I have been saying this for some time now but there is a reason why Filipinos are playing abroad while the PBA just abandoned the whole Asian imports thing.
Simply put, they have everything to gain from our basketball expertise.
Alex Cabagnot is an example.
Goyang Sono Skygunners tapped the 41-year-old PBA legend after an injury to Joshua Torralba.
That's right, a KBL team is tapping the services of a 40-something player after the former Blackwater reserve got hurt.
A-Cab is one of my favorite players. I ranked him high on my PBA Best Careers list and I initially thought San Miguel was trying to make him a future Terrafirma coach when they traded him.
Yes, I know Terrafirma is not part of the SMC.
Haha.
With that said, Cabagnot is going to help Goyang elevate the squad in a whole lot of ways. The Crunchman will not be there to score 20 points and 10 assists per game, but he will teach the team's kids to have his court vision. People see Cabagnot as a bigger and better version of Bernie Fabiosa, and I can't say this is a bad thing because he was able to help the Beermen score three almost grand slams. Furthermore, even if this revolved around June Mar Fajardo's six MVP wins and Arwind Santos' lone MVP win, he became a kingmaker of sorts when he played point guard for a team that produced seven straight MVP winners.
And again, the KBL tapped a former PBA player in a position of trust. If you read one of the articles Single's Inferno 3 star and former Phoenix Fuel Masters sniper Lee Gwan Hee had while describing his PBA stint, you'll know that he learned a lot. The same can be said with most Asian imports, whether they admit it or not. Before the current situation, the PBA was the continent's best pay-for-play league after the Chinese Basketball Association. There was even talk back then that the PBA stopped the Asian imports thing because it felt like the PBA teams were giving away trade secrets to the other teams.
Now, it's the other way around. The Filipino kids are showered with mega bucks to reinforce the Japan and Korea squads. And apart from tapping veterans like Cabagnot, Greg Slaughter, and Jay Washington, they are mostly signing point guards to further raise their players' aforementioned court vision, as well as slashers and shooters to make their games exciting. You cannot fault Goyang for tapping the services of Cabagnot because based on his basketball attitude, the Skygunners are also gaining the services of a skills coach as well. He is definitely going to bring an entirely new dimension to their Filipino import situation as Torralba was more of a trooper than a mentor with averages of 3.8 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 11 games for the squad.
Looking at Goyang's Wiki page, I guess this is one thing we can learn from the Koreans. They are a city-based league but they are also sponsored by a rich corporation. Again, giving the teams an adopted hometown would give the squad instant fans.
Anyway, hopefully, Cabagnot will shock the fans in Korea with his superb basketball know-how.