inboundpass.com – Covering Philippine college basketball / UAAP, NCAA, PCC

Second of two parts

AFTER a successful tour with the RP Youth Team and the start of a budding PABL career with the San Miguel franchise Magnolia Ice Cream, the life of Danny Francisco would change forever.

During a routine physical check-up prior to the 1989 UAAP Season, doctors discovered that Danny had an aneurysm in his heart. His aorta had dilated, and continued exposure to physical exertion such as that demanded in playing basketball could cause untimely death. After agonizing over what to do, Danny and his family decided that he would have to stop playing basketball and find ways to improve his health, including taking medication. His soaring basketball career, which seemingly would have no limit, had abruptly ended.

Truly, the disappointment in local basketball circles was apparent. Ramon Fernandez was winding up his storied PBA career and, although Paras was eager to step in as the next dominant inside operator, he did not quite fit the same mold. Danny would have been perfect, but it was not meant to be.

The period for grieving eventually passed and Danny went on with his life, staying close to the game he loved, but now only from the sidelines.

In 1992, doctors in the United States performed a surgical procedure on Danny, in an attempt to better his physical condition. But, alas, he would not be able to resume his basketball career. After finishing his course at Ateneo in the same year, Danny started working in the hotel industry. He was still always a sight to see wherever he went because of his height and it would be safe to say that he was probably the tallest hotelier in the country at the time. Later, he transferred from working at a hotel to a sports club, becoming Sports and Games Manager of the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.

A few years thereafter, Danny tried his luck in business by working in a retail sports clothing franchise from the United States.

Through all his endeavors, basketball, the game he continued to love and observe from a distance, beckoned. He sat as an analyst in the UAAP basketball coverage until 2002. When the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) was formed in the late 1990s, the Cebuana Lhuillier Gems hired Danny as team consultant. He also did some sportscasting for the MBA. During this time, the competitive fire of Danny seemed to rekindle. His analysis of the game was honed from years of study, of observing, of learning its intricacies. He was critical – a trait that many television viewers did not appreciate – but frank. He said things about the game the way he saw it, from his high vantage point. People recognized him and would ask questions. “What happened to this guy again?” “Why is he not playing in the PBA?” Having reconciled himself with the fact that basketball was just one of the many things he could do in his life, Danny moved on and came back full circle to the game that moved him, that pushed him, earlier in his younger days.

In 2004, Danny was part of the National Basketball Development Program (NBDP), a program geared towards developing basketball in the country, with the end-view of re-establishing Philippine basketball glory. The NBDP played host to a training pool of players, some of whom were familiar names, such as Richard Melencio, Celino Cruz, Ricky Calimag and Dennis Madrid. Some of the players in the pool were tapped to represent the country in international tournaments, while the rest remained as alternates. The coaches were Boysie Zamar and Dong Vergeire. This was somewhat a precursor of the training pool being groomed nowadays to represent the country internationally.

At present, Danny is the Executive Assistant of Jean Henri Lhuillier, the President and CEO of the Cebuana Group of Companies. Danny is also concurrently the General Manager of P & EL Realty Corporation, part of the Cebuana Group of Companies, handling acquisition and development of real estate properties and pawnshops.

Happily married to his wife, Leah, nee Magboo, since 1995 and blessed with three children, namely Juan Diego and twin girls Annika Danielle and Sofia Beatriz, Danny is at peace. His family is his pride and joy and helping the Philippines try to recapture its basketball prowess, his current goal. He has no intention of pushing his son into following his footsteps. In 2004, Juan Diego was only five years old, but already stood more than four feet tall. Now already ten, Juan Diego is five foot two, but although sports-minded, playing mostly basketball and tennis, he has not taken to any one sport seriously. The thought makes one ponder the possibilities. The nine-year old twin girls also play basketball, but are interested in the arts, dancing and “enjoying girl stuff.”

Danny took time out to discuss his views on several topics.

He said that the persons who had the greatest influence in his life are the basketball coaches he had, like Chot Reyes and Fritz Gaston, whom he calls great characters and motivators. As far as influence in his style of play, appropriately he cites two of the PBA’s twenty-five all-time greatest, El Presidente, Ramon Fernandez, for his intelligent style of play, and the Scholar, Philip Cezar, for his superb defense.

