BACK IN THE ’70S AND ’80S, Filipinos came up with what became a very popular term for imported goods from the US. The stateside wares were called PX goods.
They were anything from chocolates to potato chips, perfumes to deodorants, and T-shirts to rubber shoes. We did not have major retail stores selling them then in posh malls like Greenbelt and Shangri-la Plaza, so we had PX goods stores scattered in obscure places.
Fast forward 30 years later and, yes, a significant number of our population still has that mentality—anything imported is better. And sad to say, this has even infiltrated basketball, and not just pro basketball. Even college hoops is beginning to show this mindset.
I remember in the early ’90s when my alma matter DLSU gained prominence because of the Lago (Dwight and Elmer) brothers. Very few people knew why they could not play together at the same time. That was because as early as then, the UAAP had this “foreigner” rule. While a team can have as many as two foreigners per team, only one gets to play at any one time.
Interestingly that rule seemed to have been made in anticipation of balikbayans like the Lagos coming home and opting to play college ball here.
It is true that in the PBA and other leagues, getting Fil-Ams (the legit ones at least) and imports helped the quality of the league and (arguably) boosted its popularity. They have kept the locals on their toes and challenged them to elevate their games.
Quality has arguably gone up and the PBA board has even generously allowed each team to a maximum of five Fil-Ams. Even our Philippine team has finally considered going back to naturalizing an import, clearly to help our team’s chances against stronger competition from other countries. This is well within reason.
However, the schools importing these foreigners in the collegiate level are actually the teams that are winning the championships.
For what it’s worth, we still have to keep in mind the overall balance of the league to keep it worth watching for the entire season. Perhaps this concession should be granted only to the lower-ranked teams so that they may have a fair chance at giving the top teams a challenge worth watching.
Marketing the games in the university level is much easier because a student’s loyalty to the school is usually a given. All that the students and alumnae want to see is for their school to be competitive. The championship games in the junior division of the UAAP and NCAA clearly showed there is so much talent in the high school ranks that are now getting “limited” slots due to competition from Fil-Ams and now foreigners coming in to take their “destined” places on the seniors teams.
In my opinion, player slots in the UAAP and the NCAA should be reserved for the Filipino. At the very least, if they still insist on allowing “foreigners” on their teams, they should limit it to foreign citizens with at least a speck of Filipino blood. This way we can keep it truly a Filipino game that prioritizes helping our very own.
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tommymanotoc@yahoo.com)
mao niy naka bati sa uaap ug ncaa karun.. ang manuwa ky walay filipino blood na import.. padaku-ay nlang ug import.. first it was sam ekwe, the nigerian from sanbeda who won roy and mvp.. then gi pulihan ni sudan daniel from the us... other teams followed suit.. like jru.. naa si njei.. uaap also followed the trend.. feu has pipo noundou (a legit 6'5 nigerian), ateneo has kirk long,..
ok rato sla gabby espinas ug jason castro (mga gi babies man ni sla.. anak ug kano na us soldier stationed in subic).. sla kg canaleta, willie miller, topex robinson, kerwin mccoy ug uban pa...
College hoops with imported goods
Originally Posted by billabong
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