Speaker 1: I used to always come early for the games, and
Speaker 1: there's ten thousand people there for our warm up. It's
Speaker 1: a love affair. It's a love affair with the NBA.
Speaker 1: It's ingrained. I think from the cradle. You know, there's religion,
Speaker 1: there's politics, and there's basketball. It got to the point
Speaker 1: where Fizz and my other assistant, Chad Camra, were signing
Speaker 1: kids foreheads. My legacy was forty two years ago, but
Speaker 1: these people act like it was yesterday. You had lunch
Speaker 1: with him, yeah, but I wasn't able to eat. I
Speaker 1: was like, just like I had lunch, cat sat next
Speaker 1: to him. Hey, if we could be partial contributors to
Speaker 1: being dreammakers, I'm all four. Picture a place where basketball
Speaker 1: is everywhere, from the air you breathe, to soil beneath
Speaker 1: your feet, where people hoop anywhere and everywhere, from MBA
Speaker 1: ready arenas to the middle of streets to the slopes
Speaker 1: of active volcanoes, where the most common item in people's
Speaker 1: wardrobes is a jersey, and the soundtrack to everyday life
Speaker 1: is a bouncing ball. This place, this hoops heaven, is
Speaker 1: the Philippines. Basketball where we're standing tallis when you travel
Speaker 1: through the country You're guaranteed to see people outside shooting,
Speaker 1: driving and defending on dirt and concrete courts, and they're
Speaker 1: playing either in bare feet or were just flip flops
Speaker 1: or channellas on their feet. But for real, the Philippines
Speaker 1: passion for basketball is off the charts. Don't take my
Speaker 1: word for it, though. We asked Donna Reus, director of
Speaker 1: Content and Media Distribution at MBA Asia, to bring us
Speaker 1: the numbers. We'll hear from Donna later in the episode
Speaker 1: of the population in the Philippines consider themselves NBA fans.
Speaker 1: That's the largest person to JAMO in all countries, and
Speaker 1: two thirds of households in the Philippines watched MBA coverage
Speaker 1: last season. It's no surprise that basketball caught on in
Speaker 1: the Philippines. Basketball is caught on almost everywhere but no
Speaker 1: other country, and people have embraced the game the way
Speaker 1: Filipinos have, where it's almost a national religion. Welcome to
Speaker 1: hoops Paradise, the Philippines Love of the game. Brought to
Speaker 1: you by iHeartRadio and the MBA pastable. What's up, everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm Cassidy Hubber. If you're a basketball fan, you may
Speaker 1: know me from the NBA sidelines, where I'm a reporter
Speaker 1: for ESPN and the host of the show Hoop Streams.
Speaker 1: But what you might not know unless you're Filipino, in
Speaker 1: which case you almost definitely know, is that I'm Filipino
Speaker 1: American and that basketball is in my blood, not just
Speaker 1: because it's a national obsession in the country where my
Speaker 1: mother was born, but because I grew up playing around
Speaker 1: the world with my dad in the driveway of our
Speaker 1: home right outside of Chicago. My father's roots are Irish
Speaker 1: and German, but his love for the game would be
Speaker 1: right at home in the Philippines. Even now, he just
Speaker 1: turns seventy, and he still has a regular pickup run.
Speaker 1: He spent a lifetime around American basketball, and so have I.
Speaker 1: I've only gotten the chance to go back to the
Speaker 1: Philippines with my mom twice. I've seen enough to know
Speaker 1: that basketball is a huge deal in the Philippines, but
Speaker 1: I don't know the country well enough to explain every
Speaker 1: aspect of its roundball infatuation, at least not like someone
Speaker 1: who grew up there could. Luckily, though, I'm taking this
Speaker 1: journey with someone who did grow up in the Philippines,
Speaker 1: and he understands the country's basketball jones about as well
Speaker 1: as anyone on the planet. Nico, what a thanks, Cassidy.
