Contributed by reader Kelvin Poh
Hong Weijian. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
As it has become my routine, I was reading the various articles and comment threads on Red Hoops this morning.
In one of the Red Hoops threads from the third game of the Slinger-Satria Muda semi-final series, there was a comment from “Andrew” that Kyle Jeffers cannot win a championship if he continues to play with the weak Singapore locals.
A follow on remark from “mart” acknowledged that Hong Weijian played a good Game 3, and that this was a positive sign for the Slingers, and then wondered what happened to Wong Wei Long, whom he feels disappeared as the season progressed.
This being a topic close to my heart, I could not help but jump in.
The Singapore local basketball scene has many issues to overcome. Being involved in the scene in one capacity or another for over the past 20 years, I have enough opinions to write a book but I’ll just rattle off a few comments pertinent to the issue of “weak” local players.
Firstly, Singapore society, up to the last few years, has not been conducive for sports excellence. Only a very select few have been successful in making a career from sports. Even if sporting excellence is attained, an even smaller group out of these elite athletes manages to reap financial success from sports.
Suffice to say, most parents would rather see their children focus on academic pursuit, and beyond their school years, channel their energy and talents into the corporate world, or in the civil service, rather than excel on the sporting field.
Things have changed, and now, as a society we are working on this. Sports as a career, is becoming more viable, with successful individuals enjoying good income and higher standards of living for themselves and their families.
Basketball, however, is still lagging behind other sports, in this aspect. Outside of a small group of full-time coaches, Basketball as a career, in Singapore, is still in its infancy.
We have many players who stop playing the game at a high level after they leave school. Even the most passionate, who continue to play competitively, cannot sustain the required commitment levels, once they start working. Inevitably, they drop out. So, the high performance talent pool for seniors is small.
Our boys do not have enough opportunity to play at a higher level. Before the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), they only played local competitions. The Australian National Basketball League (NBL) did not count. The two or three Singapore boys selected had very limited playing minutes. The main benefit was the exposure from the coaching and the professional setup for training and conditioning.
The local Singapore clubs mostly do not groom talent, but poach and loan from each other to play in tournaments. This means that at the various tournaments, the same small pool of better players at their peak, play each other, and collectively “bully” the teams fielding lower-level players, or aging high performance players. There is no improvement if you are not playing against higher level players on a consistent basis.
Probably the only club with a decent training regime and program is Home United. Then again, many have felt that their ability to sustain such a program is due to the fact that they are the team sustained by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Singapore, that you can draw a salary for your day job and still get credited for time spent on basketball.
There has been a limited opportunity for these high-performance players to play regional opponents. Depending on the bosses associated with the local clubs who are sponsoring the teams, there is some ad-hoc participation in competitions in the region.
From my recollection, the Singapore teams have not had any noteworthy performances at these competitions. This is probably because the entire selection, training, competing process is so haphazard.
Incidentally, there is almost zero media coverage on such events and no vehicle for following the teams’ progress in our English press.
Off and on, the most organized senior team is probably our National team. The clubs feed the national team, and players gather for centralized training, with varying intensity levels depending on the next project they are preparing for.
However, the Basketball Association of Singapore has not sent the National team to the last few South East Asian (SEA) Games. This has been a source of much frustration for me. The SEA Games is the lowest level regional competition for our basketballers. It is also probably the least expensive competition to participate in, in terms or travel and management costs. If we do not send our National team to this competition, why bother having a National team at all?
So thanks to the gods and higher powers that we now have the Slingers. If you are talented enough, you can play basketball and get paid doing it. This means that if you are good enough, and if you put in the effort, you can now play high-level ball for more years, you can learn from professional and well-run organizations about skill development, tactics, and conditioning. Then when you are through playing, maybe you can get a basketball-related career extension in technical operations or coaching.
That’s why I make it a point to buy my own ticket, despite opportunities to get complimentary ones and be in the various corporate boxes. I want the franchise to be successful and profitable so that they will stay with us for a long time, and help us build our platform for our local talent.
