philippine-centennial-team – Wiki Philippines

Definition

The Philippine Centennial Team was the 1998 Philippines men’s national basketball team — the all-professional, Philippine Basketball Association-backed national squad assembled for the country’s centennial year, its name marking “the centennial celebration of the independence of the Philippines” proclaimed on June 12, 1898. It was the third PBA-backed national team, after the 1990 Asian Games silver medalists coached by Robert Jaworski and the 1994 fourth placers, and it carried the stated goal “to win the 1998 Asian Games basketball tournament and to reclaim Philippine basketball supremacy in Asia.” (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team) Coached by Tim Cone of Alaska, with Chot Reyes and Aric del Rosario as assistants, the team won the 1998 William Jones Cup with a 6–0 sweep and closed the year with the bronze medal at the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok — a 5–2 campaign that ended with a 73–82 semifinal loss to China on December 18, 1998 and a 73–68 win over Kazakhstan in the December 19 bronze-medal game. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Rappler — Cone philosophy)

The team remains the reference case of the professional era’s promise and its cost: a twelve-man roster drawn from eight PBA clubs that swept the Jones Cup but settled for the Asiad’s third step, while its formation broke up Alaska Milkmen’s bid for a second straight Grand Slam, the collision this wiki’s Alaska Aces, Tim Cone, Kenneth Duremdes, and Jojo Lastimosa entries carry. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Wikipedia — Alaska Aces (PBA)) For twenty-five years the bronze stood as the Philippines’ last Asian Games basketball medal, until Cone’s 2023 Gilas Pilipinas won the gold. (Rappler — Cone philosophy, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)

Identities

Source	Identity	URL
Wikipedia	Philippine Centennial Team — the 1998 national team article (verified this session)	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Centennial_Team
Wikidata	Philippine Centennial Team (Q7184999) — “Philippine basketball team” (verified this session via the search API) (Wikidata — Q7184999)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7184999
DBpedia	Philippine_Centennial_Team — resource present, linked from the 1998 PBA season record (verified this session) (DBpedia — Philippine Centennial Team)	https://dbpedia.org/data/Philippine_Centennial_Team.json
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A	N/A
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	Philippine Centennial Team 1998 Asian Games Bangkok bronze Tim Cone Jones Cup PBA national team Patrimonio Caidic Abarrientos Duremdes Lastimosa Kazakhstan China semifinal centennial independence	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

1998 Philippines men’s national basketball team — the reference record’s formal styling
RP Centennial Team — the press styling of 1998
The Centennial Team — the short form carried across this wiki’s player entries

Examples and Analogies

A centennial worn on the jersey: the team existed because 1998 marked one hundred years of the June 12, 1898 independence proclamation, converted into a basketball campaign meant to restore the country’s Asian standing. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
The third all-pro experiment: where 1990 sent the first professionals and won silver under Jaworski and 1994 finished fourth, 1998 was the fully professionalized edition — every player a PBA professional, every coaching chair a league bench. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)
A sweep that promised more than a semifinal allowed: the same twelve men went 6–0 through the Jones Cup, beating South Korea 96–77 in the semifinal and Chinese Taipei 82–72 in the September 5 final, then lost the one game that decided the Asiad’s gold-medal pairing. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Verified team data:
Roster: 4 Alvin Patrimonio (Purefoods); 5 Andy Seigle (Mobiline); 6 Jojo Lastimosa (Alaska); 7 Dennis Espino (Sta. Lucia); 8 Allan Caidic (San Miguel); 9 Jun Limpot (Sta. Lucia); 10 Vergel Meneses (Pop Cola); 11 Edward Joseph Feihl (Purefoods); 12 Olsen Racela (San Miguel); 13 Marlou Aquino (Ginebra); 14 Johnny Abarrientos (Alaska); 15 Kenneth Duremdes (Alaska) (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Staff: head coach Tim Cone (Alaska); assistants Chot Reyes and Aric del Rosario; team manager Joaqui Trillo (Alaska); team scout Jeffrey Cariaso (Mobiline) (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Jones Cup (21st William Jones Cup, Taiwan): 6–0; semifinal 96–77 over South Korea; final 82–72 over Chinese Taipei, September 5, 1998 — the Philippines’ third Jones Cup title after 1981 and 1985 (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Asian Games (Bangkok, December 1998): 5–2 — W 53–52 Kazakhstan (Dec 8), W 91–50 Kyrgyzstan (Dec 9), W 93–57 UAE (Dec 14), W 86–60 Thailand (Dec 15), L 83–103 South Korea (Dec 16), L 73–82 China in the semifinal (Dec 18), W 73–68 Kazakhstan for bronze (Dec 19) (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Preparation: exhibition wins over a PBA All-Star Selection on July 9 (114–109) and July 12 (107–92); exhibitions against China; a post-Jones Cup Midwest tour of the United States (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
PBA Centennial Cup: the nationals finished last at 2–6 (September 8 – October 2), beating only Sta. Lucia 78–72; Caidic and Patrimonio were playing their fourth straight Asian Games, and Caidic his second Jones Cup title (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying PBA-Era National Team Building

The team is the standard case of the league lending its whole machinery to the flag — one professional club’s coaching staff (Cone, Trillo) running a selection drawn from eight franchises, the model Rappler records in Cone’s own retrospective rule: “You bring your 12 best players, that’s a reasonable expectation.” (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Rappler — Cone philosophy)

2. Citing the Asian Games Medal Record

The Bangkok bronze is a fixed point in the national ledger — the medal after Jaworski’s 1990 silver and the last before the 2023 gold ended what Inquirer’s record calls the drought since the four straight titles of 1951–1962. Citations should carry the 5–2 record and the December 18–19 dates exactly. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)

