Japeth Aguilar’s recent retirement from Gilas Pilipinas duties closes a storied national team career. It’s safe to say that no one else can come close to duplicating it.
When Japeth Aguilar walked into the Blue Eagle Gym on Tuesday for what would be his final game in a Gilas Pilipinas uniform, he was entering the perfect venue for him to end a national team career that has spanned 16 years.
It was as a member of the Ateneo Blue Eagles in 2004 and 2005 where Aguilar first caught the attention of the public as an athletic six-foot-nine teenager who looked like the future of the Philippine national team.
On Tuesday night, after Gilas Pilipinas had defeated Guam 95-71 in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers, Aguilar took a final bow as a national team player. Before the game started, he was presented with a framed replica of his no. 25 jersey. And when the game started, the crowd cheered as he was introduced as part of the starting five.
From being the future of the national team, he was now officially part of its past.
The significance of the moment – the venue in particular – wasn’t lost on Aguilar.
“Alam mo, madami akong fitting na mag-retire na (moments). But this one, mas sweet kasi very nostalgic sa akin,” he told a group of reporters after the game.
Aguilar’s final stat line as a member of Gilas was modest: 3 points and 1 rebound in 10 minutes, numbers more less within range of, perhaps slightly lower than, his overall Gilas career numbers. Japeth was never the no. 1 option on any of the Gilas teams he repped, but as is usually the case, the numbers will never tell the whole story.
Gilas Iron Man
Aguilar’s Gilas career will perhaps go unmatched. According to official FIBA records, he appeared in a staggering 81 FIBA senior games for the Philippines, which has to be a national record. This number doesn’t even include appearances in defunct tournaments such as the FIBA-Asia Stankovic Cup and Champions Cup. Throw in his appearances in other non-FIBA competitions like the Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games, and Jones Cup, and it’s crystal clear that Japeth played for the Philippines in well over a hundred games.
In fact, Japeth was around for so long that in his first national team appearance, in the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship, the term “Gilas” wasn’t even attached to it yet. His 16-year career has spanned four Philippine presidents and five of the best basketball minds to have coached the national team: Yeng Guiao, Rajko Toroman, Chot Reyes, Tab Baldwin, and Tim Cone.
That’s a lot of games, so we can forgive Japeth after being asked to name his favorite Gilas moments, he said there were simply too many.
“Actually ang dami. First yung Gilas 2009, yung samahan namin ng Gilas 1 kasi puro kami bata. Ang dami, yung training camp namin, yung process, yung first World Cup (qualifying, in 2013) yung hineld dito. I still have goosebumps pag minsan naisip ko yun.
“Tapos yun, yung tuloy-tuloy na progress ng Philippine team. So ang dami talaga.”
It wasn’t just his presence from Day 1 that made Japeth a Gilas pioneer. He was a trailblazer of sorts, as no national player before him had his combination of height, athleticism, shooting touch and explosiveness. Greg Slaughter may have been taller and June Mar Fajardo more dominating, but among his big man contemporaries Aguilar was one of one in terms of overall skill set.
Cone, Aguilar’s coach on both Gilas and Barangay Ginebra, sounded a little nostalgic when asked what this final game meant.
“It just brings back the idea of how much he’s contributed over the years, thinking this was his last one,” he said in the post-game press conference. “But he’s played so many over the years. His wife Cassie, when she sees my wife, she always tells my wife ‘Can you please allow Japeth to retire so that he can spend more time with his kids and focus on his Ginebra career?’
“I keep saying no and I’ve said no for the last two or three years. But with Kai (Sotto) coming back hopefully in February there’s a chance that now we can let Japeth retire.”
Japeth himself agrees that he’s leaving the team in good hands. Aside from Sotto, Gilas recently added Quentin Millora-Brown to the frontcourt rotation.
“Iiwan ko na makikita ko ganyan yung mga players,” he said. “Sobrang promising. Naniniwala din ako sa sinasabi ni Tim na if magsasama-sama itong group na ito, malayo mararating.
“Actually hindi pa natin nakikita yung full potential talaga. So abangan natin sila and supportahan natin sila.”
Still, a lot can happen between now and February, and while Japeth is pretty certain he’s closed this chapter of his playing career, his coach wants to leave the door slightly ajar.
“He’s still on call, you know,” Cone said. “If something happens to one of our bigs and we need another big to step in, we will continue to call him because he’s a freak of nature. At 38 years old, he still jumps out of the gym. He still plays at an extremely high level, so he knows that if we need him, he’ll come back and help us out.
“But for now he’s ready to retire. He’s going to be like Muhammad Ali. Maybe come back, retire, come back, retire. Who knows?”
‘Gilas Japeth’ was unique, and will always be. We had never seen a player like him before, and we may never see one match his Gilas achievements. If this was indeed his final game in a Pilipinas uniform, then we should consider ourselves lucky to have witnessed him on the hardcourt.
Banner images by Kieran Punay/KLIQ Inc.