Well Basketball is deeply within our culture na eh. To be honest kasi mejo madali siya laruin and no need for a lot of equipment, bola and ring lang okay na (as compared to other sports na you need equipment or even field/area reservations para lang makalaro.)
The difference lang talaga why we lag behind sa basketball is cause the sport is deeply politicized (multiple teams owned by a single company, limitations in the PBA when it comes to compet etc.) kaya mahirap mag progress while other asian countries are progressing at a better pace compared to us.
Hirap din kasi na benchmark ang NBA since highly athletic and genetically gifted talaga sila, so we need to adjust how we play din kaso siyempre ang lagi nakikita eh highlights and how deep everyone's "bag" is compared sa fundamentals and in-game IQ.