Speaker 1: I'm Nico Ramos, a sports broadcaster here in Manila, where
Speaker 1: I used to have a job almost exactly like yours
Speaker 1: during NBA games, only I was a reporter and then
Speaker 1: the commentator for a professional league which is called, in
Speaker 1: a very intentional nods for our American counterparts, the PBA
Speaker 1: or Philippine Basketball Association. I played for a very small,
Speaker 1: very bad college team, but I used to tell everybody
Speaker 1: I was the only one who was going to make
Speaker 1: it to the PBA. I was right, kind of Nico,
Speaker 1: inside the lines or outside the lines, you made it.
Speaker 1: And in this podcast, we want to explore the Philippines
Speaker 1: passion for the sport. How did a nation on the
Speaker 1: other side of the world, from the YMCA Gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: where doctor James Naismith first hung a pair of peach
Speaker 1: baskets and instructed his students to toss a leather ball
Speaker 1: into the hoops, come to a door basketball Like almost
Speaker 1: no other country on the planet. It's not like the
Speaker 1: Philippines is an international powerhouse unless you're at least fifty
Speaker 1: years old. The country has sent a team to the
Speaker 1: Olympic Basketball Tournament in your lifetime. It also hasn't produced
Speaker 1: a single homegrown NBA player ever yet, And well, we
Speaker 1: might as well address the undersized elephant in the room.
Speaker 1: Filipinos usually aren't very tall. In fact, statistically speaking, we're
Speaker 1: among the shortest people in the world. National surveys have
Speaker 1: repeatedly measured the average height of Filipino men at about
Speaker 1: five foot four. You know, we're still on average not
Speaker 1: at tall people. So we have to be kind of
Speaker 1: creative to be successful on the court. That's Donna as
Speaker 1: director of Content and Needia Distribution at NBA Asia. So
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the hallmark of Filipino basketball
Speaker 1: is that we're pretty good at, like being creative. I
Speaker 1: like this word a couple of words, I guess. Like
Speaker 1: there's gulang, which literally means age in the basketball sense.
Speaker 1: It sometimes can take on a negative connotation, but I
Speaker 1: think for me means using your smarts to make up
Speaker 1: for lack of like height or hef. But maybe a
Speaker 1: better word is discarte, which I think kind of translates
Speaker 1: to being strategic, but I guess it's the same thing
Speaker 1: right to use. You're smart, to outsmart somebody and just
Speaker 1: kind of working around your physical disadvantages. Now, Cassidy, let
Speaker 1: me translate that for you, because Donna is though much
Speaker 1: more polite Filipino out of the three of us, All
Speaker 1: of that really adds up to a grabbing of the risks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pulling on the jersey's, hugging on the opponent's shorts without
Speaker 1: the referee seeing scrap. All of that adds up to
Speaker 1: gulang And you know, it's it's kind of it's kind
Speaker 1: of this badge of honor that you kind of earn
Speaker 1: when you're a young player. We all actually have these
Speaker 1: moments when we remember someone older telling us I'm a
Speaker 1: gulan ka, which means, oh, now you know how to play.
Speaker 1: Now you know how to play. I feel like I
Speaker 1: need to start using that a little bit more here
Speaker 1: in the States. And just like surprise people, I'm paper.
Speaker 1: None of this adds up to the profile of a
Speaker 1: country made up of one hundred million basketball junkies and
Speaker 1: NBA addicts. Yet the two times I visited family in
Speaker 1: the Philippines with my mom, I've seen this sport everywhere
Speaker 1: around me, pickup games on every street corner, NBA stars
Speaker 1: passed in present, smiling down at me from a twelve
Speaker 1: story billboard, and live game broadcasts on TV from SunUp
Speaker 1: to sundown. When it comes to Filipino fans interest in
Speaker 1: NBA basketball, the numbers are mind blowing. On social media,
Speaker 1: the league's Facebook page has more than eight million followers
Speaker 1: from the Philippines that ranks number two in the world,
Speaker 1: above every country but the States. Last season, viewers from
Speaker 1: the Philippines accounted for one third of the total hours
Speaker 1: watched on the NBA's YouTube channel. And for all those
Speaker 1: critics who say the Dunk contest has lost its charm,
Speaker 1: don't bring that mess to Manila. Because Filipinos watched almost
Speaker 1: ten and a half million hours of MBA content last
Speaker 1: All Star weekend, about twenty percent of all worldwide consumption. Well,
Speaker 1: there's no stopping Filipinos from watching basketball, and watching a
Speaker 1: lot of it. As they say. If you know, you know.