3. Tracing the Club-Country Conflict

The Centennial Team is the reference instance of the PBA calendar colliding with the national program: Alaska lost Cone, Abarrientos, Duremdes, and Lastimosa to the December Asiad, and the “possible ‘Grand Slam II’… didn’t happen” — the what-if this wiki’s Alaska Aces entry adjudicates. (Wikipedia — Alaska Aces (PBA))

4. Following the Jones Cup Record

The 1998 sweep is the Philippines’ third Jones Cup championship and the professional era’s first — the title Caidic’s entry carries as his second, thirteen years after the 1985 amateur crown. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)

5. Reading the 2023 Redemption Arc

Retrospectives frame Cone’s 2023 Asian Games gold against the 1998 bronze, making the Centennial Team the prologue of every Cone-era Gilas story. (Rappler — Cone philosophy, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)

Strategies

Take the best players, full stop: Cone’s own account of the 1998 build — “I’ve always firmly believed from back in 1998 when I coached there that you got to go out and get the best players” — is the philosophy Rappler records him applying unchanged to later national squads. (Rappler — Cone philosophy)
Build through a champion’s bench: anchoring the staff and spine in the league’s reigning dynasty (Cone, Trillo, three Alaska players) gave the selection a ready-made system at the cost other clubs paid in released stars. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Wikipedia — Alaska Aces (PBA))
Prepare against the field: the July All-Star exhibitions, the China exhibitions, the Jones Cup, and the Midwest tour sequenced the team against the Asiad’s likely finalists — the preparation calendar the modern program still copies. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Accept the price of release: the PBA clubs’ secondment of their stars — Alaska’s Grand Slam bid the documented casualty — is the standing cost model of any all-pro national team fielded mid-season. (Wikipedia — Alaska Aces (PBA))

Security and Safety Measures

Living-person register discipline: the roster and staff are living public figures; this entry carries the documented playing and coaching record only, with post-1998 roles left to the individuals’ own entries in this wiki. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Medal-record integrity: the finish is the bronze — the semifinal was lost to China, the bronze won over Kazakhstan — and any retelling that hands the team a final, or a silver, misstates the record this entry’s game-by-game ledger fixes. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Exhibition-record integrity: no exhibition against NBA players or NBA veterans appears in the reference record; exhibition claims should be corrected to the documented games. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)
Date the streaks: the bronze was the last Philippine Asian Games basketball medal until 2023 — a “last until” claim that must be dated to both ends. (Rappler — Cone philosophy, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)

Historical Context

The team was built for an anniversary: 1998 marked one hundred years since the proclamation of independence at Kawit, and the PBA — which had been lending professionals to the national program since 1990 — assembled the era’s most decorated selection, with Cone’s Alaska staff at its head and the league MVP Duremdes among the seconded Milkmen. The summer and autumn ran through the documented ladder: the July 9 and 12 wins over the PBA All-Star Selection, the exhibitions against China, the September 5 Jones Cup final won 82–72 over Chinese Taipei to complete a 6–0 sweep, and the awkward PBA Centennial Cup, in which the nationals finished last at 2–6 against import-reinforced clubs. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)

December in Bangkok decided the anniversary’s sporting memory. The team swept its preliminary group, lost 83–103 to South Korea in the seeding for the crossover semifinals, fell 73–82 to China on December 18, and beat Kazakhstan 73–68 the next day for the bronze. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team) The cost had already been booked at home — Alaska, winner of 1998’s first two conferences, saw its Grand Slam bid dissolve when Cone, Abarrientos, Duremdes, and Lastimosa left for the national team — and the bronze game itself carried the era’s frictions in the benching of Jojo Lastimosa that this wiki’s Lastimosa entry records. (Wikipedia — Alaska Aces (PBA)) The medal then aged into a milestone: the country’s last Asian Games basketball medal for a quarter century, until the same coach took the 2023 gold in Hangzhou. (Rappler — Cone philosophy, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)

Challenges and Controversies

The Gold That Wasn’t

Assembled for a centennial — and described by Rappler as “one of the most stacked Philippine crews in history” — the team met China in the semifinal and lost 73–82, the Korea defeat a game earlier having handed China the pairing, and settled for the bronze medal. The gap between the stated goal of reclaiming Asian supremacy, with the last gold dating to 1962, and a third-place finish is the team’s standing controversy. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team, Rappler — Cone philosophy, Inquirer — Our need for a national hoop team)

The Grand Slam That Got Away (1998)

The national team’s formation is inseparable from Alaska’s loss: the Milkmen, holders of the 1998 All-Filipino and Commissioner’s Cups, surrendered their head coach and three stars to the December Asiad, and the “Grand Slam II” never happened — the scheduling collision this wiki’s Alaska Aces entry carries as the era’s greatest what-if, and the reason the PBA’s later national-team lending was structured conference by conference. (Wikipedia — Alaska Aces (PBA))

The Centennial Cup Problem

Playing the nationals as a thirteenth franchise in the PBA’s own Centennial Cup — where they finished last at 2–6 against clubs fielding two non-Filipino players each — demonstrated the awkwardness of a national team competing inside the league it draws from. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)

The Doubted Exhibitions

Retellings occasionally add a centennial exhibition against NBA players or NBA veterans to the team’s calendar; the reference record documents none — the verified exhibitions are the two July 1998 PBA All-Star Selection games, the China exhibitions, and the Midwest tour. (Wikipedia — Philippine Centennial Team)

Tag: philippine-centennial-team