The 1985 RP Team
by Oliver Carlos
Recently, the 2021 Gilas Pilipinas team caught this basketball-crazy nation by storm. It has reaped surprising victories against tough rivals using young players who have a full-time commitment to the national team. Coach Tab Baldwin and his program is seen by many as the key for transforming the Gilas team into a very promising unit capable of dominating Asian basketball once again. Baldwin’s style is very non-traditional because he didn’t include PBA players in his pool. He made good of young players who were available and willing to work under his system. Most of them are collegiate players, and a few are fresh high school graduates. So far, so good. These new generation Gilas players are showing great promise in the way they play. Given more time and preparation, they will realize their full potential as a team.
The idea or principle behind Baldwin’s basketball program isn’t really very new. Way back in the early 1980s, we formed an all-amateur national basketball team. That team was simply known as “The RP Team” (RP means Republic of the Philippines) and sponsored by Northern Consolidated Cement (NCC). The players of the RP Team were selected from the collegiate ranks and then trained together with a commitment of not turning pro for as long as they were under the NCC-RP Team program. Thus, they grew up together, learned the system together, and in the end, functioned like a well-oiled machine. Teamwork and camaraderie were developed to the hilt. The program began in 1982 and peaked in 1985.
The RP Team collected a total of 4 championships in their last 6 months together. This included a PBA diadem, and 3 international crowns. NCC competed as a guest team in the PBA 3rd conference of that year and won the championship despite going up against pro teams with hulking imports! Earlier in July of 1985, they ruled the Jones Cup in Taipei. It’s a tournament composed of club teams from all over the world. They defeated Team USA in the finals.
In mid-December, The RP Team went on to get the gold medal in the 1985 SEA Games in Thailand. Two weeks later, they won the most prestigious tournament of them all- the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) crown. This competition was held in Malaysia from December 28, 1985 to January 5, 1986. The ABC is the old name of FIBA-Asia. In that tournament, we defeated the best teams in the continent, which included China and South Korea.
I watched many games of the 1985 RP Team from the opening tip to the final buzzer. I was so impressed at how they methodically defeated the opposing teams, and how coach Ron Jacobs shuffled his men. So dominating was the RP Team that they beat their opponents by large margins. In most games, during the last 5 minutes, Coach Jacobs would field in his shock troopers. These were the team’s bench players tasked to do the end-game mopping operation. It’s so fun watching these bunch of guys strut their wares in the closing minutes. Every player on the roster was given a role, ample playing time, and a chance to contribute to the victory.
But from 1990 to 2020, we abandoned the NCC model and instead sent teams composed of PBA players or amateur teams sprinkled with pros, to the international competitions. A big problem was that these teams never had the luxury of a lengthy training period before plunging into competition. They were assembled just weeks before the international tournaments, as the pro players were not available for training due to their tight schedule and commitment in the pro league. It’s just now in 2021 that we are reverting to our tried and tested recipe for success.
Deep and lengthy preparation is indeed a key to the success, not only in sports, but also in any endeavor in life. When Moses was given a very big assignment by God, he first underwent a 40-year training in the desert. Since he will shepherd the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land, God trained Moses to shepherd flocks of sheep in the very same wilderness that the Israelites would cross to get to their destination. In those 40 years, Moses matured, developed his shepherding skills, as well as character needed to lead more than a million people.
“When Moses…left Egypt. He went to live in the land of Midian…Forty years later, …The Lord said… ‘I have seen my people suffer much in Egypt. I have heard my people crying and have come down to save them. Come now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’” (Acts 7:29–34, ERV)
What big project are you into right now? What lofty goal are you trying to reach? How are you preparing yourself? Remember to pour in a lot more focus, time, effort, patience, and prayers into what you are doing. Dedicate your work to God’s glory, let him lead you, and expect to reap a harvest in his perfect time.
