How Basketball: A Love Story Influences Pinoy Hoops

THROUGH the broadcasting might of ESPN and the efforts of writers Jackie MacMullan and Raef Bartholomew, the documentary Basketball: A Love Story currently being shown on the ESPN2 channel is a must-view for the hardcore hoops fan.

This documentary is based on the book of the same name written by the two which they first revealed when they appeared as guests on the show The Jump hosted by Rachel Nichols.

After watching the first few episodes, I couldn't help but observe some similarities between American and Philippine basketball especially since it was the Americans who helped introduce the sport to Filipinos in the early part of the 19th century and which explains why the Philippines is really a basketball-crazy country despite obvious height limitations.

First, if you observe the rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers against the Boston Celtics, it holds similarities to the Crispa vs Toyota rivalry that dominated the PBA in the 70s. The Toyota squad was the glamour squad like the Lakers back then. Sonny Jaworski threw up beautiful passes ala-Magic Johnson, Francis Arnaiz hit clutch jumpers ala-Jerry West while Ramon Fernandez eventually became the PBA's all-time leading scorer just like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the NBA. And El Presidente could hit the skyhook ala-Kareem and once dished out triple-doubles ala-Magic. Don't forget, Toyota's first coach Dante Silverio was like Pat Riley -- a pair of snazzy dressers on the court.

The Crispa team back then was like the Celtics of old -- teams that the working class could relate to. Crispa was a brand of shirts which the average Filipino can easily buy with his minimum wage unlike the expensive Toyota cars of the upper class. Atoy Co could shoot the lights out of the gym ala-Larry Bird while Philip Cezar was the Kevin McHale of the Philippines in the sense they were both bull-strong power forwards. Abet Guidaben could dominate the boards ala-Robert Parish while Bernard Fabiosa was like Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson combined because of defense. Coach Baby Dalupan was like Red Auerbach in the sense that they are among the winningest coaches in both leagues although the similarities ended there because Dalupan obviously didn't smoke a cigar on the court.

Julius Erving's high-flying game in the NBA inspired PBA homegrown flyers like Samboy Lim (grounded by a coma), Vergel Meneses and Bong Alvarez.

The PBA also had its own version of the Boston Garden in the Rizal Memorial Coliseum although some games were in the Blue Eagle Gym. Both venues are as steamy as the old parquet venue. If you wanted a venue ala-The Forum, Araneta Coliseum was the place. No Mall of Asia back then, no Philippine Arena too.

Second, the Dream Team. When the NBA sent Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and company to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, the PBA preceded that by sending the first all-pro team in Asia to the 1990 Asian Games in China led by Jaworski as coach, Fernandez, Alvin Patrimonio, Benjie Paras and Ronnie Magsanoc. That team won a silver but because of the Dream Team concept, most national teams sent by the Philippines have been all-pro including the current Gilas Pilipinas under Yeng Guiao that is trying to reach the FIBA World Cup in China next year. The USA Basketball under Jerry Colangelo was one of the models being adopted by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas under Manuel V. Pangilinan of PLDT.

Incidentally, when the US team lost to the Soviet Union in the 1972 Olympics, it also marked the last time a Philippine team played in the quadrennial games. That Philippine team led by Bogs Adornado and Freddie Webb ended up in 13th place.

Third, when the NBA had the ABA as a chief rival, the PBA had the Metropolitan Basketball Association. And like the ABA, the MBA pirated the PBA for players with high salaries that the former's teams couldn't afford to pay, resulting in huge financial losses. The MBA eventually folded up after just four and a half seasons and one of its teams, the Laguna Lakers, eventually joined the PBA as the Air21 Express (now NLEX).

The PBA currently has teams that actually started out in the amateur leagues which are commercial in nature in the Philippines like NorthPort, Rain or Shine (both from the PBL), NLEX, Blackwater and Phoenix (all from the PBA D League).

And fourth, when the NBA went international, the PBA couldn't help but follow suit. Many NBA veterans became PBA imports like Billy Ray Bates, Al Thornton, Renaldo Balkman, Larry McNeill and Glen Rice Jr. Some PBA players tried out for NBA teams like Johnny Abarrientos and the late Ric-ric Marata while Kiefer Ravena, Japeth Aguilar and Bobby Ray Parks Jr. managed to make it to the NBA's D League (now G League). And if it wasn't for the desire of former NBA Commissioner David Stern to expand the NBA into international waters, Filipinos wouldn't be able to watch NBA games live through the league's contracts with Philippine broadcasters ABS-CBN and Solar Entertainment, as well as NBA superstars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry visiting the Philippines. Back then in the 70s and 80s, NBA games would be aired on Philippine TV on a delayed basis with IBC 13 airing one game on Sunday afternoons long after the result was known.

There was also a time when the PBA tried recruiting Asian imports in the Governors' Cup but the experiment lasted just two years.

I hope Philippine sports broadcasters like ABS-CBN and ESPN5 (incidentally owned by Pangilinan) make an effort to produce an extensive documentary on Philippine basketball similar to Basketball: A Love Story. Sports columnist Bill Velasco tried a similar concept with his PBA documentary film back in 2014 but Philippine basketball has a lot more stories to tell outside of the pro game which both broadcasters can fulfill given its wealth of information.