My gratitude also to the franchise and to coach Frank Arsego for not filling up their full quota of imports, thereby allowing a local to be the 5th man, and forcing the locals to play a bigger role off the bench.
We have rotated several Singaporeans in this starting spot over the season. Hong WeiJian, Desmond Oh, Michael Wong have all been given opportunities and probably Weijian has blossomed the most.
Wong Wei Long had some good games, when he surprised opponents with his shooting and he played good perimeter pressure defense. But he is still young, and he is not yet matured and experienced enough to hold down the point guard job. Arguably, it is easier to be young and inexperienced and energetic at the shooting guard spot.
Then we have the other youngsters like Steven Khoo, Lim Wai Sian and Prasad Sadasivan who are not really skillful enough and definitely not big enough at this level to be effective as forwards (Prasad is listed as a guard).
I am sure that they train hard, and the exposure and training is helping them, but I do not see them contributing significantly and consistently at this level. That’s why I was very happy for Steven Khoo that he had his moment of glory when he was called to fill in for the starters in the key minutes of one of the regular season games, and he made some big plays (against the Patriots).
Our young ball players have better opportunities today than any of their predecessors in years past. There will be more players graduating from the school scene, including a promising 15-year-old, Delvin Goh, who is already over 1.9m and is being used as a centre for his school, Unity Secondary, but plays naturally like a power forward. Delvin is already being groomed in the national squad.
I hope the Slingers stay successful and stay with us long enough, so that these green shoots bear fruit. It wouldn’t hurt too if our national sports association did some serious self-evaluation as to what their long-term purpose and 5-year plan is.
As my old school motto preaches, there is hope for a better future.
Desmond Oh. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Michael Wong. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Pathman Matilakan. (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Lim Wai Sian. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Steven Khoo. (Photo 6 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Wong Wei Long. (Photo 7 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Prasad Sadasivan. (Photo 8 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Popularity: 28% [?]
actually their is already hope for Singapore in Basketball after Slingers is being created as their 1st and only Professional basketball team in Singapore.Now kids in singapore has a team to follow someday and hopefully will become a player with that team..Just like you mention above and you know why..c”,)
Yeah just by having a professional club – and now with a professional league that promotes local talent – that itself is hope and it makes local cagers perhaps amongst the most fortunate local athletes here. Surely the envy of many national athletes.
With the foreign talent scheme in place in so many other core/elite sports in Singapore, and in the absence of an effective professional club/league, being a national athlete on it’s own in Singapore is often more sacrificial than glorious.
Parental concerns are valid because beyond the emphasis of academic pursuits, parents want their child to be able to put food on the table and simply survive on their own. But being a national athlete here doesn’t cut the minimum living standard.
At least now, talented local cagers can live comfortably via this professional stint to supplement their NSA income/allowance. Still I must stress, it shouldn’t be taken for granted and they do need to take ownership of engaging the community.
In a country where there is no sports culture, being a professional athlete is not just about training and playing sport only. Guys like the author (Kelvin) who will invest time and money to support the local sports scene are too few and far between.
Good on you, Kelvin!
Nice post, Kelvin! This is my stand about Singaporean basketball. Almost all players under our B Division Schools know nuts about the game! The school coaches are too inexperienced to train or scout any talent because they are not trained themselves as basketball coaches. The Slingers can help train the locals from a young age because Singapore Schools’ coaching is a joke!
@Slingerrocks – The Slingers are supposed to help train the local youths. As part of the ABL deal, every team has to in fact organise at least one junior league to nurture young talents and continually create development programs and run clinics to reach out to the kids.
These clinics are all free yet schools have not been enthusiastic. In Singapore at least it will take a lot of extra work to just persuade and convince the schools and parents to open doors to Slingers, who will have to invest a lot of time in building these relationships.
