A Filipino basketball player identified as Kris Rosales aims to find a team at the NBA D-league. At an early age, Rosales already wanted to be part of the NBA.

For those self-anointed Philippine Basketball enthusiasts, I am pretty sure you won’t be thrilled with this news anymore since you already have the idea that this won't be a “first” of its kind.

Currently, there are a few personalities in the NBA who have Filipino roots. First is Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. He guided Miami into a back to back championships together with a number of Eastern Conference titles and Finals appearances. He’s been the coach of the Heat since 2008 and the mentor of the best basketball player in the planet today, Lebron James. The other one is Nate Robinson of the Denver Nuggets. He claimed that he is 1/8 Filipino because of his Filipina mother(this is still yet to be proven).

However, the first Filipino, or at least Filipino-American who set foot on the NBA stage was Raymond Townsend. He’s also the first Asian American to be drafted by an NBA team in the first round of the NBA Draft.

But patriotic basketball fans still want to believe that a full blooded pinoy is yet to play in the NBA, and the Filipino young cager Kris Rosales might actually be the first one to do that. After Japeth Aguilar fell short of being part of an NBA Developmental League team, another bright spot for Pinoy basketball fans emerged. Kris Rosales is a 22 year old pure Filipino who has been working out with a number of NBA teams in hopes of getting a contract offer. The 6 foot PG from Hope International University was also the GSAC player of the year.

Kris Rosales started playing basketball at the age of 4. He was taken care of by coach Leo Balayon who ho has helped out Smart Gilas players like Japeth Aguilar and Matt Ganuelas-Rosser. He have worked out in front of the Toronto Raptors scouts, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Brooklyn Nets. Right now he is aiming to make it to the NBA Summer League and hopefully be drafted by one of NBA D-League teams. Rosales also said that he is open for playing in the Philippines in the future.

Let’s keep our hopes high. Jeremy Lin was able to make it, who knows, a Filipino might follow his accolades in the future.