The Philippine national basketball team more popularly known as the Gilas Pilipinas earned the distinction as the “Most Valuable Fan – Best Country” award in the recently concluded FIBA World Cup of Basketball in Spain. The award was given to the Philippines, as the organizer of the vent, FIBA paid tribute to the millions of Filipino basketball fans.
Watch the FIBA’s Tribute for Filipino Basketball Fans:
According to FIBA, the Filipino basketball fans is considered as the most passionate in the world, FIBA made a video tribute highlighting Gilas Pilipinas’ historic run in the worldwide basketball competition.
The video tribute by FIBA was first played during the halftime break of the FIBA World Cup Finals Game between the defending champion, the United States of America (USA) basketball team and runner-up Serbia on early Monday morning, September 15, 2014.
Gilas Pilipinas team captain Jimmy Alapag’s three-point shot was featured in the video highlights as well as the brief discussion of the team’s rallying cry of “Puso,” in FIBA’s digital campaign.
According to FIBA, the World’s Most Valuable Fan (MVF), “the concept of MVF was directly inspired from that of Most Valuable Player (MVP), the ultimate honor given to the best player in a basketball competition.”
FIBA noted that the Most Valuable Fan (MVF) award was part of FIBA’s campaign to involve basketball fans in the World Cup. Through the MVF challenge, fans took part by using their own social media accounts to accumulate MVF points.
Aside from the MVF Award given to the Philippines by FIBA, the world governing body of basketball also awarded another recognition to a Filipino fan, Ismael Terron Panadero, who was named the Most Valuable Fan of the whole tournament after he topped the FIBA’s digital campaign.
