SAN JUAN (William Rosario's Somewhere in the Americas) - The SemiFinal Round of the 2014 Liga de las Americas tips off this week in Xalapa, Mexico, and being in Xalapa has made me reminisce about what a great year it has been for Mexican basketball.

Of course the big triumph was the gold medal at the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship where Mexico, the big underdog, won it all with a great team effort led by two key figures in MVP Gustavo Ayon and coach Sergio Valdeolmillos.

The Spaniard Valdeolmillos was the great acquisition for Mexican basketball in this new era. He has been responsible for bringing structure to a national team that was in desperate need of it. His honesty on what is right and wrong has been huge in the development of the sport in Mexico.

As an example, it is important to cite the fact that basketball fans were clamoring for him to have Victor Mariscal in the national team, and he, with a move that required lots of intestinal fortitude, discarded the veteran player prior to the beginning of the continental championship.

"He is a legendary player that deserves all the respect in the world, but he was not up to the level that we were going to face in Caracas. So it was a common sense decision," Valdeolmillos said to me almost a month ago.

Another important factor in this great year for Mexican basketball has been - and I have hated to talk about this in past columns but there is no doubt about it in this case - the politics.

Almost two years ago, Mexico was a country with three national federations. One was endorsed by FIBA, the other by the Olympic Committee and the third one… who knows. It was a complete mess that took lots of work on the political spectrum to resolve. But in the end, the miracle occurred and the Mexican Olympic Committee decided to back the federation endorsed by FIBA. This was a big event.

For those of us who remember the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship, we can look back at the fact that Mexico could not even have the name of the country on the front of their uniforms due to the dispute. So instead, they had to go with the name of the sponsor that was fittingly the "Vive Mexico" tourism company.

But the problem extended way beyond this issue. No Olympic Committee backing meant no state funds for the national team, and no state involvement. This, for NATIONAL team, is lethal.

With the problem being resolved for the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship, the Mexican team had a full state support that allowed to adequately travel and have a real exhibition schedule prior to the tournament tipping off. The politics in this case, paid off.

Now, Mexico, who had not gone to a basketball world championship in more than 38 years, has two representatives in the biggest stage as earlier in 2013, the U16 women's national team qualified to the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.

Since 2012, Mexico has had a Liga de las Americas champion in Pioneros de Quintana Roo, a women's qualifier to the youth world championship and first-ever gold medal at the continental level. They have also hosted more than 15 events between Liga de las Americas, Centrobasket and sub-zone championship.

FIBA Americas kept believing in them. Alberto Garcia, Secretary General of FIBA Americas, preached the fact that "Mexico, the solution of their national federation problems and the eventual growth of the sport in the country has to be one of our priorities. A country of 120 million citizens cannot be in our backburner". He was right.

The U16 women's qualification happened in Cancun and I remember seeing people crying in happiness due to the fact that they would finally get to play on the world stage. Then it happened again in Caracas for the men's team.

After being in the shadows for so many years, not even knowing if basketball would be a thing for them, you could see people being proud to have Mexico as a protagonist in the sport.

It has been a beautiful thing to watch. Sure, it is not a perfect thing yet. There are still some issues, but just imagine the potential of this nation if thing were to work perfectly.

As the great Tuto Marchand, Secretary General Emeritus of FIBA Americas, always said: "If that were to happen, and Mexican basketball gets its act together, then everybody else would be playing for second place."

William Rosario

FIBA Americas

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