Too Much Hoops, Too Few Medals by Prospero E. Pulma Jr.

Too Much Hoops, Too Few Medals

The jam-packed venue, the blue chip sponsors, the bigwigs on the bleachers, and the multimedia coverage – all are hallmarks of professional sports teams, say basketball. You will not see them in just any pro club but the popular, i.e. perennial title contenders with an All-Star roster, so when all are present in a championship battle of top universities in a Third World country, it would certainly pique an outsider but then this is the Philippines where aberrations like a convicted plunderer railing against corruption abound.
Sitting on the couch, the intensity of the competition radiates from the boobtube but you are not blue or green or go by the name of Eagle or Archer. You are simply brown and Filipino and wondering if so much is poured into supporting one sport, why has the Philippines not gained a prestigious title from it recently? Why is it content in just beating the neighborhood toughies? Why has it not gone toe-to-toe with the fabled American Dream Team, the fierce Spanish, or the scrappy Argentines? Then it hits you. Rabeh Al-Hussaini may tower over everyone on the court but he is just a local hulk, certainly a dwarf beside Yao Ming or even Dwight Howard. You scan the court for more comparisons and reality begins snapping at you. Yes size does matter in basketball, not Kenny George’s 7-foot-6 335-pound oversized physique, but something that will allow the team to outrun the lumbering Chinese or the speeding Phoenix Suns yet is flexible enough to mount a defense that will make the Pistons and Spurs look like amateurs.
You go deeper into fantasy and begin dreaming of an alternative reality for Philippine basketball where all the professional hoops superstars on the national team are “stretched,” that is, taller by a few inches but retaining the same athletism. Like all dreams, the concocted scenario makes you smile but science drops you back down to reality with a firm reminder that genes sometimes make or break an athlete, that someone accursed with short stature cannot dominate in a sport where height is a godsend. You shut the TV in disappointment and the names Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, Paeng Nepomuceno, and Efren “Bata” Reyes begin parading in your mind. While they would never make it into a basketball tournament’s mythical selection, these men have given the country honor by lording over boxing, bowling, and billiards in their prime. But this is the Philippines where tall men squeeze into courts packed with others blinded by their dream of playing in the PBA or if possible NBA, overlooking the other disciplines where their fortune might be. Perhaps you can blame it on the jam-packed venue, the blue chip sponsors, the bigwigs on the bleachers, and the multimedia coverage.


Prospero E. Pulma Jr.