“I’m wishing I were still in a hot and humid gym with hundreds of enthusiastic Filipino basketball players working on the Dwayne Wade patented jab step!”
-Sue Wicks, Sports Envoy to the Philippines

Erik Spoelstra teaches Filipino participants defensive techniques

Miami Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, Assistant Heat Coach David Fizdale, and former WNBA player and St. Francis College Assistant Coach Sue Wicks conducted basketball clinics in the Philippines from July 27 – August 2, 2009. The Sports Envoys ran more than a thousand boys and girls through drills that stressed the importance of hard work and perseverance in an ECA program conducted in conjunction with the NBA and the Philippine Basketball Association.

Day one saw the envoys fly from Manila to Zamboanga in the southern Philippines, where they ran a three-hour clinic for over 200 boys and girls. After the clinic, the envoys answered questions about basketball in the U.S. According to Coach Spoelstra, “We were stunned at how knowledgeable they are about the NBA. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was answering questions at a post game press conference.” Returning to Manila, the envoys spent the four remaining days stressing the importance of teamwork and conducting comprehensive drills for high school and college coaches and a diverse group of boys and girls aged 13-19. Sue Wicks noted that the best part of her experience was “working with the amazing girl basketball players and seeing them shock the Miami Heat coaching staff by winning five consecutive shooting games against their male counterparts.”

Taking a break from running clinics, the envoys took in a local college basketball game at Araneta Coliseum, the arena where one of the greatest boxing matches ever took place when Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila.” Coach Spoelstra, whose mother’s family is from the Philippines, was able to visit with family he hasn’t seen since his first visit at age three. Said Coach Spoelstra, “I have always been very proud of my Filipino heritage but maybe never more so than I have been this week as I have returned to the homeland of my mother and many of my family members.”

This successful program received extensive media coverage both in the U.S. and in the Philippines. Daily stories appeared in three major Philippine newspapers, the envoys were interviewed by radio and television stations in both Manila and Zamboanga, and Coach Spoelstra wrote a daily blog about his experience.