Vince Hizon
Vicente Paul Hizon (born November 25, 1970) is an American-born retired Filipino professional basketball player. He is currently the commissioner of the newly founded Filsports Basketball Association, a community-based basketball league in the Philippines.
Biography
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), 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 and was traded to Ginebra San Miguel for Nonoy Chuatico and a first round draft pick. Playing for then-playing coach Robert Jaworski's never-say-die system, Hizon flourished and became the 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.
