The buzz and the optimism surrounding Jordan Clarkson's upcoming stint with Gilas Pilipinas in the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers appear to have done little to distract many Filipino supporters from expressing their frustration over the Utah Jazz guard's designation as a naturalized player.
In a recent post on FIBA's official Facebook page, many comments echo a similar sentiment: why is Clarkson -- who traces his lineage to his Filipino-American mother Annette -- not considered a local despite his roots?
A closer, nuanced look at the entire situation and at FIBA's rulebook would reveal the answers.
Q: Does Clarkson have a Philippine passport, and did he get it before turning 16?
A: Yes and no.
The 2021 NBA Sixth Man of the Year purportedly acquired a Philippine passport before the age of 16 -- FIBA's age cut-off for dual citizens like the Jazz guard to prove their legal nationality, irrespective of existing local laws and constitutions -- as first claimed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) back in 2015.
Apparently, those statements were proven to lack merit later on, as SBP chief Al Panlilio himself has publicly said in various reports since 2019 that Clarkson got his passport after turning 16.
Without a physical passport acquired before that threshold to prove his nationality under FIBA bylaws, Clarkson and SBP had no other recourse but to lobby the governing body for a change in his designation.
Q: Why is Clarkson not recognized as a local under FIBA rules even if he is recognized as a Filipino under the Philippine Constitution?
Although the Philippine Constitution adheres to the "jus sanguinis" principle -- meaning, an individual acquires the nationality of their natural parents -- the governing basketball body simply does not differentiate between legal principle and constitutions and only asks players with multiple nationalities to adhere to one requirement: lay claim to one nationality by getting a passport before turning 16. Any one who doesn't is automatically listed as a naturalized player.
Book 3, Article 3-20.a of FIBA's Internal Regulations rulebook tackling player eligibility is pretty clear with its phrasing:
"A national team participating in a Competition of FIBA may only have one player on its team who has acquired the legal nationality of that country by naturalisation or by any other means after having reached the age of sixteen (16), regardless of whether the additional nationality is deemed effective at birth. This provision applies also to any player having the right to acquire another nationality at birth but who did not lay claim to this right until after having reached the age of sixteen (16)."
Q: How can a player be reclassified by FIBA as a local even if they did not acquire a local passport before turning 16?
A: In Book 3, Article 3-20.b of their Internal Regulations rulebook tackling player eligibility, FIBA states that the secretary-general has the sole discretion to rule whether or not one can be classified as a local even without presenting a passport, provided that the player clears certain litmus checks.
They consider:
The number of years the player has lived in the country they wish to play;
The number of seasons they have played in domestic leagues, and;
Any other criteria that establishes a link between player and country.
Q. Has there ever been a local precedent where FIBA ruled in favor of changing a player's status?
Gilas has actually benefited from this clause before in the case of Greg Slaughter, the 7-foot center whose bid to be recognized as a local was granted by former FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann back in 2018.
Slaughter, born to an American father and a Cebuano mother, was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 before moving in 2007 to Cebu. There, he played college basketball for University of the Visayas and went on to win three Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI) titles and two MVP awards before uprooting himself again to move to Manila and play for Ateneo.
While Slaughter was only able to obtain his passport after turning 17, FIBA determined him to have passed the three aforementioned criteria.
Q: Why did Clarkson not pass the FIBA criteria?
A: The Clarkson situation is simply a case of FIBA exercising its right to reject an appeal that lacks legs.
Even if the 30-year-old guard had managed to obtain a passport before 16, the governing body would have reviewed his case anyway -- like what they do with every single case -- to determine if he is, under their bylaws, fit to suit up as a local.
Former SBP program director Tab Baldwin actually touched on this topic late 2020 when talking about Sage Tolentino, the 7-0 Gilas prospect from Hawaii and NCAA Division I squad University of Cincinnati commit who turned 16 without getting his passport.
"A lot of people also get hung up on the 16-year-old passport rule. The rule is far more complex than that," Baldwin then said on the Coaches Unfiltered vodcast.
"The problem with a lot of those guys -- and I wish our whole fanbase understood this better -- is just because young men and women have Filipino lineage and Filipino bloodlines and may even have very, very recent Filipino bloodlines, that does not make them FIBA eligible.
"They can take somebody who acquired a passport at the age of 15 and they can say they are ineligible because they don't believe that their basketball heritage is Filipino. Maybe they were born in the States and they have never been in the Philippines," Baldwin continued. "So when you go and make a case, you actually have to make a case that a young man's basketball heritage is Filipino."
Baldwin might as well have been talking about the U.S.-raised Clarkson, who was born in Tampa, Florida before playing high school basketball in San Antonio and college hoops in Tulsa and Missouri.
His only link to Philippine basketball: playing for Team Pilipinas in the 2018 Asian Games for a fifth-place finish, the country's best finish in 16 years.