Other than teams like Satria Muda that has been around for a long time and well-known to their local community, most teams have to start from scratch. So far I’ve only heard from the KL Dragons that they are organising a U-14 and U-17 basketball league in Malaysia.
and while we understand all the things you wrote here one fact remains… local players from singapore is still weak compared to other asean country when it comes to basketball..
and yes there is hope.. but dont hope too much coz you migth end up having a black president as well.. kiddin
@slingerocks
I beg to differ. Actually I feel that most of the nuturing is coming from out of the schools and B div is where the fastest development growth takes place. There are approx 140 schools starting the zone competitions each year. Many schools do not have good programs, many use PE teachers, regular teachers and or old boys and some hire “well known” players who may not be mature yet and prepared as coaches.
But I have a lot of respect for the programs at Unity Sec, Anglican High, Jurong Sec…just to name a few. There are also a core group of coaches that I respect, and although some of these are not affliated strongly to any school, but move around….when they are coaching a school….you will know that the teams they are leading will have some minimal quality.
Good point. Anglican’s tradition in basketball would speak for itself. But for a relatively new school, and a neighbourhood school too, I think Unity has done an amazing job with their basketball teams – no doubt having guys with an unusual height advantage (like Delvin and his older brother) helps but I think more importantly it’s the way they have worked towards maximising their potential and I know for one that they have won over the parents of their players – a big barrier.
Singapore slingers locals should really work hard this off season of ABL.. with the coming entry of vietnam( who by the way has three vietnamese playing in europe and in hawaii and will probably suit up) plus another philippine team from cebu( who will definitely dethrone the patriots if they will not revamp and harness their players) and another indonesian team..Slingers shall break a leg.
As far as i know, singapore athletes SEA games medalist receive second highest money incentives next from thailand, basketball national teams therefore should give a chance to play to sea games.
@jack.. is it really a team from cebu? whats your source?
are you sure vietnam can field 3 players with asean lineage?
@3stars. The team from Cebu is mostly a talk amongst us (Filipino) fans here. That’s because it’s more ideal to have a team from Cebu rather than another team from Manila. This is simply with the purpose of increasing the attendance of the fans in Philippines.
As for the team from Vietnam, you can back track on an article I posted, as a comment, from J. Chuongco on the best of the regular season, or at the Team Pilipinas thread under ABL in the PBA forum as well.
@Kelvin. Very good article, very well written, and it’s dead on! What Singapore is experiencing when it comes to basketball, is the very same for us in Philippines when it comes to football (or soccer). Philippines doesn’t have an established football league, outside the highschool and college level. If there is one, it wouldn’t last after two seasons. There are clubs like Kaya FC, LATEO, DBFC, and others, but they’re not professional clubs.
With the formation of the ABL, there’s certainly hope not only in Singapore, but also in the rest of the region for future ballers out there. Singapore and other ASEAN nations might be weak when it comes to basketball now, but as long as the ABL is around and with the help of their respective national associations, the gap of basketball talents between Philippines and the ASEAN region will be lessen over time. It will be difficult at first, but as long as the vision is alive, things can happen. So patience will be truly tested here.
This is something that I always wanted to see, which is stepping stone to help convince FIBA grant more slots for Asia in the Olypmpics and World Championships.
@Jan and Kelvin. About parents putting more emphasis on kids to excel more in academics than in sports, this is not only seen on Singaporean culture, but it’s all over Asia. That’s basically the very reason why Asians (Korean, Filipino, Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese, etc.) consistently excel in academics in the US because of our culture that we put very high emphasis on education rather than sports.
It is definitely academic that sports doesn’t last forever, especially in a sport were very high physical demand like Basketball is required. Usually, players start to decline at the age of 35 — depending on their playing position. Guards, I think, have the lowest lifetime and centers have the longest.
That’s why I still prefer education over sports. In fact most of the PBA and ABL players have college degrees and used basketball to gain college scholarships.
Don’t forget that some Pinoys are teaching “gulang” to some of the local kids now.
One thing with the locals here, seems like they prefer to play half court (up to 8 players) than play whole court.
@lrangels – Exactly that’s what I’m hitting at.
