She is worth all the hype.
There’s no one face when it comes to the Gilas Pilipinas Women, after all, it’s a whole team of talented ladies who have proven they have what it takes to make Filipinos proud, winning two gold medals and one silver in the last three editions of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
A squad built by a special bond, the Gilas Women team oozes with talent that one local sports magazine declared that this group of girls has brought the “golden age” of girls’ basketball in the Philippines.
Towering over all the ladies—only due to her size—is Jack Animam. The 6-foot-5 baller plays a pivotal role in the team’s core as the starting center. A former UAAP MVP who also holds SEA Games gold medals in both the 5-on-5 and 3x3 hoops events, Jack can make the case as the team’s biggest star, too.
Sporting brand Nike has recognized the talent of Animam and has placed her front and center of its latest campaign. The video, posted by the talented pivot on her Instagram account, started off with the former NU Lady Bulldog herself asking the question, “Who knows what the future holds?”
The campaign features the story of Animam’s journey in basketball, underscoring her recovery from her ACL injury and how the sport has “changed everything” in her life. It’s a video littered with Nike’s style of touting swag through music, editing, and writing, like what they have always been doing for their biggest ambassadors around the world.
In this author’s opinion, it’s enough to make one shout: LET’S FREAKING GO, JACK!
And Animam, who had also competed college ball in Taiwan and professionally in Serbia and France, deserves all of it.
Another Filipino talent in RJ Abarrientos, himself an import in the Korean Basketball League, knows that. The reigning KBL Rookie of the Year reposted the video in his own account, and then added goat emojis. GOAT, in basketball parlance, stands for Greatest of All Time.
Jack wouldn’t say she is the GOAT woman baller of the Philippines, but she is well on her way.