Vince Hizon

Vince Hizon
Personal information
Born	November 25, 1970 (age 53); Orange County, California, U.S.
Nationality	Filipino / American
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight	200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
High school	Mater Dei (Santa Ana, California)
College	Cypress College (1988–1990); Boise State (1990–1991); Biola (1991–1992); Ateneo de Manila University (1993–1994);
PBA draft	1994: 1st round, 8th overall pick
	Selected by the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants
Playing career	1994–2004
Position	Shooting guard
Number	12, 25
Coaching career	2017–present
Career history
As player:
1994	Purefoods TJ Hotdogs
1995–1998	Ginebra San Miguel
1999–2000	Iloilo Megavoltz
2001–2004	Red Bull Barako
2004	Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs
As coach:
2006–2007	Coca-Cola Tigers (assistant)
2017–2019	Blackwater Elite / Blackwater Bossing
Career highlights and awards
	Philippine Basketball Association Mythical First Team (1997); 4x PBA champion (1994 Commissioner's, 1997 Commissioner's, 2001 Commissioner's, 2002 Commissioner's);

Vicente Paul Bowie Hizon (born November 25, 1970) is an American-born Filipino retired professional basketball player. He is the former commissioner of the Filsports Basketball Association. FBA, a community-based grassroots basketball league in the Philippines. He is currently a motivational speaker while focusing on family and business.

Biography[edit]

Vince Hizon was born 25 November 1970 to José Palma-Gil Hizon and Harriet M. Bowie in Orange County, California. The Hizon-Palma Gil family has roots in Davao Oriental province and Davao City in the Philippines. He grew up in Stanton, California and attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. Showing promise as a basketball player in high school, he went on to play basketball at Cypress College in Cypress, California (1988–1990) before earning a basketball scholarship to Boise State University (1991) and later Biola University (1992),^[1] before ending his college basketball career as star player with the Ateneo Blue Eagles during his UAAP years 1993–94.

Playing sparingly as a rookie in his one year for Purefoods in 1994, he asked for and was traded to Ginebra San Miguel for Nonoy Chuatico and a first round draft pick. Playing for then-playing and legendary coach Robert Jaworski's never-say-die system, Hizon flourished and became the #1 most popular player in the league as well as the most popular sports figure in the Philippines at the time, according to the A.C. Nielsen Asian Rim Survey in 1998.

Hizon spent most of his 11-year pro career for the Ginebra franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association. He won 1 PBL title, 4 PBA titles, one Southeast Asian Games gold medal and 1 USBL championship throughout the course of his stellar career. He was even named as part of the PBA's Mythical 5 selection in 1997. Hizon was known for his clutch three point shooting and his slashing drives to the basket. He is also popularly known as "The Prince" in Philippine Basketball Association.

Having accomplished so much on the court, while also playing for the Philippine National Team competing internationally, he was enticed to create a sports show for the ABS-CBN television network. This show was shown worldwide through the Filipino Channel. Hizon was also a much sought after commercial personality doing numerous advertisements in television and print. Since then he has also had a show on MTV Philippines known as MTV bolahan.

When Robert Jaworski (along with his son, Robert "Dodot" Jaworski) retired in 1999 from the Ginebra team, Hizon bolted the PBA with the enticing offer of the Iloilo MegaVoltz in the Metropolitan Basketball Association. At the time, the contract turned out to be the biggest contract in Philippine basketball history. Unhappy with the direction of the league though, Hizon decided to re-join the PBA as a member of the Red Bull Barakos in 2002 and played for two years.^[2] In 2004, he joined the Pennsylvania Valleydawgs in the United States Basketball League and will forever be in the history books as the first Filipino player to play professionally in the United States. His team, coached by the popular Darryl Dawkins, known as 'Chocolate Thunder' in the National Basketball Association, won the USBL crown that year.^[3]

He is married to sports broadcaster (the first female anchor of the PBA) and writer Patricia Bermudez-Hizon to whom he proposed on air Araneta Coliseum during halftime of a game in June 2003.^[4] That unique and memorable proposal was a first in PBA and Araneta Coliseum history and was witnessed by thousands of spectators and millions of television viewers. They have two boys and a girl together.

Since retirement from basketball with the 2006 disbanding of the Valleydawgs, Hizon has shifted his focus to more involvement with numerous environmental projects throughout the Philippines. Hizon was also voted as the first commissioner of the Filsports Basketball Association, an amateur community-based basketball league in the Philippines.^[5]

References[edit]

^ "Biola's Hizon a Big Hit in the Small Time College basketball: After an unsatisfying Division I experience, former Cypress College standout has found fulfillment at an NAIA school". Los Angeles Times. March 5, 1992. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
^ Vince Hizon to join Red Bull
^ Vince Hizon to also join Valleydawgz
^ Vince Hizon Proposal
^ Terrado, Reuben (March 11, 2015). "Former MBA star Vince Hizon stood at the helm regional basketball league for 2 years". Spin.ph. Retrieved May 18, 2015.

[1] "Biola's Hizon a Big Hit in the Small Time College basketball: After an unsatisfying Division I experience, former Cypress College standout has found fulfillment at an NAIA school". Los Angeles Times. March 5, 1992. Retrieved May 18, 2015.

[2] Vince Hizon to join Red Bull

[3] Vince Hizon to also join Valleydawgz

[4] Vince Hizon Proposal

[5] Terrado, Reuben (March 11, 2015). "Former MBA star Vince Hizon stood at the helm regional basketball league for 2 years". Spin.ph. Retrieved May 18, 2015.

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