um okay, So I do love how we
find a way to put some completely unnecessary but still
fabulous Filipino flair onto perfectly functional categories like all PBA teams. Hey,
(40:37):
it's just like that old tourism slogan goes, it is
more fun in the Philippines. Although although I do like
your version of it is more fabulous in the Philippines,
I think that applies better. Okay, back to the show.
Otherwise I've never going to finish the store of Johnny
A's trophy case. So six time PBA Mythical First Team,
(40:58):
six one time PBA Mythical Second Team, robbed, eight time
PBA All Star h see, that's a simple name. Five
time PBA All Defensive Team at five seven PBA All
time steals leader with one thousand, three hundred and fifty eight.
His career average of one point eight three steals per
(41:20):
game is higher than any other player on the top
twenty all time list. You Bet named one of the
PBA's Top twenty five Greatest players during the league's twenty
fifth anniversary celebrations. M Original Idea named one of the
PBA's Top forty greatest players during the league's forty anniversary celebration.
Current wait till the fiftieth. But okay, and stop me
(41:42):
if you've heard this before. Shortest MVP in PBA history
seven five ft seven on a good day. All right,
that's it, I think. Let me catch my breath now,
But I get the point. This overwhelming list of achievements
means that Johnny A was a very bad slash good
man on the court. That's exactly the thing. The resume
(42:06):
is only the tip of the iceberg, though. His greatness
really comes into focus when you hear the way Johnny's
peers talked about playing with and against him, Like the
Hall of Famer Jeff the Jet Caryasso, Johnny's teammate from
the Alaska ass You know, he could be the leader,
he could be the guy that's running the show. But
at the same time MVP from day one, from his
(42:27):
first year, he's already you know, established as the up
and coming point guard and you know everyone is talking
about him already and how especially is but it you know,
when you get two or three years of experience under
your belt, you know you get someone that that's you know,
going to be a future Hall of Famer. And we
knew that during that time. So when you see him play,
(42:47):
you know, the first time I heard this description about
you know, basketball and it being a group of five
kind of being in the same motion was Coach Tim
described in our triangle as like a dance. You know,
you all got to be, you know, working together and
dancing together, or it's just gonna it's not gonna look good,
it's not gonna work. So that's already described Johnny. Just
(43:09):
when he was playing out there, it was like on
his own. He was kind of just dancing, you know,
on a different mode. While everyone is either going super
slow or super fast. He's kind of taking his time
and just those want attack, those want to slow down.
He just out there on a different level. And you
noticed that already. Noticing me being a player, one thing
that stood up for me also is the fact that
(43:32):
he just made everyone look good. Just run the floor,
wings and I get to the ball, set a good screen,
bigs and roll and I get to the ball and
you get an easy too. So yeah, that's why you special.
Every day in practice, Tea made say he would make
a play or three that would make a team full
of other professional athletes stop dead in the tracks and
(43:53):
look at each other like, did Johnny really just do that?
He'd go weeks, they say, without missing a jump shot
in drill imports, you know, the foreign reinforcements to get
flown in and paid extra to be the best players
on the floor. They called Johnny the best player on
the floor every time he suited up for the Alaska
Aces in his prime, he routinely inspired awe and the
(44:14):
hardest audience to impress fellow pro ball players. When you
ask Johnny's contemporaries to name one of his weaknesses, they're
genuinely stopped. His playmaking, his creativity with a ball, shooting,
his defense, even his rebounding. At five to seven, often
the smallest guy on the court, he was pulling down
close to five boards per game at the point guard spot.
(44:37):
Throughout his late nineties, prime. There was nothing that guy
couldn't do on a basketball court. Conventional wisdom might lead
you to name height as a weakness, but good luck
finding many examples of opponents who would be able to
exploit Johnny's short stature. I know, I know, I'm gushing
over here, but let me get off one more thoughts,
just one more. It wasn't just Johnny A's talent that
(45:00):
left fans and fellow PBA players calling him the best
point guard in league history. He was also a born winner,
the most important player on the most dominant PBA dynasty
the league had ever seen. Starting with a nineteen ninety
four Governors Cup, Johnny A's Alaska aces appeared in the
finals of every PBA conference but one for the next
(45:20):
four years. In PBA years, that's eleven finals appearances in
twelve tries, with an eight three record in the finals
for eight total championships in four years. That's just staggering.
