“A proud moment for all Filipinos!”: Jordan Clarkson and Jalen Green become the first two players of Filipino descent to play in the NBA

Jalen Green and Jordan Clarkson create history- Become the first Filipino duo to play in an NBA game

The Asian community has been very sparsely represented in the NBA. So sparse that you can count the number of players on your fingers. The two biggest names of Asian descent in recent times that easily come to mind are Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming- names that brought the NBA to the most populated continent. Even so, the game has not got the same hype it gets in the western part of the world.

Jordan Clarkson and Jalen Green, two basketball players who have Filipino roots took to the floor for their match-up last night. This momentous occasion marked the first time two Filipino origin players played in the same game. Jordan and Jalen are both American citizens but have mothers who have Filipino roots. They could have chosen to play for either country, but they chose USA.

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It is great to see young basketball stars from the Asian continent

Basketball as a game isn’t popular in the continent – that title goes to football, closely followed by cricket. That mixed with the prevalent stereotype that you need to be tall to play basketball deters the young ones to pick up a ball.  Jeremy Lin wasn’t a tall man by NBA standards, but for an average Asian, he was a giant.

In fact, Jeremy Lin and Jordan Clarkson had their own history, with the two being the first pair of Asian descent to play on the same team. They played together for the Lakers in 2015. Jordan Clarkson turned out to be the better basketball player, but Lin was the more influential Asian descent ballplayer at that time.

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It stays true till the present day that the NBA is a pipe dream for most Asians – a myriad of reasons but the biggest being their body type not suiting the sport. If only they took inspiration from Muggy Bogues, Isiah Thomas, and Nate Robinson, we could have seen a lot more sporting talent from the continent.