His most memorable basketball experiences are the three straight championships his teams won from 1986 to 1988. He is particularly proud of his 1986 UAAP Juniors’ team that swept all its games en route to the outright crown due to the sweep, a rule that the UAAP has since abandoned. He remembers vividly his match-ups against all the great big men of that era. Of course, the blue-blooded Eagle that he is, he beams at the memory of defeating De La Salle in 1988.

When asked about his thoughts on La Salle, he said that considers them worthy rivals. He admits that the advantage of La Salle is that is has a great basketball recruitment program. As proof of this, he says, one need only look at the number of championships La Salle has won in the past twenty years. Surprisingly though, in spite of the intense rivalry with La Salle and the other universities, he considers all the players he played against as good friends and a big part of his life.

Danny says that there have been a lot of developments in terms of recruitment for all schools in the UAAP. Each school has been actively pursuing players. This is good not only for the school program but for the players as well, since they get the opportunity to have quality education while pursuing a basketball career. According to him, the early exit of La Salle in the recent UAAP season does not mean La Salle has a poor program. It is just that the basketball recruitment cycle is now more balanced. There are a lot of players to choose from, and Danny is sure that La Salle was looking long-term in the players they recently recruited, to bear fruit in two to three years. As for Ateneo, Danny says the key to continued success is sustaining the recruitment program. Of course, there are other factors involved such as the character of the student-athlete, his study-habits, and new surroundings that may impede his stay in a particular school.

As far as the UAAP is concerned, Danny has absolutely no involvement with the league today, other than being an occasional spectator. He, together with many past Ateneo greats, was present at the venue several times during the just-concluded UAAP season, where the Eagles won back-to-back titles. He mentions that the UAAP and the NCAA are the premier basketball leagues in the country, thanks largely to the support of the media, particularly ABS-CBN. Both leagues have grown considerably from previous years and become much more popular because of the marketing push of their various supporters and sponsors. Most importantly, though, Danny says, it is the fans that have shown, and continue to show, their true school spirit.

Danny looks back at Ateneo with much affection and gratitude. He sees that Ateneo embarked on a recruitment program aimed at accepting student-athletes who can serve the school in the different sports disciplines. Of course, the thrust in Ateneo, as in almost every other school, is in basketball, which is recognized as the most popular and prestigious sport. He, however, would like to see all sports in the school ably supported by the students, alumni and school officials. He is proud of the fact that Ateneo has continued to promote sports and sports development without having to sacrifice the quality of the education it provides, as well as the quality of its students.

Regarding the Ateneo Seniors’ basketball team, it is obvious that the support for it has been tremendous, especially in recent years. On winning back-to-back championships and duplicating what Danny and his teammates did in ’87-’88, Danny feels that it was an end-result of planning and implementation on the part of the Ateneo Team management.

In 2004, when asked about the state and future of Philippine basketball, Danny declared that he did not think the Philippines could recover its lost glory in the sport without the collective effort of all governing bodies of basketball in the country, from high school all the way to the professional leagues. He felt that players had lost the true meaning of playing for the national team and wearing the national colors. When called upon to play for the national team, every player must leave behind any other affiliation, just as the players of our Asian neighbors do. Somehow, we are blinded by our past glory and believe that we are still the best, even if it is crystal clear that we no longer are. And, instead of trying to improve after another setback in international competition and trying to figure out the reasons for failure, we tend to begin the never-ending nitpicking and finger-pointing that Filipinos are wont to do whenever they are on the losing end. The success formula, if ever it is found, will not work overnight. According to Danny, it could take many years. However, the process of finding the formula has to start right now.

The current program, Danny thinks, looks good. It is similar to the program he was a part of starting in 2003. The idea was to set targets for the national team, one team targeting the SEA Games and the Asian Games, looking at challenges that are reasonable and reachable.

The journey of Danny Francisco has been filled with ups and downs. He has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. He has felt on top of the world at one moment, only to crash down to earth in the next. He is the perfect example of “what might have been.”

Through it all, he has made himself into a success, in spite of the disappointments along the way. Curiously, when Danny was playing in the UAAP Juniors’ and Seniors’ basketball tournaments in the late ‘80s, there were no individual awards given. There were no MVPs, Rookies of the Year or Mythical Fives. But he was a winner at every level he played. And he stresses that team success always outweighed his own.

Danny Francisco is not an icon in Philippine basketball. He did not have enough time to become one. However, he is a special awardee of the Ateneo Hall of Fame and, undoubtedly, he was a star in the UAAP. He enjoyed, for a fleeting period of time, the success of which many young Filipinos can only dream.

Posted in Columns, The Right Call