FIBA secretary-general Andreas Zagklis, here on a two-day visit recently, has expressed belief that the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be a great, once-in-a-lifetime experience for players and fans alike as time ticks toward the quadrennial spectacle’s curtain rise.
“It’s a global stage, and you, as a player, measure yourself against the best in the world at a moment when billions of eyes are on you,” said Zagklis during an exclusive interview with Mico Halili, head of Sports Content at Cignal TV, Inc.
“The preparation to the event is a unique physical and intellectual challenge for the players, who will play against other national teams and see how the same game is approached in different ways in other parts of the world, a privilege of being in a sport that is truly global, being played in five continents. I think it’s a unique experience for the players.
Fans of world basketball, Zagklis believed, are in for a special treat, especially the hometown crowd.
“It’s every four years that we can assemble all these talents in one place, and so we’re really looking forward to the World Cup here,” he said.
“I think having such an event at home is fantastic. I can only speak from personal experience – the World Cup came to my country (Greece) almost 35 years ago and I was on my first year in the university and I remember, we were all very excited in my city of Athens. And then it’s 35 years later and it’s not been back.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for those people who are having it in their country. And for some Filipinos, it will be their second after 1978. So I really hope they will see the World Cup as something unique, as a moment when the eyes of the basketball community will be on the Philippines.”
Zagklis was here July 11 and 12, with 2023 FIBA World Cup Executive Director David Crocker, for an ocular inspection of the 55,000 seating capacity Philippine Arena and a series of meetings with executives of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, led by Chairman Emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan and President Al S. Panlilio.
The two FIBA executives were met at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by LOC official Mon Eusebio and Ken Garcia, and from there driven to Shangri-La Hotel at BGC where they were welcomed by officials of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, led by Executive Director Sonny Barrios.
The Philippine Arena will be the main hub for the World Cup which the Philippines will host along with Japan and Indonesia, and the cavernous site provided the high-ranking FIBA dignitaries a ringside view of what world basketball could expect in spectator numbers once action gets underway from August 25 to Sept. 10, 2023.
“Those who will be in the venue, experiencing these moments live, close to the athletes, will never forget them,” Zagklis gushed.
PINNACLE OF BASKETBALL EVENTS
Pangilinan shared the FIBA official’s high appraisal of the World Cup’s value, calling it the “pinnacle of all basketball events, the mother of all basketball situations in the world.”
Which, the founding president of SBP also believes, complements the country’s ardent passion for the sport well.
Asked if he sees a parallel, Pangilinan said “All I know is that Filipinos love basketball, and it is the job of SBP to really not turn its back on something that our people do love in a very passionate way. It’s like Everest, it’s just there.”
Not one to shirk from a challenge, even if a subtle one, when told that the FIBA delegation, during the Philippine Arena visit, let on that they expect the Philippines to fill the stadium up to 55,000, Pangilinan responded by promising them that “we’d fill it up to 60,000, to the rafters.”
LEARNED A LOT FROM 2019 WORLD CUP
Two major factors that should go a long way toward a successful hosting, says SBP chief Al Panlilio, are the lessons learned from observing the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and the holding of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers via a bubble setup in Clark in June 2021.
“We sent a team to the World Cup in China to observe and we learned a lot,” Panlilio told Cignal TV sports host Paolo del Rosario. “But of course, things changed. That was pre-pandemic. Obviously we also learned a lot during the windows when we hosted the bubble in Pampanga last year, plus the windows we also hosted recently.
“Of course, next year is a much, much bigger tournament than just a bubble, and outside the court there are a lot of things we have to do. We actually formed an LOC (local organizing committee), and we have three major pillars in that.
“It’s a major event for us to be organizing. I’ve put really a big team around it and we will expand that as we get closer to the World Cup, and we will bring in volunteers.”
Zagklis’ visit signaled the heightened pace of preparation for the World Cup, with SBP pulling no stops in ensuring a memorable and successful hosting, all in coordination with the national government, various local government units and the private sector.
Asked if he could share some of the things they discussed during the dinner he hosted, Pangilinan said, with a laugh, “the whole three hours with Andreas, it was all basketball. He’s a true basketball person. He lives and breathes basketball all throughout his life. I was really amazed at how encyclopedic his knowledge is about certain things happening in Lebanon, Jordan and other parts of the world where FIBA is present.”
UNPRECEDENTED 3-HOST NATION EXPERIENCE
Extra special, meantime, is how Crocker sees the 2023 World Cup.
“It’s got a few unique characteristics and the first part of it is the three host nations; we’ve never had that before. And how those three nations are working together to create one major event is really special,” he said.
“No matter whether you go to Okinawa or Jakarta or here in Manila, you’re going to have an amazing, connected World Cup experience. And that’s gonna be one thing, initially, which makes it really special.”
Two other Metro Manila venues — the SM Mall of Asia Arena and Smart-Araneta Coliseum — complement the Philippine Arena in parading the 16 teams headed here for the early stages of the tournament, while Japan and Indonesia will put on display eight teams each,.
The draw for the World Cup groupings will be held in March next year in Manila.
The PH Arena was the site for the FIBA 3×3 Basketball World Cup in 2018 and the opening ceremony of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, while the MOA Arena witnessed Gilas Pilipinas’ dramatic semifinal victory over South Korea in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship that secured for the host a return ticket to the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, as well as the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2016.
Best remembered is the Big Dome, of course — other than for the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ in October 1975 — for hosting the 1978 FIBA World Championship, the one FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis referred to earlier.