It’s not so much about parental emphasis of academic pursuits being in the way (as such a culture is inherently Asian) than it is about in Singapore, the perception of being a professional athlete equates to a very bleak future because the society (perhaps due to reliance on human capital) discourages such a career path. The lack of media coverage on local athletes speaks volumes!
It’s (over) pragmatic-ism at work, a very material culture over here.
Parents have the rightful reasons to be concerned about how their child is going to make a living if they choose this path, and unfortunately the governing bodies do not provide any answers, and neither do athletes themselves have a clue about how to survive as a pro (learning to market themselves as a free agent, finding their own sponsors, doing a degree alongside etc etc).
Unlike elsewhere in ASEAN, I know that my pro athlete friends have much better welfare because the (sports) culture in their countries permits and encourages this career path. Whether is it the governing policies and incentives in place, or just the idea of being a local sporting hero in a position to influence – Singapore differs from most (developing) Asian nations in this aspect.
Which is why local Slingers will be envied by their fellow sportsmen!
@3stars-irangels has already answer your querry about a cebu team..with regard to vietnam, these 3 are all pure vietnamese.they are considered as locals.
@Kelvin, coming out of the Singapore basketball system itself, I must say that the only hope for our young bballers are foreign coaching. Anglican High/ Catholic High may have a long basketball tradition, but the basketball standards of the youths of deteriorated over the last few years. Those kids playing at B Div level today, despite winning a championship, aren’t even close to the standard of the C Div a few years back. By the way, the national youth team coach was my school team coach back then.
@Irangels – There was one brief semi-professional attempt for basketball in the 90s here in Singapore. It collapsed after two seasons when the main sponsor pulled out. (Trivia: Slingers assistant coach Neo Beng Siang played in that league.)
The ABL is the only hope for Singapore ballers. In fact, the best thing for anyone in Singapore wanting to make any sport a career is a professional league or circuit where there is real money to be won.
The only other people in Singapore who make something of a career from sports are badminton and table tennis players because there is a) a professional circuit and b) government and private funding for the players.
Most basketball talents drop out after school. I’ve enjoyed watching some wonderful Singaporean talent who are aged 15-24 but they fade out after school, as Kelvin points out (and he should know since he coached school basketball).
This issue plagues other sports in Singapore as well. Not all the best talent are on the fields or courts of play. They are now having far more lucrative careers as photographers, doctors, accountants, managers and executives.
@lrangels, jack.. are you sure they are pure vietnemese? bryan ngo from vietnam is even half-filipino looking to play in the pba..
@jack.. Singapore slingers locals should really work hard this off season of ABL.. with the coming entry of vietnam( who by the way has three vietnamese playing in europe and in hawaii and will probably suit up) plus another philippine team from cebu
–you separate the fact and the fiction not to confuse any readers.. as everybody here is looking for confirmation on the additonal teams.
and for everybody the ABL CEO doesnt even want to get 2 teams from 1 country, heres a link:
http://forums.interbasket.net/f32/the-philippine-patriots-at-the-asean-11172/p67.html
Seems like Singapore does not have a collegiate basketball league?
There’s not much motivation for the kids to spend time improving their skills after they move on to college…
In the Philippines, colleges and universities offer scholarships to their students to play for them… especially in basketball (to a point that athletes of other disciplines are complaining about it)
Some blue chip high school player have even been offered cars and monthly allowances.
Being a player for some of the rich Universities has other perks such as getting free shoes, board and lodging, free trips to the US, Australia, and other countries (of course it is mainly for basketball training but there are also R&Rs that goes with the trips).
For players of some schools, there are incentives for winning the title – all expense paid trips to other countries..
@mart – Singapore does not have a collegiate basketball league like you do in the Philippines.
There is an inter-collegiate competition in Singapore called the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Games. There is a basketball tournament as part of that games.
However, it lasts no more than three weeks and has even less relevance to the schools than high school (secondary) basketball.
I presume the collegiate league in the Philippines stretches over a few months at least?
@Les. College basketball in Philippines basically ran from July to October — that’s for UAAP and NCAA. I am not sure about CESAFI since it’s a collegiate league based in Cebu, and they don’t get the proper TV exposure in Manila.
