Bill Velasco – The Philippine Star
September 11, 2023 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Jack Danielle Animam, the 6’5″ center of the Philippine national women’s basketball team, continues to make history. Animam, the first homegrown player – male or female – to play professionally in Europe, has donated her national team jersey to the FIBA Museum in Mies, Switzerland, where it will be catalogued and eventually displayed for basketball fans all over the globe to see.
“We have over 40,000 items collected from all over the world,” says Miguel Font, Senior Associate and Historical Curator for FIBA Foundation. “A small percentage of them are on display on a rotating basis. We are always adding to the collection. I look forward to learning more about Philippine basketball culture, its history, its evolution.”
In 2021, the five-time UAAP champion Animam helped Shih Hsin University win a University Basketball Association championship in Taiwan. She then signed a contract with Radnicki Kragujevac in Serbia, becoming the first local athlete to see action in a European pro basketball league. After recovering from a knee injury, the former National University front-liner played briefly for Toulouse Metropole Basket in the Ligue Feminine de Basketball (LFB).
When contacted about the possibility of being part of the FIBA Museum, Animam quickly responded, remotely arranging for the pick-up of her Philippine team jersey from her home in Bulacan.
“I am happy to be able to bring honor to my country in another way,” said the 24-year old, who is currently in China for pre-season preparations with Wuhan Shengfan in the Chinese women’s league, another first for Phl basketball.
Font, who has been working with FIBA Foundation since 1990, was in the country for the FIBA World Cup. He organized receptions for FIBA officials and celebrities flying in from all over the world, and conducted an auction of basketballs signed by FIBA Hall of Famers Friday night. He will deliver Animam’s jersey and a few other memorabilia collected from the Philippines to the FIBA Museum upon his return to Switzerland. Animam’s jersey will join other historical artifacts from the country, such as souvenirs from the family of 2023 FIBA Hall of Fame inductee Caloy Loyzaga.
