Photo Courtesy: Abante.com

One of the most underrated players in the Smart Gilas roster is Jason Ballesteros. I call him a little big man because he is undersized for his position on the court. He either plays the 4 or the 5 position. Given his height at 6-foot-7, he’s short to play in the team’s frontline. However, whatever he gives up in height, he makes up with the right attitude. He has both a bull-strong physique and will power that propel him to be the best he can be.

Jason was a revelation in the Gilas’ stint in Dubai last January where he played beyond everybody’s expectations. Besides, he may not produce eye catching figures in the stat sheets but he can give the opposing teams’ big men big headache. I am hoping that he will be included in the final roster of Smart Gilas that plays on the Asian Games this November in Guangzhou, China.

The performance of the developmental team in their recent joust in the gulf city somehow provides a glimpse of where the program is at right now. This program is aimed to restore basketball supremacy in Asia that we Filipinos had been enjoying for decades. It was patterned after the Northern Cement team of the eighties where a foreigner was tasked to do the coaching chores, beefed up with naturalized players and with a financial backing of a mogul with a vast interest in basketball. That formula came up with a gold medal finish in the 1986 ABC, the forerunner of the FIBA-Asia. Had it not been with the political instability right after EDSA I, Northern Cement-backed team should have played in the 1986 World Championship in Madrid, Spain. In short, the formula is effective. That is why, I am confident that Smart Gilas can duplicate the feat of the Northern Cement back in the eighties. And I believe that Gilas is on the right track.