Let’s talk basketball

Let me leave politics for a while and dwell on something many Filipinos are obsessed with now: the finals of the National Basketball Association (NBA) between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors are leading the best of seven series 2-0 and are 14-0 since the playoffs started. Meaning they haven’t lost a game in their past 14 battles. But the Cavs fans are hoping for a repeat of last year’s finals when Lebron James & Co. won despite being behind 3-1.

I was actually tempted to call some Cavs fans on the net “Dutertards” for their fanatical support of Lebron James & Co. When the Warriors won Game 1, some stupid arguments were immediately raised in the Cavs defense. More so when the Warriors won Game 2. But I won’t elaborate on those arguments because those who raised them would know I am referring to them.

And that is not actually my point. This country’s love for basketball has gone a long way and is now riding on the wave of advanced technology and globalization. I became a fan because my father was a fan and was constantly updated. He bought newspapers daily and listened to the radio coverage of the old premier tournament, was it the MICAA? Okay, I googled that one and it was MICAA (Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association).

So we kids, especially the boys, took the lead of our father. I soon rooted for the Visayan players in the MICAA and also for the Visayan players in the country’s basketball teams formed at that time for international jousts, like Manny Paner, Estoy Estrada, Yoyong Martirez, Jake Rojas and many others including the younger ones like Mon Fernandez, Arnie Tuadles, etc.

It got to the point that when my father, tired after a day’s work as a salesman of a softdrinks firm, went to sleep even when a MICAA game had been scheduled, I would get the transistor radio and listen to the coverage in the dark, the volume set to low so the others won’t be disturbed by the noise. In the dark, I would picture the game played in my mind, guided by sportscasters.

MICAA was an amateur league composed of teams formed by corporate entities. It was set up in 1938 and lasted until 1981 per Wikipedia. But in 1975, the country’s top basketball players launched a revolt against the people running the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) and formed the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), a professional league.

The PBA, which is fighting for existence until now, can be said to be a made for television product. Soon, as the number of households with television grew, TV coverage of basketball games eclipsed that of radio. In time, radio coverage was discarded altogether. The PBA, however, suffered with the advent of newer technology: cable TV and later the worldwide web. Where before Filipinos weren’t familiar with the NBA and its players, now they are very knowledgeable of them.

I say the PBA suffered because the NBA, to be blunt about it, is a superior tournament than the local one. And with the new technology, many Filipino basketball fans now know Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, etc, better than, say, Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, even our very own Junemar Fajardo.