LATE December last year, basketball patron Alex Wang launched his book to celebrate and chronicle the 25 years of Wang’s basketball club.

I should know because he commissioned me together with colleagues Fred Nasiad and Danny Simon to work on this mini book project that took us almost two years because of the pandemic and the fact that I underwent a quad bypass March 2021.

The good news is that after almost two and a half years of hiatus, Alex has resumed the regular scrimmages for his ballclub with reforming his new team as the objective but this time focusing more on developmental basketball.

You see in the past ,Wang’s ballclub has been home for both the up and coming young players, mostly collegiate wanting to hone their skills and show what they can do, with eyes set on the PBA.

At the same time too, it has been a venue for former professional players who either just want to keep in shape or looking for another chance to get back to playing commercially.

Among the players who have passed thru Wang’s in the past are PBA top picks like current players, Allein Maliksi, Bong Quinto, and Arvin Tolentino, while on the older side, EJ Feihl, Terry Saldana, Loreto Tolentino, and Buboy Rodriguez among others, have seen action in Wang’s.

I met up anew with Alex recently at The Homecourt in Mandaluyong, his current venue for scrimmages , where he was with Letran classmate and coach Jun Guingon and the new group of players wanting to become part of the ballclub’s history.

Jun used to be a player himself for Letran but injuries prevented him from continuing his plans for basketball even if he was rated then among the top 20 junior players of the land.

Alex shared his plans like reviving the Millenium Basketball League that had a long history prior to the pandemic, and if so, Wang’s will join with a new team that would generally be on the younger side, maybe a couple of veterans to reinforce,

Of course the average age of the team will be pulled up by Alex who has already become a dual citizen, being now a senior ctizen and a Filipino.

He admitted that when it comes to playing the game, it is with lesser passion as he is more concerned on his health condition too, oh yes, he can still run, drive, finish a fastbreak, and shoot a trey or too, but do not ask him to do it for the entire game.

He also plans to continue with hs involvement with the PBA’s D-League, where prior to the Covid 19 situation, he shifted to sponsoring the Letran Knights in the league to strengthen the team, and the effort paid off with an NCAA championship in 2019,this is due to his being active in the Letran Alumni and is involved with the school’s basketball team.

Possible too that he will end up with a team composed of the core of Letran to be joined by another six players from those currently trying out, with him as the playing team owner.

Just to give you a better dea of this guy’s basketball back ground, he has been helping out in the background, both the national teams and some collegiate teams that were handled by former Wang’s players like Ato Tolentino and Rodriguez who both produced champion teams in the collegiate level.

He also extended a helping hand to a common friend Fritz Gaston when the latter coached the women’s team in the SEABA and SEA Ganes way back.

All the people I talked to while doing his book, they were one in saying he is a guy always ready to lend a helping hand withot expecting a return.

That is also why I found it hard to refuse his request that we come out with his book, and now, he is starting on the next 25 years of Wang’s, but please do not expect me to do another book for a 50th milestone, I will either have crossed to the other side or too old already to write the book.

LOOSE CHANGE: Maybe I spoke too soon, F2 Logistics is now 0-2 in the PVL, to think I predicted it to be a shoo-in in the top 4….you can check this out, has any NCAA team beaten a UAAP team in the Shakey’s Super League?…..will attend a Blu Boys’ team practice soon and do a story. By Lito Cinco

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