From the barrio courts, to the Big Dome

Unlikely is the perfect word to describe the relationship the Philippines has with basketball.

In a sport where height creates definite advantages, most Filipinos on paper just aren’t built for the game. Nonetheless, decades after basketball was brought to our shores, the game has grown into something many Filipinos love.

Rafe Bartholomew in his book “Pacific Rims” brings out just how deep our love for basketball can get, and its many manifestations in everyday life. The author heads to Manila with a Fulbright scholarship, and ends up observing a PBA campaign with Alaska and travels around the country to see the game in its many incarnations.  The book is equal parts sports journalism and a travelogue of experiences in Manila and in other places in the Philippines. From the Barangay courts, playing pickup ball with locals, all the way to the spectacle of Ateneo-Lasalle games and PBA finals matchups. The book brings out how basketball is present in every sector of Philippine society, written with a sense of awe at how our country has devoted itself to the game.

There were tons of passages that made me laugh, which makes it hard to narrow a few down. And I’ll admit I don’t follow the PBA as I do the NBA or even the UAAP, I found myself hoping for Alaska to win their championship and make their comeback despite the tensions that were mounting as their season dragged on. The book also offers some great lessons on local hoops history, touching on storied rivalries such as Crispa and Toyota, Ateneo and Lasalle, and even Billy Ray Bates and Norman Black.

But what I liked about the book the most, is the fact that it gives a great look into Philippine basketball, not only in the manner we play the game, but how the game here has come to take its own nuances and create its own terms and legends. For every Rucker Park, there’s a court where the triple-clutch layups and unbelievable passes are made by ballers who play better in tsinelas. The book brings out that distinct sense of brotherhood between those who play, from the barrio courts, all the way to the big dome. It’s a great, well-written read not just for any Pinoy hoops fan, but for lovers of the game of basketball the world over.

The Philippines’ love for basketball may be unlikely, but here its evolved from a simple sport to an full-blown cultural movement that takes part with the rest of the world, but at the same time is different enough to distinctly call our own.