NBTC program head Eric Altamirano. Photograph by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.internet
Coach Eric Altamirano has all the time been each a pupil and a trainer of the sport. Now, he needs to do extra than simply studying and serving to Filipino ballers contained in the courtroom.
This weekend, the Pilipinas United 3×3 League takes heart stage with Altamirano as league commissioner alongside cofounder Andrew Combate.
As if he hasn’t achieved sufficient for the game but, the champion coach’s latest league will preserve doing what he’s all the time achieved lately: assist the event of Philippine basketball.
“It actually helps the federation achieve extra rating factors,” Altamirano advised the Inquirer.
“The three×3 is totally different from the 5-on-5 with regards to the pathway going to the Olympics. So, the three×3 is by getting factors from the gamers.”
The PUL 3X3 will probably catapult the nation’s girls’s and males’s ball golf equipment to the subsequent stage.
For context, the Philippines’ males’s program is presently ranked forty sixth on the earth whereas the ladies are ranked 18th.
Ought to the gamers in every federation rating extra factors sooner or later, their rankings would enhance their hopes of reaching Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics.
Altamirano’s new league has the means to just do that.
The 59-year-old official has seen all of it and achieved all of it by way of being a participant and a coach.
NBTC director
Altamirano was a part of College of the Philippines’ historic title win in 1986 and as a coach, he led Purefoods to the 1997 Philippine Cup title.
Naturally, a winner within the ranks of the collegiate {and professional} recreation discovered triumph in being a program director as nicely.
That program, after all, is the Nationwide Basketball Coaching Middle (NBTC).
“In our personal little means, we have been capable of contribute to their success. We’re not saying we take full credit score, as a result of additionally they performed of their colleges. However a platform such because the NBTC gave them that edge,” he mentioned through the presser for the PUL 3×3.
“All eyes are on them. It offers them the chance to be found. After they see that they performed within the NBTC, it turns into a stepping stone for them to check, to start with, to get an schooling in faculty. On the similar time, to get to the subsequent stage of basketball.”
Established virtually 16 years in the past, Altamirano’s brainchild gave mild to the nation’s future superstars.
Notable names that got here out of the NBTC program have been Kai Sotto, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, Kiefer Ravena and Scottie Thompson.
Earlier than they suited up for Gilas Pilipinas and even for his or her respective alma maters, that legendary ensemble performed highschool hoops in what’s now known as the “Insanity in MOA.”
Altamirano has achieved all of it for the budding ballers of the basketball-crazed nation.
Now, he needs to do the identical and uplift the nation’s 3×3 program to the subsequent stage, very similar to he did with the NBTC.
“Our final purpose is to stage up and create a pathway or a possibility for Filipino gamers.”
“Whether or not you’re a grassroots or whether or not you’re an elite participant, we need to give a number of alternatives for Filipinos to play utilizing basketball as a platform to boost their lives.”
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The PUL 3×3 formally opens this weekend at Ayala Malls Manila Bay in Pasay Metropolis.
