ONE particular 16-year-old player from Fresno, California caught the attention of many basketball fans in the recent SM-NBTC National Finals—Fil-Am Jalen Green.
“There were new faces, new talents and Jalen Green stood out,” said chief organizer Eric Altamirano inside the tournament office at the Mall of Asia Arena last Friday.
The 6’5” Green, a big shooting guard, came over as part of the FilAm USA Squad that joined the five-day, 32-team cagefest.
He was among the standouts of the squad, along with 19-year-old Kihei Clark, who hails from Los Angeles, and 17-year-old Elijah Jackson, who is set to study at Eastern Washington University.
Green, considered by ESPN as the no. 1 draft NBA prospect in the class of 2020, was one of the crowd favorites during the tournament.
His agility on the court impressed a lot. He finished with NBTC-high averages of 33.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.5 assists.
Green, who shifted to basketball from soccer after finding inspiration in the game of Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant, almost led his team to the semifinals when he made 51 points in their Elite 8 game with eventual champion, the Nazareth School National University Bullpups.
“When I was a kid, I played baseball and soccer. But when I started playing basketball, I said, ‘I could do something with this,’ so I started practicing harder. When I told my parents I want to concentrate on being the best possible basketball player that I can be, they pushed me to get better and perform at a higher level,” said Green in an interview.
Green’s mother, Bree Burganan and her grandfather are from the Philippines.
Green was impressive when he led FilAm Sports USA over University of Visayas, 102-68, on Tuesday in the NBTC National Finals’ Sweet 16 with his 21 points, including three crowd-pleasing dunks in the first half.
His presence sparked a short-lived interest in making him play for the Batang Gilas during his stint in the NBTC.
But it was quickly dashed when it was learned that Green has previously played for Team USA’s Under-16 team, which scored a five-game sweep to win the gold medal last year in the FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Argentina.
Because of this, Green is getting ready to suit up for Team USA in the 2018 FIBA U17 World Cup, set from June 30 to July 8.
Green, who studies in San Joaquin Memorial National High School, can’t make it to Batang Gilas under Fiba rules, which disqualifies him from playing for any other nation in Fiba-sanctioned tournaments, except as a naturalized player.
“Yes of course,” said Green, in an online interview, when asked on the possibility of him on joining Team Pilipinas in the future.
“It’s always an opportunity to come play in the Philippines where my basketball can lead to,” added Green, who travelled abroad and into the Philippines for the first time.
Batang Gilas assistant coach JB Sison said that as far he knows, there are no offers for a college scholarship for the Green here in the Philippines since he is too young to be recruited.
Being part of the Philippine national youth team is also out of the question, for now.
“He has played for Team USA already,” added Sison.