Speaker 1: When I worked as editor in chief of Slam Philippines
Speaker 1: and even now in my position as Senior brand director
Speaker 1: for Titan, I spend a lot of time in meetings
Speaker 1: with basketball and sneaker executives from other countries and Whenever
Speaker 1: I start sharing stats about Filipino basketball obsession, or when
Speaker 1: I tell them stories about teenagers practicing step back threes
Speaker 1: and their flip flops, they can hardly believe what they're hearing. Basically,
Speaker 1: a big part of my job is to translate the
Speaker 1: country's national obsession to the international brands we work with,
Speaker 1: and to always be looking for ways to connect people
Speaker 1: through the sport. So does that mean you could tell
Speaker 1: me what's going on with the Senator who has his
Speaker 1: own signature shoe? I thought you'd never ask. But for
Speaker 1: the record, that wasn't us. Don't pin that on us.
Speaker 1: Titan was not the mastermind behind Senator Bong Goes twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen three point King sneaker drop. That was a local
Speaker 1: apparel company called World Balance and the shoe a white
Speaker 1: and lime green low top with a mesh body. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a real thing. And yes, before you ask,
Speaker 1: the Senator Ken stroke it from way downtown. The sneaker
Speaker 1: was a limited release of only five hundred pairs and
Speaker 1: they were mostly you know, created to drum a publicity
Speaker 1: for Goes. Can I say it? But successful Senate campaign
Speaker 1: that year? All in all, yes, there's no denying they
Speaker 1: were real. Local influencers even did unboxing videos on YouTube
Speaker 1: comparing the three point Kings quote unquote, vibe and fit
Speaker 1: to the Nike KD Elevins. You gotta be the shoes.
Speaker 1: And here I am still waiting for new balance to
Speaker 1: come out with the Obama. Yes, we can mids the
Speaker 1: intersection between basketball and politics in the Philippines. It's an amazing,
Speaker 1: an often ridiculous way to illustrate how deeply the sport
Speaker 1: is ingrained in Filipinos lives. All right, Cassidy, Now it's
Speaker 1: my turn to ask the question. The times you did
Speaker 1: visit family here in the Philippines, what do you notice
Speaker 1: about basketball in the country. Well, regretfully, I've only been
Speaker 1: back twice. First time I was so little i can
Speaker 1: barely remember it. The second time I was in college.
Speaker 1: And Filipino Americans know how it goes when we come
Speaker 1: home for a visit. Our families basically kidnap us from
Speaker 1: the moment we land in Manila till they return us
Speaker 1: to the airport a few hours before the return flight.
Speaker 1: So the entire trip we've been shuttle door to door
Speaker 1: from the family home to the mall, to the restaurant
Speaker 1: to the beach and then back. But I did spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time in traffic gazing at my surroundings
Speaker 1: from the backseat of my family car. And during those hours,
Speaker 1: even when I wasn't looking for it, I saw basketball everywhere.
Speaker 1: There were vendors walking through the gridlock selling things you'd expect,
Speaker 1: like water bottles and air fresheners, but also items that
Speaker 1: seem completely useless in a traffic jam, like feather dusters,
Speaker 1: toilet plungers, and yes, fully inflated, bright orange rubber basketballs.
