London-born Filipino basketball player ready to showcase his skills

Apart from multimillionaire boxer Manny Paquiao, not many Filipinos make the headlines for their aptitude in the sports world. Still, that doesn’t mean that uprising Filipino talents aren’t eager to change that…

 

Every year, the Philippine Basketball League invites Filipino-native basketball players from all four corners of the globe to take part in a week-long tournament that takes place in Chicago, USA.

This year, the tournament will run in late May, and London Met student Ed Tomlinson – an half-Filipino/half-Caribbean – has already put together a team of players to take part in the competition.

Ed, 20, a second year student majoring in sports science, has been a valuable member of the university basketball team for two years now; however during that time, he has also played in a London-based Filipino league where he heard about the upcoming tournament in America while also meeting others who were interested in joining.

“It’s a fun opportunity to get to travel to the states because I’ve never been there, and also, I’ll get to meet more Filipino basketball players like myself and see where my game is at”

“We are also playing for a prize ($1,000) so there definitely is an incentive for both the team and myself to be on our A game,” he said.

Ed and his teammates still haven’t decided on a name for the team, but they’ve already signed up and submitted a mandatory deposit fee. All that’s left now, is saving enough money for the flights and making sure that every single player on the team has enough saved up for accommodation, plus any extra expenses.

He said: “Even if we win, the prize money won’t even cover a fraction of our expenses, but that’s not why we are going.”

“We are going to interact with fellow Filipinos as well as experiencing the culture of a different country.”

The PBL is a professional basketball league that welcomes players from all over the world, and because of its high competition, not many Filipino players arrive at the country’s premier level.

With the tournament, the idea is to give Filipino-native athletes the opportunity to showcase their talents and skills in front of scouts from the PBL as well as other American-based faces who may be loafing around the gyms while the ball is tossed up.

Chicago is the perfect place to accomplish this, as the appeal of the Chicago Bulls (NBA team) and the many other well-known universities dispersed around the “Windy City” is one that lures the players into applying and taking part in the games.

“I’m a big Chicago Bulls fan, so when we arrive there, and assuming they haven’t been knocked out of the playoffs, I will definitely go to watch one of their games.”

One of his teammates, London-based Chino Maidana, says that the only reason why he wants to go is for the exposure a camp/showcase like this one can provide, something that he feels is missing here I the United Kingdom.

“In London not many people know that there is a Filipino league. When we play, at our games the only people watching are fellow Filipinos or people waiting for the games to be finished so that they can use the gym themselves. In the States it is a whole different story.”

With a few weeks left before the tournament, Ed can easily be found at the university gym working on his game whenever he has some free time.

He says that people keep kicking him out because he overstays the time he promised.

“If I keep coming back and staying longer than I should, hopefully they’ll stop trying to kick me out,”

“I can’t be going to America unprepared. I know that when we get there and they see that we are from London, they’ll start laughing at us wondering what we know about basketball, and that’s okay. But I just want to make sure that we get the last laugh.”