Seven foot syndrome

Land of the Giants
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

There used to be a period in the Philippine Basketball Association wherein foreign reinforcements were hired mostly for their high-flying, prolific scoring and ultraelectromagnetic athleticism ways.

Nowadays?

We are seeing less and less of the pure "scorers" and more of the seven foot kind-- a testament to how far local basketball talent has come, and where we are currently left lacking.

Sure, there are 6"5 imports running around the league nowadays who are more do-it-all than gunslingers, but all eyes will always be given to the 7"0 specimens-- be it from the fans, media and even (and more importantly) opposing PBA teams.

In the current PBA Governor's Cup tournament, four giants are lording it over namely: Barako Bull's Liam McMorrow (39 mpg 27 ppg 23 rpg 1 apg), Kia Carnival's Hammady N'Diaye (43 mpg 15 ppg 1 rpg 1 apg), GlobalPort's Jarrid Famous (40 mpg, 27 ppg 17 rpg 1 apg) and Blackwater's Marcus Douthit (45 mpg 22 ppg 14 rpg 4 apg).

Collectively, they are just absurd, mammoth human beings who leave our own giants -- Asi Taulava, Greg Slaughter and Junemar Fajardo looking a bit on the weaker side. McMorrow has muscles on muscles but keeps running up and down the court like a featherweight, N'Diaye is long and agile, Famous' innate basketball talent is superb while Douthit's IQ is that of a sage.

A bit of an exaggeration, but still a lot better than the local competition.

Moving forward, we actually love the introduction of more and more seven footers. Before, the PBA would just flirt with the whole "unlimited height" thing. Probably because actually signing up decent 6"11-7"0 talent is a lot easier said than done.

We love how the four guys mentioned above are very different, that they are not all athletic, or grizzled vets in the paint. Each one offers something new (even the elder Douthit), and the other teams who were not as "blessed" to avail of imports of their stature are coming up with all sorts of ways to try and lock them up.

So far, no team has really shut down any of the four bigs in a game. They've slowed them down, sure-- foul trouble is a b*tch. But to not contribute?

Still waiting for Marc Pingris to get his hands dirty-- probably in the Playoffs (should they make it, of course).

Our kind proposal to the PBA?

6"6 for the Commissioner's Cup, and go out with a bang in the 3rd conference with unli height imports.