Speaker 1: Are people really working on their handles while waiting at
Speaker 1: red lights? I mean smart, like get that handlework in
Speaker 1: when you can. But other times I'd look out the
Speaker 1: window and see Magic Johnson's painted portrait staring right back
Speaker 1: at me, along with Byron Scott, James Worthy, and the
Speaker 1: rest of the Showtime Lakers starting five from the side
Speaker 1: of one of those public transport cheapneys. But what really
Speaker 1: struck me were the basketball courts. Every corner had its
Speaker 1: own makeshift half court, and every town plaza had a
Speaker 1: full court, complete with concrete bleachers, an aluminum roof, and
Speaker 1: an electronic scoreboard. A lot of them look like they
Speaker 1: had fiberglass backboards and breakaway rims. You know how jealous
Speaker 1: I would have been of public courts like these during
Speaker 1: the middle school heyday of my playing career. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what makes the Philippines basketball heaven in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: No matter how you connect with a sport, you're going
Speaker 1: to find a court and more importantly, a level to
Speaker 1: play at. If you're elite, you're gonna gravitate towards the
Speaker 1: elite guys. Now, if you're like me and you just
Speaker 1: want to sweat once or twice a week, there's that
Speaker 1: group for you too. If you're just hanging out or
Speaker 1: around your street and your flip flops, there's a half
Speaker 1: court there that you guys built on an electricity pole,
Speaker 1: and playing there means something to whether you live in
Speaker 1: a city or in the province, those courts are centers
Speaker 1: of community life. Sometimes it feels even stronger in the
Speaker 1: most rural areas, where the basketball court serves so many functions.
Speaker 1: It's the open space where farmers lay down their rice
Speaker 1: crops out to dry. It's the banquet hall where the
Speaker 1: town holds beauty pageants and talent shows and six am
Speaker 1: zoomba classes. It's the evacuation center when it's hyphoon threatens
Speaker 1: people's homes, and it's the spot where local governments administer
Speaker 1: public health programs like vaccination campaigns, and yes, even summertime
Speaker 1: community circumctition events. Don't ask. It's all in the basketball court.
Speaker 1: And I haven't even mentioned the basketball that's played there yet.
Speaker 1: Like I've been lucky enough to play basketball all around
Speaker 1: the world, I played terrible Division three college basketball here
Speaker 1: in the Philippines, and to this day, the best feeling
Speaker 1: I've ever had while playing the game wasn't when I
Speaker 1: shared the court with Kevin Durant or Blake Griffin or
Speaker 1: sneaker launch runs. He drops something, Oh yeah, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: just should I double click on some details because that
Speaker 1: time I played with KD he was just talking trash
Speaker 1: at me because I airballed the jumper. He remembers me
Speaker 1: to this day as Manila No jumper. Yes, he still
Speaker 1: calls me that I'm bringing that up next time I
Speaker 1: see him at shoot around. And Blake Griffin once passed
Speaker 1: the ball to me and I shot at three and
Speaker 1: it went in and I told him to please tell
Speaker 1: KDE and he said, that's really weird. So while I
Speaker 1: name drop the details, though, aren't something I'm really eager
Speaker 1: to share. As I was saying, it's not when playing
Speaker 1: with those guys that I felt the best. It was
Speaker 1: on the court. Right down the street from my house
Speaker 1: in Marquina City, there was this one special summer where
Speaker 1: our neighborhood, which consists of three streets, was split into
Speaker 1: four teams, and the only rule was brothers and dads
Speaker 1: can't play on the same team. We have to split
Speaker 1: it off so that everyone makes friends with everybody. So
Speaker 1: in the finals, my dad was coaching his team and
Speaker 1: I was playing for mine. He was heckling me the
Speaker 1: entire game. So when I hit a big three pointer
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, that really pissed him off. To
Speaker 1: this day, that's my favorite basketball memory because seeing my
Speaker 1: dad not knowing if he was supposed to be proud
Speaker 1: of me or if he was supposed to be mad
Speaker 1: because he was losing. It's priceless. Favorite basketball memory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because me and my two brothers were talking smack to
Speaker 1: my dad everyone like, that's what you get for not
Speaker 1: betting on one of us. It's true, talk about tough love.