The only problem is that college basketball in Philippines is so fragmented that there’s no single governing body that supervises its recruiting practices unlike in the United States that has NCAA, which is broken down to various conferences like the Ivy League, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pacific-10, etc. These conferences follow the same method of recruiting practices as well as training of student athletes. At least now, there’s the Philippine Collegiate Championships, which crowns one national champion, and teams who participate here are from schools from various leagues around the country.
That’s why, as mart said, some of the rich colleges or universities give additional incentives to their recruits, which you cannot do in the US. A good example here is Chris Webber when he played for University of Michigan. Webber was offered cash and a car (it could be more) just to play in Michigan. The result was a sanction from the NCAA were they couldn’t join the NCAA tournament even though they won their respective league (the Big Ten). I think the sanction lasted for at least a couple of years.
To add to what mart mentioned, the basketball program in Philippines starts at the child or kid level. As some would call it here in the US, “pee-wee” level. That’s why some kids are exposed to competing at a high level as early as 10 years.
As far as the youth development for the ABL is concerned, I think it’s only the Philippine Patriots don’t have to do anything.
@Irangels – July to October – that’s a nice decent season. How many games does a team play if they go all the way?
UAAP – 8 schools 2 rounds of elimination.
- each school plays minimum of 14 games (2 against the rest)
- top 2 finishers earn twice to beat advantage against #3 and #4 (If #1 team actually sweeps the elimination rounds, then it’s a stepladder battle: winner between #3 and #4 will meet #2 -I can’t remember if #2 has twice to beat advantage; #1 is automatically in the finals).
- finals is best of 3.
- The Champion will play a minimum of 16 games and a maximum of 19.
NCAA – I’m not sure about it but they seem to have the same format.
- last season they have 10 teams (3 are guests). So each school plays minimum of 18 games.
- The Champion will play a minimum of 20(?) games and a maximum of 23(?)
They have the same format followed in the juniors (high school) division.
Even some UAAP/NCAA juniors (high school) games are played in an atmosphere better than the first 2 games of the ABL finals.
- They play in a bigger arena and the crowd exceeds 10 thousand (especially if it precedes a College finals game).
I think young kids are really motivated to crack the high school squads once they see this kind of atmosphere.
@Les
college basketball season in the Philippines runs at least 3 months. there are also inter-league tournaments that happen before and after the season. the same goes for high school varsity teams. certain college players even make it to a roster of a PBL team during the summer (pretty nice summer job, getting paid to play hoops). so some of our amateurs are technically semi-professionals. not all of them make it professionally, but that doesn’t mean the ones who don’t aren’t any good… it just means they weren’t given a shot. best case: Al Vergara.
having leagues for students won’t make Singapore much better in basketball, it’s just a totally different culture from the Philippines where an athletic scholarship is a means to an end (and more, like what mart said) for those with the talent.
16 to 19 games – that’s a nice number spread over a decent period of time. At IVP (varsity) level in Singapore, the championship team will play about 7 games over the three-week period. In some years, they finish in two weeks. The crowd attendance at the recent final was about 150.
Certainly just having a league doesn’t mean much for sport development. They whole eco system around the league has to be there as well. A local league that is not covered regularly by media will also die a natural death.
Best I can tell from the Filipino papers I’ve seen, you guys get wall-to-wall coverage of your own leagues (PBA and collegiate), right?
The newspapers cover the college games. The tv stations are fighting for broadcast rights (especially for the UAAP).
Through the Filipino Channel, I was even able to watch a UAAP Final from the US.
There are lots of websites that have forums and info for the leagues.
The name calling and bashing you see here in redhoops is nothing compared with what you’ll see in those forums. Even if the basketball season is over, the bashing continues.
Up to early 80s, fans acted like hooligans. There were several matches marred by riots.
The offseason is as interesting as students await who will be able to recruit the top high school players.
I think the NCAA is on its 80th season (at least) while the UAAP is on its 70s. Up to the late 80s, the games were not regularly broadcasted.
