Philippine Sports News and Updates

Three years ago, Vietnam decided it needed to improve its antiquated basketball program. And they chose a Filipino to do it.

Ricky Magallanes, who apprenticed as an assistant coach with the RP-Cebuana Lhuillier team, was selected to lead the change. He flew to Vietnam in April of 2005 as the head coach of the junior national team. Within six months, he was handed the reigns of the men’s team, as well.

“When you say basketball in Vietnam, it’s really nothing, because they’re a football country,” Magallanes explains. “They don’t have a feeder program, and all their players were even older than I was.”

For Filipinos, it’s hard to imagine a country that doesn’t love or even play basketball. But the former assistant coach of De La Salle Greenhills had to work from the bottom up. Not only did he have to start recruiting younger players and deal with the inter-city politics between Saigon and Hanoi (the main source of players and funding), he needed to impart the scientific knowledge which is practically second nature to Filipinos.

“Their skill level was so low, they were like children. I had to teach the basics, or else they would never improve,” coach Ricky recalls. “They have many coaches there, but they don’t know how to teach. And they don’t know how to explain why we have to do those things.”

Last year, Ricky tested his team by bringing them here. After having difficulty against a strong high school team, they proceeded to lose all their games to second-tier colleges and smaller schools. But Ricky was undaunted. On this trip, his team has started winning games against teams that used to beat them easily. This despite a lineup that barely has any players over six feet tall.

“Vietnam has really small people, smaller than Filipinos,” he elaborated. “They try to work so hard, I’m really so proud of them, because we’ve improved our shooting, our dribbling, our passing skills. We really paid attention to those.”

“We really like him, because he is a good guy, very funny. He knows how to make the game more fun, more better,” says forward Nguyen Thien, at 26 now the oldest member of the team. “Right now, we’re feeling we’re better in shooting. We’ve learned a lot from our experiences here in the Philippines.”

After so many scrimmages and a few token tournaments, Ricky will face his first major test: the Southeast Asian Games in December. His goals remain modest, though. With Brunei a non-factor (Vietnam demolished them by more than 50 points), coach Ricky is setting his sights on Singapore.

“My bosses say that they would be happy if we win just one game, but of course, I can’t allow that,” Ricky declares. “I feel so special, because they really respect the Filipinos, and as a basketball coach, because they really follow my system. They want to adopt the Philippine style of basketball.”

Well, Vietnam wanted to learn from the best in Southeast Asia.

Source: Philippine Star