Speaker 1: My mom was there upset because everybody was late for
Speaker 1: dinner and that double that she had made was getting cold,
Speaker 1: and she didn't go there to watch. She just went
Speaker 1: there and crossed the street to tell the four of
Speaker 1: us to go home. Incredible. To this day, and this
Speaker 1: is no exaggeration, I still have people from that neighborhood
Speaker 1: come up to me and say, I was there when
Speaker 1: you hit that shot and your dad got pissed off.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the country has a story like that. The
Speaker 1: game is tied to our most cherished memories, the unforgettable
Speaker 1: moments shared with our whole communities. And even if those
Speaker 1: moments didn't come in a basketball game, they for sure
Speaker 1: happened on a basketball court. Yeah, in Tenement, the one
Speaker 1: important place. He's the basketball court. You know why. The
Speaker 1: camaraderie there, the family itself, it's built there. That was
Speaker 1: coach Eddie Barboena describing the similar connection his community has
Speaker 1: with their central basketball court. Only their court and their
Speaker 1: community is unlike any other in the Philippines. It's the
Speaker 1: only street court in the nation that Jordan Clarkson, Paul George,
Speaker 1: and Lebron James have made round ball pilgrimages too, a
Speaker 1: place so special that Lebron left a cement imprint of
Speaker 1: his hand behind to mark his visit. That place is
Speaker 1: located into gig one of these seventeen cities that make
Speaker 1: up Metro Manila, and that famous blacktop court is named Tenement,
Speaker 1: after the housing structure that surrounds it. So I'm a
Speaker 1: trainer coach here they just may see how to help people.
Speaker 1: The Tenement was built on nineteen sixty two President just Oo.
Speaker 1: This building was condemned, but the japan Engineering c and
Speaker 1: test our building here. It lasts more than fifteen years.
Speaker 1: They said that this place is not safe, but they're wrong.
Speaker 1: This place is so much love. Where we come back,
Speaker 1: it's time for a quick ta gala Clesson Cassidy. I
Speaker 1: don't mean to put you on the spot, but how's
Speaker 1: your tag? Um? Look, this is not like I still
Speaker 1: hold this against my mom or my Lola, who you
Speaker 1: know both were in the household. I was my whole
Speaker 1: entire life raising me um. But they didn't teach me
Speaker 1: to galog. That's okay. I know a few words, and
Speaker 1: you I know a few phrases like I'm not cool
Speaker 1: or you know massa rop and uh yepital and you
Speaker 1: know I can. I can say a few things, but
Speaker 1: not as much as I want to and I still
Speaker 1: need to. You know, I still hold that against my mom.
Speaker 1: It's their fault. It's completely on that. But look, it's
Speaker 1: not a problem that the gout a lesson have got
Speaker 1: here for you. Isn't something you would have learned in
Speaker 1: college courses or Rosetta Stone. We're pretty much anywhere outside
Speaker 1: of the Philippines among nineties era NBA fans. And I
Speaker 1: can't even blame this on your mom or your lola,
Speaker 1: because you had to be a basketball fan to really
Speaker 1: know this. Now, when I bring up the greatest pick
Speaker 1: and roll duos of the nineties era, who are the
Speaker 1: first two players who come to mind? Quick? Can't you
Speaker 1: watched your hometown Chicago Bulls beat them in the finals twice? Oh,
Speaker 1: easy work? John Stockton and Karl Malone? Right? Perfect? And
Speaker 1: do you remember how the great and be on NBC
Speaker 1: announcer Marv Albert would call their plays together back then?
Speaker 1: Stockton to Malone Bengo. Well, in Filipino, the version of
Speaker 1: expanded Tagalog that serves as the Philippines national language, the
Speaker 1: same exact sounds, that combination of phonetics they happen to
Speaker 1: form the sentence Stockton to Malone, which means Stockton jump
Speaker 1: and every time the mailman delivered on a Stockton assist
Speaker 1: in those years, it was like Marv and millions of
Speaker 1: Filipino NBA fans we're sharing an inside joke only we
Speaker 1: could understand. Oh wow, I feel the same kind of
Speaker 1: if you know, you know, connection with Filipino fans. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, while covering the NBA most of the time,
Speaker 1: will be at the big events that draw spectators from
Speaker 1: all over the world, like All Star Weekend, Summer League,
Speaker 1: or the NBA Finals, and I'll be walking down like
Speaker 1: an arena hallway or spot a few fans sitting together
Speaker 1: in this hands and we'll just make eye contact. And
Speaker 1: this is something you know that like I do just
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, I will make sure if I
Speaker 1: think you're a Filipino, I will say something Filipino. Often
Speaker 1: I'm right, I'm like nine right, But specifically with NBA
Speaker 1: fans who come up to me during games or you know,
Speaker 1: at NBA events, I will absolutely say Filipino and then
Speaker 1: we would embrace and I would say Filipino, Filipino, Filipedo.
