Play more to play better!

KUALA LUMPUR (Mageshwaran’s AsiaScope) - “The only way to play basketball better is to play more basketball.”

There are two regional competitions in FIBA Asia – in two entirely different regions and played in completely diverse formats – that started about a month ago which vouch for the above adage in our sport.

The first one in discussion is the West Asian Basketball League, a show completely controlled by one of FIBA Asia’s subzones – the West Asia Basketball Association (WABA).

That West Asia has become one of the fastest growing regions in FIBA Asia - even if not internationally just yet - in the last decade or so is an established fact. Everybody, even if some of them grudgingly, will acknowledge this.

Look at the following figures.
Ever since WABA was formed in the late 1990’s:
• On two occasions (24th FIBA Asia Championship in Tokushima, Japan in 2007 and 25th FIBA Asia Championship in Tianjin, China in 2009) a WABA team – namely Iran – finished as the champions.
• At least one WABA team has figured in the Semi-Finals of all FIBA Asia Championships.
• There has been at least one WABA team in five of the six Gold Medal Games.
• On one occasion, three out of the four Semi-Finalists were WABA teams and on another, three of top five were WABA teams.
• Internationally, at least one WABA team has played in all the FIBA World Championships this Millennium.

All these achievements, although only one occasion had a team made the Semi-Finals in 20 FIBA Asia Championships till 1999!

Therefore, to me, the WABA League is an overdue but logical extension of its activities in taking the game to more corners.

Some of the fans at the Manara Courts in Beirut, where Al Riyadi Beirut hosted one of the Preliminary Rounds, put things in perspective on the importance of the WABA League in the current format.

“Honestly speaking, I have not seen many of these players live, for more than a decade,” one said.

“We had only heard about most of their achievements. At the most we’d seen them on television, but watching these players live is a fantastic experience,” another added.

“We wish all games…even the Prelim Round is played home and away like the NBA. For us fans, it’s a case of more the merrier,” another went on.
 
The format of the NBA is exactly what another region – contrasting in its past history in terms of results – has adapted to develop the game in its area.

South East Asia, as a region, has been one of the underachievers in the recent past.

Even the Philippines - with five FIBA Asia Championship gold medals to their credit - have made the Semi-Finals only once in the last two decades or so.

But the advent of the Asean Basketball League (ABL), with its franchise format, in the last three years has aimed to change that. And the effort is already beginning to bear fruit.

An example of this was seen at last year’s 26th FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, where Indonesia and Malaysia overcame the much more fancied India to finish higher in the rankings.

Only once had Indonesia ever beaten India in a FIBA Asia Championship before (in 1967) and Malaysia’s previous win against India had come a good quarter of a century earlier.

But all such past records were to be re-written by the manner in which the Indonesia and Malaysia took to the court and defeated India.

A quick analysis of the results, and the situation, presented the reason for this: ABL.

The players who formed the core of the Indonesian and Malaysian national teams had all played in two seasons of the ABL – rubbing shoulders with and against the more skilled foreigners, a majority of them Americans – and the simple resultant effect was that the players were more experienced in handling crunch situations in the game.

In contrast, the Indian players didn’t have enough experience, at least not as much as the Indonesians or Malaysians.

This definitely is not the time to critique Indian basketball especially when the country of more than a billion is mourning the death of Harish Sharma, one of its most dynamic and active basketball administrators. That’s not the purpose of this discussion. Let me reiterate that emphatically.

The point in this discussion is more about the gains made by Indonesia and Malaysia and not India.

Indonesia and Malaysia had played better simply because they had played more.

Which takes us back to the opening statement of this discussion. A converse of our opening statement too therefore seems to hold good: “The more basketball you play, the better basketball you are bound to play.”

Practice has only made sports persons perform better. And only practice has made them better performers.

So long…

S Mageshwaran

FIBA Asia

FIBA’s columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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