The school leagues has prospered mainly on the passion and pride of the students and alumni.
@3stars- that is only an opinion of Mr.foo,that is not yet the decision of the whole abl, as far as i know they do not want another team in manila because of the existence of the patriots.Philippines is an archepelagic nation. it has a rich tradition of basketball rivalry among region..Besides, what they refused to accept are from other non asean counries joining the league. From the beginning, ABL has offered two slots from the philippines and indonesia…Well, bryan ngo has a choice to play here of in vietnam, the other two are pure vietnamese.Like filipinos, vietnamese can also be found anywhere else in the world coming from war exodus back then.so dont get surprised!
Vung Tau, Can Tho, Saigon can find many half vietnamese/foreign.
Vietnamese basketball player are built skinny not tall, if given proper training,they can easily match thailand,singapore,brunei,as there is no height advantage.
Hi Basketball doooods!!!!….LETS GET SINGAPORE IN THE GAME!….basically, basketball was introduced to Philippines ages ago because of our American influence…believe it or not…its like each town has at least 2 to 5 basketball courts in the Philippinesm, make it city or provinces…its like Each Place has its own sports complex here in Singapore..in Manila each barangay has each basketball court…well moving forward, im here now in Singapore.If Singapore only knew that Basketball now here in Singapore is stronger.Many Filipinos now live here at singapore and Americans. If you go in the basketball courts here many now are playing. I suggest lets take it to the next level.Way back in Philippines, we have ligas, why not we organize it here, Like team Jurong vs. Team Bedok, or Team Ang Mo kio Vs. Team Commonwealth…Each Place makes a tryout to have their players. then challenging the team of another Place..I am sure it would be fun…arising superstars would come out in each team..then it would be the future players for Singapore Slingers…i would like to join a team here in Bouna vista if any..what you say guys hehehhe
@jack.. if you read the interview he use the word “we” and not “I” the whole statement and basic common sense will tell you that he is speaking in behalf of the whole organization where he is the CEO in the first place.
@3stars-ask eric tohir,chairman of the ABL!
@jack, go ask him yourself.. wont take a favor from the same guy who said bryan ngo is pure viet..
@3stars and jack. I think logically, it’s an awful idea to have another ABL team based in Manila. Not because of the Patriots, but basketball is super saturated in the Metro Manila area. We got the PBA, PBL, UAAP, NCAA, etc., and they’re all Manila-based leagues.
Adding another Manila-based team, say the Paranaque Jets, and looking at the fan attendance of the Patriots games, having a half-empty stadium would look very bad for the league especially if the game is in Manila.
So it’s certainly very very logical not to have a team in Manila. Where? I don’t know, and that remains to be seen.
@irangels… i agree with yall that it has to be a cebu based team.. but like you im still waiting for the formal announcement..
its not the ABL doesnt want another team from philippines, if can, ABL prefer another team that is not from manila base because it will split the fans base of the country/region.
so as the forums speak, a cebu base team would be ideal.
indonesia would definitely fill in another team as the club already have their own fanbase (my best best would be one of the clun in IBL – probably garuda)
KAI, whats ur contact number in singapore
theres a possible slinger prospect in university of texas at dallas by the name of Scott Rodgers.. apparently he is part singaporean according to a forum..
http://cometsports.utdallas.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=509&path=mbball
@3stars – Rodgers certainly looks like he has a Chinese mother …
Forums like that is how most of us, fans, find half-foreign Filipino basketball players.
The beauty of the Internet.
and scout for other possible additions to interested PBA/PBL teams.
i will travel from cotabato to find and meet you 3stars! soon.i will the world is so small for us! yawa!
jack<– 3stars number 1 fan
gago ka 3stars!!!
hi! 3stars! i hope your ok? Putang ina mo!
@jack. Dude, please watch your language.
@irangels-wel that is my sports language. im used to it during my U.p frat days.
@jack..oh so your one of those people who take the beating and spanking to gain friends.. at least you have friends rigth??
and i never thought joining frat is considered sport?? lolz