Speaker 1: And by the way, they don't point at you then
Speaker 1: giveaways that it's not a head nod. No, it's it's
Speaker 1: not a point. They kind of gesture their lips. Yes,
Speaker 1: because Filipino's talk with their face. Yeah, exactly over there,
Speaker 1: well there. So when you see them talking to someone
Speaker 1: whoever is next to them and then making that like
Speaker 1: kissing mark gesture at you, it's only to say you
Speaker 1: see her, Cassidy. Yes, it's not creepy. Yeah, okay, creeped out.
Speaker 1: And a lot of the time they'll stop me and
Speaker 1: share a quick version of their own basketball love story
Speaker 1: and then tell me how much it means to see
Speaker 1: a fellow Filipino on screen during NBA games. I know
Speaker 1: you hate it every time. I tell you how important
Speaker 1: that is to so many people here to see you
Speaker 1: represent us so well. I mean a lot of the time,
Speaker 1: the country's basketball passion shines brightest when our love for
Speaker 1: the game comes into contact with the oldest and best
Speaker 1: pro league in the world. So to have you there,
Speaker 1: it's incredibly, incredibly a proud moment, NonStop for all Filipinos everywhere.
Speaker 1: We've also seen it up close when great players like
Speaker 1: Lebron or Kde come through Manila during their offseason sneaker tours.
Speaker 1: When Kevin Durant visited Manila, he was greeted by chanting
Speaker 1: fans everywhere he went. It's a dream to look at
Speaker 1: man in the sea and didn't have Enos players here
Speaker 1: with them. Man can't beat there. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you'll see a future NBA player walking around here
Speaker 1: at some point. I mean, a chance to see a
Speaker 1: Finals MVP in the flesh, maybe even get close enough
Speaker 1: to ask for an autograph, for a selfie. It becomes
Speaker 1: almost like a religious experience, and the players feel it too.
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember any time Kobe Bryant would come
Speaker 1: to the Philippines on a sneaker tour, the country would stop,
Speaker 1: like everybody you knew would be at wherever it was.
Speaker 1: It was rumored that Kolby would be. It was raining,
Speaker 1: didn't matter, it was sun ten feet right over your head,
Speaker 1: did it matter. You were only going to see a
Speaker 1: glimpse of Kobe through the glass, didn't matter. There were
Speaker 1: thousands of people there just waiting to see him. The
Speaker 1: love definitely goes both ways, Nico. I remember back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, after the Boston Celtics be Kobe
Speaker 1: and won their first championship since the Larry bird days,
Speaker 1: the team celebrated by going to a Manny Pacil fight
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas, and then all of a sudden, after
Speaker 1: Manny knocked out some poor guy named David Diaz, there
Speaker 1: was Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, Sam Cassell,
Speaker 1: and Tony Allen partying in Manny's locker room, and you
Speaker 1: couldn't tell who was more starstruck to meet the other.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure Cage even knew, but before they went
Speaker 1: in there, Manny had been calling him his favorite player
Speaker 1: for years. Huge Man, huge Man. Just just what it is, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge pac Man fans. While we're here, you
Speaker 1: know that this guy has never asked for the picture
Speaker 1: for anyone except you. He is your number one, the
Speaker 1: Philippines greatest living champion at the time when he could
Speaker 1: almost literally do no wrong in the eyes of fellopen noise,
Speaker 1: engaging in some adorable cross cultural bromance with future NBA
Speaker 1: Hall of famers, with some of the best basketball players
Speaker 1: on the planet looking up to our national sporting hero.
