The last time a NBA game was held in the Philippines, the Houston Rockets played the Indiana Pacers during the preseason in October 2013.
If it was up to Jeremy Sochan, it’s time for the Philippines to host the NBA global games again.
The San Antonio Spurs forward made the conclusion based on his first-hand experience as part of the Polish national team that hosted Gilas Pilipinas in a tune-up game for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament last year.
“Hopefully, I feel like this would be a perfect spot for, you know, an NBA game one day. We’ll see,” Sochan revealed in a media availability on Wednesday, May 7 in Taguig.
Poland went on to nail a narrow 82-80 win over Gilas Pilipinas in that exhibition game, but the San Antonio Spur described the Filipino crowd as "energetic" and "loud" inside the Arena Sosnowiec.
[ALSO READ: Gilas Pilipinas drop close call to Poland in final tuneup before FIBA OQT in Latvia]
“You know, we were playing, and all of a sudden, I’m warming up, I’m going onto the court, and, like, half the arena is, you know, from the Philippines,” the third-year player out of Baylor revealed.
“As the game went on, it was just the same thing. Like, they never stopped. And I think that’s something we need, you know, in general, in basketball,” he added
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It was way back October 10, 2013 when the country hosted its first ever NBA Global Games inside the Mall of Asia Arena.
Although it was just a preseason game, the Filipino crowd showed up to witness the then James Harden-and-Dwight Howard-bannered Houston Rockets dominate the Indiana Pacers led by former star Paul George, 116-96.
[ALSO READ: A look back at the Pacers-Rockets preseason game in the Philippines]
Last January, Sochan and his Spurs played two regular season games against the Indiana Pacers in France where his superstar teammate Victor Wembanyama was born.
The 22-year-old is in the country to take part in the 2025 NBA Rising Stars Invitational - Philippines Qualifiers. He also revealed he was caught by surprise from the outpouring support from his Filipino fans.
“I didn’t really know what to expect [visiting the Philippines]. One of my best friends, Carl, he’s half-Filipino, so he used to tell me a lot about the basketball culture here and how crazy it is. But I’d never really seen it in person, so I didn’t know,” Sochan admitted.
He continued: “So I think it’s a big part of the basketball culture. It’s super cool to see. I see a lot of stuff on Instagram. Even, like, I didn’t know that I had so many fans from the Philippines. So it’s been a blessing.”