WNBL Set to Go All-Filipina for First Season

Unlike their counterparts in the men's division, women ballers in the collegiate ranks have to look elsewhere for playing opportunity after they've graduated from college as they have nowhere to go in terms of basketball opportunity here in the country. That was exactly the case for Gilas women's stalwart Jack Animam and rising star Ella Fajardo as Animam is Taiwan-bound where she is set to play in the University Basketball Association (UBA) while Fajardo has committed to play for Fairleigh Dickinson University- a Division I member school of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. The good news is: Filipina basketball players who wish to play professional basketball will now have more opportunities closer to their hearts.

Closer to their homes. That is.

The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) given the green light by the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) to operate as a professional league made Filipina ballers excited and hopeful for women's basketball in the Philippines and in the words of former University of the Philippines Lady Maroon Bea Daez, "It gives us a ray of positivity and excitement" as the development came at a time when the local basketball is still trying to return to normal as we're still living at a time of a pandemic. 

The first priority of the league: Explore and expose local talents in the Philippines.

According to NBL Executive Vice President Rhose Montreal, the league will not accept Fil-foreign players for the time being as she said "I have always believed even during my pro league days that there's a surplus of women players in the Philippines"  She later added, "I might as well give them the exposure and then getting Fil-foreigners to play will come later."

WNBL is set to hold its draft this October with the league set to receive applications online.

While there's no clarity yet as to when the WNBL season will start, one thing is certain for now: women's basketball in the Philippines has a bright future ahead. 

Photo is from Daily Tribune