Speaker 1: For Filipinos watching the scene unfold, it was like Manny
Speaker 1: said a dream come true. Later on Manny's love for
Speaker 1: KG and the Celtics wound up playing a factor in
Speaker 1: one of the most controversial fights they June twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: lost to Timothy Bradley Junior that nobody watching the fight
Speaker 1: seemed to see Manny losing. Rumors swirled after the bout
Speaker 1: that Manny had angered the ringside judges by postponing his
Speaker 1: ring walk while he watched the Celtics play the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat in an Eastern Conference Finals game. I'm still I'm
Speaker 1: still sour about that loss. By the way, I still
Speaker 1: demand a recount same. I remember being so mad. I
Speaker 1: think I was at a party that night watching on
Speaker 1: my phone and everyone was like, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Like this is just an atrocity. But I digress. Overall,
Speaker 1: the way that Manny always wore his love for basketball
Speaker 1: and the NBA on his sleeve, launching his two handed
Speaker 1: catapult of a jump shot in pickup games, his brief
Speaker 1: and confusing foray into owning Code Chain and playing for
Speaker 1: his own PBA team, starting his own regional pro league
Speaker 1: to provide opportunities for the surplus of Filipino basketball players
Speaker 1: who aren't quite PBA caliber. It seems like another perfect
Speaker 1: example of how basketball touches just every Filipino in the world.
Speaker 1: In some way you see basketball in the NBA's influence
Speaker 1: on Manny's life. But really you see it wherever you
Speaker 1: look in the Philippines, and the closer you look, the
Speaker 1: more you see the sports imprint all around you. They're
Speaker 1: the painted portraits of NBA legends on the sides of
Speaker 1: jeepneys that you mentioned earlier, often with images of the
Speaker 1: driver's wife and children. On the hood. There are the
Speaker 1: court size murals of Lebron and Kobe that the artists
Speaker 1: and activists of the Tenement community hand painted onto their
Speaker 1: home court. Coach Eddie Barbuena told us about the creation
Speaker 1: of the famous Kobe mural on the Tenement court, the
Speaker 1: mural of Kobe, Bryant and gig it's very tachi. When
Speaker 1: that time happens, all the people gather all around the world. Actually,
Speaker 1: the idea of putting the mural here in the famous
Speaker 1: basketball for Tenement is the idea came from the Tenement
Speaker 1: Virtual Artists. We have our Tenement Virtual artist here and
Speaker 1: with cooperation and coordination with the Tahan and Association lead
Speaker 1: by our president Jennifer karpen So, the plan was so
Speaker 1: fast they do the mural for respect and love to
Speaker 1: the father and daughter Kobe and Gigi for three days.
Speaker 1: They do it that for three days continuously, without a sleep.
Speaker 1: There are the times you'll catch a glimpse of a
Speaker 1: tanker truck passing by and realize as its speeds out
Speaker 1: of sight that it had a gigantic Michael Jordan Jumpman
Speaker 1: logo painted on the back. One of the most intimate
Speaker 1: examples of how deep the nation's love the NBA runs
Speaker 1: comes from the number of Filipino parents who choose to
Speaker 1: give their children NBA inspired names. There's no way to
Speaker 1: tell exactly how many of the countries Kevin's or Allan's
Speaker 1: were named after Garnette or Durant or Iverson, but I
Speaker 1: promise you if we could interview each and every one
Speaker 1: of them, you wouldn't believe how many of them would
Speaker 1: say they're named after an NBA Grede. Basically, if a
Speaker 1: newborn boy in the Philippines isn't named after a saint,
Speaker 1: there's a good chance he'll be named after the next
Speaker 1: holiest figure. An NBA legend. The sidestep moved by Scottie Thompson,
Speaker 1: Steve Nash Enriquez gets it to go because he did
Speaker 1: have a depressive rookie year. He has a right spots
Speaker 1: and now he's just looking to build on him. In
Speaker 1: case you can't quite believe your ears, I'll slow it
Speaker 1: down for you. That was Scotty Thompson, reigning MVP of
Speaker 1: the PB eight, whose dad named him Scottie after Scottie Pippin.
Speaker 1: Then a couple of college players whose namesakes could not
Speaker 1: be any clearer, National University point guard Steve Nash Enriquez.
Speaker 1: By the way, Steve Nash and Riquez also have a
Speaker 1: massive ponytail, and he's like five foot eight on his
Speaker 1: best day, which makes him the best player to cover.
