Paper #1:Any Topic [Down With Basketball!] (July 12,2007)

Down With Basketball!

Has anyone watched a PBA game recently? I did last night and whoa Nellie, half the players running around the court looked like Euro-Slavonic or African imports. I thought to myself, “Isn’t this the Philippine Basketball Association? Where did all the Filipino players go?”

The answer to that question is – everywhere else, except where it matters. At the top ranks, there are few Filipinos, but Filipino – (insert nationality)’s dominate. Fil-American, Fil-Chinese, Fil-European and Fil-Krakoszian players are everywhere. But in the streets and recreational courts, millions and millions of Filipinos swarm over basketball. Go anywhere in this country and you’ll find that we Filipinos don’t love basketball – we are fanatically obsessed over basketball.

The signs of that madness are everywhere. In our small country where space is a premium, you’ll find basketball courts in any place possible. You’ll even find courts in places where it’s NOT possible. It’s a driver’s headache to detour around streets in every barangay that turn into courts every afternoon.

Also, in thius country, the lack of classrooms is a major educational problem. Children have to go in four-hour shifts, attend class in corridors or hold them under the nearest mango tree. But as long as the school has a basketball court, it’s all okay!

And there are the TV ads that are impossible to miss. My after-dinner dose of Philippine free TV isn’t complete without either seeing a Growee or Cherifer growth supplement advertisement. In the background, the jingle goes “Tatangkad din ako, tatangkad din ako, tatangkad with growth vitamins!”, as Filipino kids (with the magic of computer generated effects) metamorphose into NBA or PBA players. Oh the dreams of little Filipino children, to magically turn into Caucasian half-breed giants!

Why these kinds of dreams? Because basketball is a sport for giants, in physical height anyway, since a player’s offensive and defensive capabilities are magnified by the player’s height advantage. Look at the champions of international competitions like the Olympics or FIBA World Cup. It’s extremely rare to find a player below six feet in height, and players with heights approaching or surpassing seven feet are getting more and more common.

In contrast, the average height for Filipino women is four feet and eleven inches and for men, five feet and four inches. No wonder most Filipino kids dream of turning into tall half-foreigners to excel in basketball.

Because of this immense obsession, other sports are totally ignored. The Philippines has not won any major international championships in basketball for decades, but still, there is overwhelming support for it. Schools, universities and corporate sponsors pump massive amounts of support and funding to basketball teams while other sports teams wither away. The Philippine teams for diving, wushu, tae kwon do, gymnastics and others limp behind our basketball teams on meager funding but consistently produce more gold and silver medals in international competitions.

So I say, give other sports a chance! We shouldn’t get stuck in a rut, forever following only one way. We should support more sports, and not just one, for our natural ingenuity and lover for diversity are innate advantages.