What else is new? Yanks own our game
HOW many times has it been said that we are a basketball nation? That has become a refrain as sad as the fate that had befallen Marawi.
So, to repeat: For the longest time, basketball has become our national pastime. And, seemingly, it will stay that way till the world stops turning.
Even as basketball isn’t cut out for us because height, which we don’t have, is the game’s prime property, we don’t listen; we never take heed.
For that, the universe has been laughing at us. Why we insist on battling the giants in overseas battles, they can’t figure it out. We don’t mind. We are as stubborn as a mule. We just move on. Our battle cry has always been: We’ll keep on trying.
Our theme song has always been that theme song of a childless couple: “Let Me Try Again.”
Thus, we persevere. Our hard-headed basketball sergeants, good for them, are aided, endlessly, by the rich who spend good money only to build a team that’s bound to lose each time.
Oh, well, we got lucky to have reentered the Fiba Worlds in Spain in 2013. That’s because we got the breaks.
One, we won hosting rights for the Fiba Asia Cup serving as the Spain Worlds qualifier. That was a big boost as a hometown crowd has always been a tested ego-massager.
And two, we had American Marcus Douthit, who was no doubt the main pillar when we snared one of Asia’s two berths to 2013 Spain.
Douthit got aboard the Philippine Team because he had himself naturalized as a Filipino. A mercenary in disguise. He’s gone now, back in America, practically living off the fat of his loot, courtesy of MVP. Ah, American. Filipinos will die, indeed, for basketball but then, haven’t you noticed?
Americans dominate the current basketball landscape once again: Coaches Tim Cone of Barangay Ginebra and Norman Black of Meralco are battling for the PBA Governors’ Cup crown.
Same old story. They were after each other’s neck last year, Cone prevailing in six in the raceto-four Finals.
They are it again, with Cone capturing Game One 102-87 in Lucena City.
For sure, Cone and Black will give us another show to savor, remember. And who are their main weapons? Not Filipinos, but Americans, too: Brownlee for Cone, Durham for Black.
So pussycat, what else is new?