Gilas Pilipinas: The Natural

Photo courtesy of pba-online.net

His name is Marcus Douthit, and at 6"10 he is arguably the biggest yet most underscored storyline in the current renaissance enjoyed by Philippine basketball when it comes to international meets.

Time and again many have gone into detail about how incompetent our big men were down the block as compared to our Asian brethren. That despite being dominant at the local front, they're easily reduced to second-guessing fools who feel that all they have to do is concentrate on one end of the floor and leave the rest to the smaller guys.

Marcus Douthit: The Big Daddy Difference

Thank You Douthit!

With Team Pilipinas a.k.a. SMART Gilas 2.0 looking stronger by the day, even causing greats such as Ronnie Magsanoc and Vince Hizon to call it the "best ever," we should all take time to thank the one guy who has made the biggest transition of all in the name of overall success.

We're talking about no less than naturalized center Marcus Douthit-- the 6"10 pillar of strength that has seen and led two different Pilipinas basketball selections over the last two to three years. The soft-spoken big man with droopy eyes and fundamentally sound finesse low post moves has not only embraced his new country but has quickly adapted to whatever system is presented him.

Back when then Pilipinas head coach Rajko Toroman brought the New Yorker in, expectations were unfairly high on Douthit. The SMART Gilas program was taking quite a while to develop, and though the system was working and our players were being developed-- we were still a basketball doughnut despite having an import named C.J. Giles (who was more athletic than skilled, not too mention him being skinnier than Gabe Norwood *not a complement for a center*).