Alexander M. Compton (born March 16, 1974) is a Filipino-born American retired basketball player and coach. He also served as the head coach of the Alaska Aces of the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

Early life and college career

Born in

Makati Makati ( ; ), officially the City of Makati (), is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines, known for being one of the leading financial centers in the country. As of 2013, the city has the highest concent ...

in the Philippines, Compton and his family spent a year in northeastern Thailand when he was ten years old. His parents, both Southeast Asian Studies scholars, were researchers there. Compton moved to Madison from

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

in 1988, when his parents began working at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. He was a starting guard on the 1992 Madison West High School basketball squad. There he helped lead the school's only state championship team since 1945. In recognition of his prep basketball career, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2023. After high school, he played for St. Joseph's University and

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Although Compton dreamed of playing in a foreign league, he had no clue how to get into one until his junior year at Cornell. When a coach heard that he was born in the Philippines, he told Compton that he could play on a team in the

. He found an agent, who arranged for him to join a team in July 1997, after graduation.

Playing career

Compton played four seasons in the defunct

Metropolitan Basketball Association The Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), also shortened as Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran for five seasons from 1998 until 2002. The MBA was established to rival the Philippine Basketball Asso ...

with the

Manila Metrostars The Manila Metrostars were a professional basketball team in the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2001. The team was the 1999 MBA National Champions and holds the MBA record of winning 22 consecutive games during the s ...

and the

Batangas Blades The Batangas Blades (or the LBC-Batangas Blades) were a professional basketball team of the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2002. Its moniker was taken from the province's popularity in making Balisong (a Filipino-ma ...

. He won the 1999 MBA Most Valuable Player award when the Metrostars won the national title, and won another championship with the Blades in 2001. By the time the MBA folded in 2002, Compton was a fixture in Philippine basketball and fully assimilated into the culture. However, he still could not play in the PBA due to the league's eligibility rules, which do not allow naturalized Filipino citizens to play. Instead, he appeared on television as a basketball analyst, but was finally allowed to play for a short period of time for the Welcoat Dragons in the PBA. Compton also got an exception from the Philippine Basketball League. He played for the Sunkist-UST Tigers and the Montaña Pawnshop Jewels from 2003 to 2005. He led the Jewels to its only PBL crown in the 2005 PBL Open Championship.

Coaching career

Being an assistant

In the 2006–07 PBA Philippine Cup, Compton was hired as one of the assistant coaches of the Dragons before being allowed by the PBA to play as the team's second import for the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and

2008 PBA Fiesta Conference The 2008 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Fiesta Conference, also known as the 2008 Smart PBA Fiesta Conference for sponsorship reasons, was the last conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized o ...

, his only PBA appearance as a player. He was elevated to the assistant head coaching position with the

Rain or Shine Elasto Painters The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association owned by Asian Coatings Philippines, Inc. It debuted in the league in the 2006–07 PBA season after acquiring the franchise righ ...

from 2006 to 2009. He then moved over to Powerade Tigers as assistant to Bo Perasol until its last conference in 2012. After the Powerade franchise was sold to GlobalPort, he became an assistant to Luigi Trillo of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. He helped the squad win the

2013 PBA Commissioner's Cup The 2012–13 PBA season, 2013 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) PBA Commissioner's Cup, Commissioner's Cup was the second conference of the 2012–13 PBA season. The tournament began on February 8 and ended on May 19, 2013. The tournament i ...

, their 14th title and the first in the post-

Tim Cone Earl Timothy Cone (born December 14, 1957) is an American professional basketball coach who leads Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and the Philippine men's national team. He is the most accomplished coa ...

era. During this time, he also received offers to become the head coach for the

Ateneo Blue Eagles The Ateneo Blue Eagles are the collegiate varsity teams of the Ateneo de Manila University that play in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), the premiere collegiate league in the Philippines. The Ateneo collegiate ...

and the

GlobalPort Batang Pier The NorthPort Batang Pier is a Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) team that first played in the 2012–13 PBA season. The team took over the franchise of the Powerade Tigers in 2012 after it was sold to Sultan 900 Capital, Inc. Besides N ...

Alaska

Two games into the 2014 PBA Governors' Cup, Compton was appointed the head coach of Alaska Aces, replacing Luigi Trillo. In his first head coaching stint, he led the Aces to the semi-finals, losing to Rain or Shine in full five games. In the following season, Compton steered the Aces to the 2014–15 Philippine Cup finals where he went up against Coach Leo Austria, who had been his head coach when they were still with Welcoat. Alaska went on to lose to the San Miguel Beermen in seven hard-fought games. He then got to coach the South All-Stars during the 2015 All-Star Weekend. He also guided the Aces to the 2015 Governors' Cup finals only to be swept by the Beermen in four games. In a rematch of the previous season's Philippine Cup finals, the Beermen once again beat the Alaska Aces in 7 games, completing the Beermen's historic comeback from down 0–3 to win the series. Alaska returned to the

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

once again in the 2015 Commissioner's Cup, where they lost 4–2 to Rain or Shine. In 2018, Compton led Alaska to another finals appearance, where they lost to the Magnolia Hotshots. He resigned as coach in 2019 and was replaced by another Alaska franchise legend Jeffrey Cariaso.

National team

In 2015, Compton was invited by

Philippines men's national basketball team The Philippines men's national basketball team (), commonly known as Gilas Pilipinas, is the basketball team representing the Philippines. The team is managed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (Basketball Federation of the Philippines or s ...

head coach Tab Baldwin to be one of his coaching staff as assistant coach. He helped the national team to win two silver medals from 2015 William Jones Cup and 2015 FIBA Asia Championship respectively. Compton officially returned to the program in early 2020. In October of that year, he left the program, returning to the US to be with family.

Career statistics

College

Head coaching record

Professional

Commentary

Compton started being a color commentator in PBA on NBN/IBC. He was notably did it in

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

for UAAP Basketball coverages of

ABS-CBN Sports ABS-CBN Sports was a sports division of the Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation, which aired some of the notable sporting events in the Philippines. ABS-CBN Sports began in 1998 as the main broadcaster for the network-backed bas ...

with Sev Sarmenta. After that, he also served as a color commentator for PBA coverages in 2009 for

Solar TV Solar TV (stylized as SOLARtv) was the flagship television network of Solar Entertainment Corporation's television arm subsidiary Solar TV Network, Solar TV Network, Inc., which is the replacement of C/S 9. This was the revival of the former So ...

and returned to commentary in 2016 PBA Governors' Cup Finals on TV5. In 2019, he was a commentator for

PBA Rush PBA Rush is a 24/7 exclusive channel of Cignal, which has been currently airing games of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The channel is patterned after NBA TV and was launched on July 5, 2016. The 3-year partnership agreement betw ...

Personal life

Compton is currently married to a Filipina, model Michelle Astudillo. They have two sons and a daughter. As of 2025, Compton is based in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and is now a book author writing self-help books for parents who have sports-inclined children. Compton was fluent of speaking Tagalog. He also appeared on Coffee Mate commercials in early 2000s, where he has some Tagalog lines.

References

External links

Alex Compton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Alex 1974 births Living people American men's basketball players Cornell Big Red men's basketball players American men's basketball coaches Rain or Shine Elasto Painters coaches Philippine Basketball Association imports Point guards Rain or Shine Elasto Painters players Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball players Sportspeople from Makati Basketball players from Metro Manila Madison West High School alumni Basketball players from Madison, Wisconsin American sportspeople of Filipino descent Powerade Tigers coaches Alaska Aces (PBA) coaches 20th-century American sportsmen