On August 21, former Philippine men’s national basketball coach Rajko Toroman declared that this year’s national team is the “strongest team in the history of Philippine basketball.” These bold words, however, is wanting of results—the team’s performance in the ongoing FIBA World Championship will be the ultimate affirmation, or rejection, of Toroman’s pronouncement. History, however, is providing us with a better hindsight of our century-long basketball tradition and armed with knowledge of the past, we can provide the six best nominees for the strongest Gilas of all time.

Today, we are examining the Philippine team in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship.

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The dribble-drive offense (DDO)—basketball’s most maligned strategy, if you survey Filipino basketball fans today.

Outdated, dribble-heavy, with no regard to team play, it seemed that Filipinos have forgotten that this system was a thing of beauty in our best home performance ever. Unpredictable, exciting, and unsettling for the rigid, Orthodox opponents, Filipinos seem to equate this motion offense to iso, one-on-one basketball.

Like him or not, Vincent “Chot” Reyes was, and remains to be, the best Filipino coach to implement this system, and his mastery of DDO makes him one of the winningest Filipino coaches of all time.

Domestically? Before 2013, Reyes was an eight-time Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) champion, four of which come from the import-less Philippine Cup. His success made him the only five-time PBA Coach of the Year.

Internationally? Before 2013, Reyes steered the national team to a three podium finished in the William Jones Cup—including the 2012 edition—and this came after inheriting a new basketball governing body after FIBA suspended the disgraced Basketball Association of the Philippines.

Come the 2013 FIBA Asian Cup, the budding Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) was aiming for a return to the FIBA World Championship for the first time in 36 years. After the dark ages of the 90s and 2000s despite the proliferation of Filipino-foreign hoopers, SBP tasked Reyes to lead the Philippines back to the world stage. And Reyes was the perfect man for the job.

What he and the management assembled were, undoubtedly, the greatest Filipino cagers of the new millennium.

We had, arguably, the best point guards of all time in team captain Jimmy Alapag, Jayson Castro, and L.A. Tenorio, who, despite standing 5’8” at most, are the best dribblers in Asia at that time.

The snipers included Jeff Chan, Gary David, and Larry Fonacier—all with accurate three-point shooting, a skill that would become a necessity for the decade.

The forwards were facilitator/glue guy Gabe Norwood, three-and-D Ranidel de Ocampo, the 6’10” dunker Japeth Aguilar, and the hard-nosed Marc Pingris.

The centers were the ultimate team player Marcus Douthit, who is our most underrated naturalized player of all time, and the Philippines’ best center June Mar Fajardo.

These men were perfect fit for Reyes’ DDO—legendary ball handlers, consistent shooters, mobile and team-oriented bigs, and brutally physical defenders.

This team also prided itself as one of the most prepared to have ever competed in a continental tournament as the national pool was formed a year prior and were trained to execute DDO to a t.

And come August 2013, in front of a riotous home crowd, this version of Gilas showed Asia why the Philippines is the continent’s O.G. powerhouse in basketball.

Most of all, this version of Gilas showed, not undisciplined me-first basketball, but total teamwork. There was no runaway top scorer in the tournament, with the likes of Castro, Tenorio, Chan, Fonacier, and David posting team highs in scoring for the seven games played. This is telling, for in basketball height is might, but with Gilas’ unique system, the small men stood the tallest.

Nothing epitomized this Napoleonic complex than Gila’s semifinal game performance—the World Cup clincher—against long-time heartbreaker South Korea.

Playing without the injured Douthit for the entire second half, Gilas decided to play the 6’4” Pingris in place of the 6’11” import at the center spot and stymied the 6’9” Korean-American Lee Seung-Jin for the entire half.

It was a see-saw battle all throughout and the crowd knows Gilas’ history against the Koreans in the clutch, most recently the botched free throws of Olsen Racela in the 2002 Asiad. But this squad would not disappoint this time.

The separation happened in the last three minutes, with Alapag and De Ocampo exploding for 11 points off three triples. Norwood blocked an outside attempt by Korea then Pingris finished the game with a putback layup to seal the Philippines’ return to the FIBA Worlds.

By the end of the buzzer, the greatest basketball game played on Philippine soil had concluded. We are again Asia’s favorite in our favorite sport.

After the MOA Arena got emptied, after all the lights were turned off, the 2013 team became the strongest Gilas of all-time.

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