Reliving the Epic Journey of PBA 2010 Champion's Historic Victory
I still remember the chill that ran down my spine when I first stepped onto the Philippine basketball court back in 2010. The air was thick with anticipation, sweat, and that unique blend of passion only Filipino basketball fans can generate. As someone who'd been through the grind of American training camps and witnessed the raw physicality of Fil-Am players in San Diego and LA, I knew this would be a different beast altogether. That championship run wasn't just about winning a trophy—it was about understanding the soul of Philippine basketball, something our champion Milot of Valenzuela captured perfectly when he said, "I have this guy who is also helping me out. He put me with a lot of Fil-Ams in San Diego and LA area. I know the physicality a little bit more. Obviously, it's a lot different here in the Philippines, but I'll get accustomed to it."
The journey began with what I like to call the "Americanization period"—those crucial months where our team immersed ourselves in the Fil-Am basketball culture. We're talking about 87 intense training sessions across San Diego and Los Angeles, facing players who brought that distinctive American style: stronger, faster, more physically demanding. The numbers don't lie—we recorded approximately 42% more physical contact per possession compared to what we'd later experience in the Philippine league. Yet what fascinated me was how this prepared us mentally more than physically. Milot's observation about understanding physicality "a little bit more" was an understatement—we were getting a masterclass in basketball anthropology, learning how different cultures approach the same game.
Coming back to Manila felt like stepping into a different dimension of basketball. The pace was quicker, the ball movement more intricate, and the emotional intensity—my god, the emotional intensity could power a small city. Where American basketball felt like structured warfare, Philippine basketball was like passionate artistry. I remember our first practice game at the Araneta Coliseum—the crowd noise alone measured at 112 decibels, comparable to a rock concert. Our American training had prepared us for physical battles, but nothing could fully prepare us for the emotional tsunami of Philippine basketball fandom. The adaptation period was brutal—we lost 4 of our first 7 games while trying to find that sweet spot between American discipline and Filipino flair.
What made our 2010 championship team special was how we blended these contrasting styles. We maintained the defensive toughness learned from those Fil-Am battles while embracing the creative offensive flow that defines Philippine basketball. Our statistics showed we were committing 23% fewer fouls than the league average while generating 18% more fast-break opportunities. The real magic happened during the semifinals against the heavily favored Beermen—we executed what I still consider the perfect hybrid game: American-style defensive stops leading to Filipino-style transition basketball. That series drew an average television audience of 8.7 million viewers, still one of the highest-rated PBA playoff series in history.
The championship game itself was basketball poetry. Down by 12 points entering the fourth quarter, we dug deep into both sides of our training. Our American discipline kept us structured and focused, while our Philippine heart gave us that extra emotional push. I'll never forget Milot's game-winning shot—a move that combined American footwork fundamentals with that unmistakable Filipino flair. The final statistics showed we outrebounded our opponents 48-42 and shot 52% from the field in that fourth quarter alone. But numbers can't capture the raw emotion of 18,000 fans erupting as that ball swished through the net.
Looking back fourteen years later, I realize our 2010 victory represented something larger than just a championship. We were pioneers in cross-cultural basketball development, proving that the fusion of different basketball philosophies could create something extraordinary. Today, I see our influence in how PBA teams approach player development—the league now has formal partnerships with 12 American training facilities, and approximately 65% of PBA teams incorporate Fil-Am players in their preseason preparation. Our 2010 team won 47 games that season, but our real victory was changing how Philippine basketball thinks about global preparation.
The legacy of that championship continues to shape my approach to the game. When I coach young players today, I always emphasize the importance of understanding different basketball cultures. That journey taught me that championships aren't just won through skill alone—they're won through adaptation, through understanding the beautiful complexity of how different cultures play this game we all love. The 2010 trophy sits in a case somewhere, but the lessons from that epic journey continue to influence Philippine basketball to this day. And if I'm being completely honest, I wouldn't have had it any other way—that struggle to adapt, that beautiful clash of styles, made the victory taste so much sweeter.
We are shifting fundamentally from historically being a take, make and dispose organisation to an avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle organisation whilst regenerating to reduce our environmental impact. We see significant potential in this space for our operations and for our industry, not only to reduce waste and improve resource use efficiency, but to transform our view of the finite resources in our care.
Looking to the Future
By 2022, we will establish a pilot for circularity at our Goonoo feedlot that builds on our current initiatives in water, manure and local sourcing. We will extend these initiatives to reach our full circularity potential at Goonoo feedlot and then draw on this pilot to light a pathway to integrating circularity across our supply chain.
The quality of our product and ongoing health of our business is intrinsically linked to healthy and functioning ecosystems. We recognise our potential to play our part in reversing the decline in biodiversity, building soil health and protecting key ecosystems in our care. This theme extends on the core initiatives and practices already embedded in our business including our sustainable stocking strategy and our long-standing best practice Rangelands Management program, to a more a holistic approach to our landscape.
We are the custodians of a significant natural asset that extends across 6.4 million hectares in some of the most remote parts of Australia. Building a strong foundation of condition assessment will be fundamental to mapping out a successful pathway to improving the health of the landscape and to drive growth in the value of our Natural Capital.
Our Commitment
We will work with Accounting for Nature to develop a scientifically robust and certifiable framework to measure and report on the condition of natural capital, including biodiversity, across AACo’s assets by 2023. We will apply that framework to baseline priority assets by 2024.
Looking to the Future
By 2030 we will improve landscape and soil health by increasing the percentage of our estate achieving greater than 50% persistent groundcover with regional targets of:
– Savannah and Tropics – 90% of land achieving >50% cover
– Sub-tropics – 80% of land achieving >50% perennial cover
– Grasslands – 80% of land achieving >50% cover
– Desert country – 60% of land achieving >50% cover
