The Philippines wound up fifth place, winning the rest of their games, in the best finish by a men's Asian team in Olympic basketball history.

In the 1950s–1960s, the Philippines was among the best in the world, producing world-class players like Carlos Loyzaga, Lauro Mumar, Mariano Tolentino, Francisco Rabat and Edgardo Ocampo.

On the next Asian Games in 1954 in Manila that served as a qualifiers for the World Championship later that year, the team finished first anew, beating out the Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan and South Korea in the final round.

In 1954 FIBA World Championship in Brazil, Loyzaga was a part of the Mythical Team selection, where the Philippines won the bronze medal.

Two years later, in the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, the Philippines won its third consecutive gold medal, finishing first in the final round.

The Filipinos fail to defend their Asian championship in 1975, with India earning a shock blowout win to deny the Philippines a top-4 finish.

In the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, the Philippines, coached by the American Norman Black, sent in a team composed of PBA players and selected amateurs.

The loss to Korea meant that the Philippines has to face China; despite losing, the Chinese had their slimmest winning margin in the tournament with nine points, en route to their gold medal.

In 1998, the PBA formed the Philippine Centennial Team coached by the American Tim Cone that captured the 21st William Jones Cup championship but finished with the bronze medal in the 1998 Asian Games held in Bangkok.

In Busan, South Korea, the Philippines easily qualified for the quarterfinals, in which they are grouped with China, Japan and Chinese Taipei.

Up by two points, Olsen Racela missed two free throws, that led to a Lee Sang-min three-pointer at the buzzer to eliminate the Filipinos.

In the 2011 championship at Wuhan, the SBP successfully petitioned the naturalization of Marcus Douthit; the team progressed up to the semifinals for the first time since 1987.

The Congress of the Philippines naturalized Andray Blatche in time for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup to beef-up its center position.

With Blatche in tow, the Philippines nearly won four tightly fought games against higher ranked teams of Croatia, Greece, Argentina and Puerto Rico, before winning in overtime against Senegal to record its first victory at the World Cup in 40 years.

In the 2014 Asian Games, Blatche was not able to join the squad due to residency requirements by the Olympic Council of Asia and Douthit suit up as the national team's naturalized player instead.

[8] The new roster aims to compete in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship in China which will serve as the Asian qualifiers of the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball tournament in Rio de Janeiro.

However, as they were represented by the Gilas Cadets with no professional or naturalize players, the team suffered its worst performance placing 9th over-all, a very huge setback due to conflicting schedule with the national league and mismanagement of the SBP.

In 2017, the Philippines hosted the 2017 SEABA Championship and the team swept the competition for the gold medal and the lone spot in the sub-zone for the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup.

[13] The Philippines defended their gold medal for the 12th straight time in the 2017 South East Asian Games beating Indonesia in the finals.

The Philippines' qualification bid was marred by a brawl during the team's July 2018 tie against Australia in the first round of the Asian qualifiers.

That game and incident started a slump in the standings that almost eliminated the Philippines from the World Cup, but under Guiao they managed to qualify in the last matchday by beating Kazakhstan, combined with a Lebanon loss to South Korea.

[17] The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup saw the Philippines with a 0–5 record, the country's worst performance since the 1978 edition, losing four of its five games in a blowout.

Due to the disappointing results, the SBP sent an all-professional team for the 2019 South East Asia Games to re-establish its dominance.

The conflict began on April 10, 2005, when the BAP-sponsored Cebuana-Lhuillier Philippine National team (composed of little-known amateur players) lost to a lowly Parañaque Jets team (made up of showbiz personalities) in a National Basketball Conference (NBC) pre-season tournament at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

The PBA, together with the Philippine Basketball League (PBL), the UAAP and the NCAA, reportedly came to an agreement on the formation of a new national team.

After the four stakeholders met with Baumann in South Korea, the suspension was not lifted and the draft for a new body was not accepted since Lina was not in agreement.

The POC recognized the SBP as the new national governing body for basketball, after which the FIBA finally lifted the almost two-year-old suspension it imposed upon the country.

In December 2016, the Gilas Pilipinas program got a big boost as a new backer in Chooks-to-Go to form partnership with Smart Communications in the united effort in supporting the Pinoy cagers in their quest for international glory.

The squad stood-in for the Gilas Pilipinas roster which had many of its players as well as Reyes himself suspended due to their involvement in the Philippines-Australia brawl.

The national team under the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) initially had Accel as its official outfitter.