I mean, yeah, when you put it that way, I
guess it's not that surprising that MBA scouts would catch
wind of this little guy in Manila who they needed
(45:43):
to see and the situation in which an MBA franchise
recruited Johnny A made sense. It was nineteen ninety seven,
right after Johnny's MVP season, and an international scout named
Joe Bettencourt, who worked with the Charlotte Hornets, believed that
Johnny just might be able to fill the hole in
Charlotte's rotation left by five foot three point guard Muggsy Bogues,
(46:05):
who was battling knee injuries at that point in his career.
Us Muggsie the crowd. Bettencourt's theory was that if Johnny
could translate his game to the NBA, he'd fit right
into Muggsie's role when Bogus was off the floor. Similar
in height, speeds, smarts, leadership abilities, and an ability to
(46:29):
single handedly prevent opposing teams from getting into their offense
with their ball hawking defense, the scout envisioned Johnny A
as the ready made replacement in case Muggsie's recovery from
knee surgery took longer than expected. Bettencourt discussed the possibility
of Johnny A coming over two different times that season. First,
(46:49):
he tried to set Johnny up with an invite to
Hornet's training camp, but for the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player,
putting his Philippine career on pause for a couple months
to go try out in Charlotte with no guarantee of
landing an MBA contract, was too risky to pursue. Once
the NBA season began, Bencourt flew back to Manila and
proposed another idea sign a ten day contract to jump
(47:12):
right into the Hornet's roster. Now NBA fans know that
a ten day deal is far from a sure path
to a long MBA career, but Johnny A and the
Alaska franchise were ready to accept the offer. What's the
worst that could happen? Johnny doesn't make it in the league,
and he flies home to Manila after a couple of
weeks as not just the first born and raised Filipino
to make the MBA, but the league's first player from
(47:35):
all of Asia. Yeah, I'll take that deal. Unfortunately, it
never quite came together. But Johnny A's teammates remember just
how close he was to writing his name in the
MBA history books, and to hear guys like his former
backcourt partner Jeff Carriasso tell it, Johnny might have lasted
more than just ten days in the league. Would he
(47:56):
have done well? I think so what did it have
been tremendous challenge on his end? I would say, I
think so awesome, because you know, there are a lot
of good players. There are a lot of good guys
who were three or four intis taller than him, but
just as quick, you know, longer arms, get pressures of
wall like he does. But would he have been able
to kind of handle his own a little bit? I
(48:17):
say yes, he was that talented where you know you
really have to take a second look at him. To me,
that says a lot. And would he have gone there
and killed it right from the get go? That would
have been a challenge. That would be asking for a lot,
to be honest with you, but to be out there
and compete and to be able to kind of handle
yourself a little bit and be able to show kiss
what you have for sure, no question. And if he
(48:39):
had that opportunity with a little bit of a time,
then who knows what could have happened. Dang, we're talking
about what answer earlier? Well, what if Johnny A Had
actually taken the leap and made it onto the Hornet's
roster in ninety seven? Imagine a Filipino point guard and
those classic purple and teel uniforms. What do you think
(49:00):
have just flown over for training camp instead of waiting
for that ten day contract. I mean, judging by that
list of achievements, he would like seven more championships between
nineteen ninety seven and the end of his career. So
Johnny probably doesn't have much to regret. Well, that's true,
and although it does sound like Charlotte was genuinely interested
in giving Johnny a look, and Scott's like Bencourt, must
(49:20):
have believed he really did have what it took to
succeed in the NBA. But a camp invite isn't a
guaranteed contract, which is what he already had in Manila,
where he was the reigning PBA MVP at the height
of his powers. That's tough to walk away from without
a guaranteed deal. Also, the NBA still hadn't truly welcomed
international talent at that point in time. Durk Navitsky hadn't
(49:43):
even been drafted yet, there had never been a player
from Asia in the league. Yaoming was still eight years away. Nowadays,
I think a player in Johnny's position would be more
likely to take that chance because there are so many
other athletes from around the world thriving in the NBA
and plus, Johnny's brush with history almost feels more legendary
(50:04):
because he didn't go to Charlotte. He's this mythical Filipino
point guard who came closer than any of his countrymen
before or since to making an NBA roster, and that
means he left the generations of players coming up behind
him with a goal to pick up where he left
off and finished what Johnny a started. It's been twenty
(50:24):
five years since Johnny earned that shot. Now it's time
for the Philippines next great talent to step up. Jas
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.