Speaker 1: I love him, man. I will say this. Though Irvin
Speaker 1: Magic Ramos was my leading candidates to name my son,
Speaker 1: my wife would have none of it. We eventually named
Speaker 1: him Tyler and depending on how Tyler Hero's career goes.
Speaker 1: Oh is where al stand with the story Tyler Hero
Speaker 1: becomes an MVP one day, I'll say my son was
Speaker 1: named after him, and then you just got it. But
Speaker 1: you have to add Hero with the double R as
Speaker 1: the middle name. You know that, right, I don't mind it.
Speaker 1: Tyler Hero Ramos. I don't mind it into it. Actually,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. All right. I think that's our cue to
Speaker 1: take a quick break. But when we come back, we're
Speaker 1: traveling back to nineteen ninety eight. Jaw alone is coupled.
Speaker 1: They shot out of it and stealing up Chicago seventeen seconds,
Speaker 1: seventeen seconds from Game seven Orcal Championship number six. Jordan
Speaker 1: open Chicago with the lane. Cassidy, you're from Chicago. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing you recognize that sound. Recognize nineteen ninety eight, Salt
Speaker 1: Lake City. You talk, Michael Jordan, the shot, get off me, Brian,
Speaker 1: even though people called you Byron, your name is Brian
Speaker 1: Russell Stockton. Why don't you tom alone yourself off this court?
Speaker 1: MJ and the poll second three p. Twenty thousand, cry
Speaker 1: jazz fans. I don't just recognize that sound. I don't
Speaker 1: just appreciate that sound. I am that sound. I cherish
Speaker 1: that sound. All right, Okay, Chicna go easy easy. We
Speaker 1: all saw the push off, Yes, we all watched it.
Speaker 1: Do you remember where you watched MJ? Push off? Brian Russell,
Speaker 1: I didn't see any push off. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about, but I was in eighth grade around
Speaker 1: then the time of the shot and only the shot.
Speaker 1: I was home in my living room watching from the couch,
Speaker 1: like we did every single Bowls playoff game back then,
Speaker 1: and my mom was screaming her absolute head off, like
Speaker 1: shrieking every time every time a shot went up, and
Speaker 1: I could hear her sometimes when I'd be taking the
Speaker 1: dog out a walk two blocks down, just screaming Scotty.
Speaker 1: She didn't even scream for Luke Longley, what are you doing,
Speaker 1: b J? I had Mom calmed down, You're gonna blood pressure, Mom,
Speaker 1: blood pressure. But that was that was our household. I mean,
Speaker 1: to grow up in the nineties during that era of
Speaker 1: the NBA, I mean exactly why I am who I
Speaker 1: am and how I ended up where I ended up.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're describing my mother with that exact
Speaker 1: same tone and volume. Because the Philippines was thirteen hours
Speaker 1: ahead of Eastern Standard time during that part of the year,
Speaker 1: so for me, it was Monday morning and it would
Speaker 1: have been about maybe nine, almost ten years old. In
Speaker 1: elementary school. I was at the sweet spot of just
Speaker 1: really beginning to understand basketball and blossoming as a fan.
Speaker 1: Because of Jordan and the Three Peats, everybody I knew
Speaker 1: had Bulls Merch and only Bulls Merch for some reason,
Speaker 1: like everyone had relatives in Chicago. Back then, it wasn't
Speaker 1: so easy to watch NBA games on TV. There weren't
Speaker 1: that many options for cable, and most of the games
Speaker 1: that we did see were incredibly delayed. The stories folks
Speaker 1: tell about the NBA's dark ages in the seventies when
Speaker 1: finals games weren't aired on live TV and came on
Speaker 1: sometime in the middle of the night, after the news
Speaker 1: or after the late night talk shows. We were still
Speaker 1: living in that world at some point in the nineties.
Speaker 1: But those limitations forces to get creative, and I remember
Speaker 1: trying to follow note I say followed not watch that
Speaker 1: game six between Chicago and Utah, and it became one
Speaker 1: of the great basketball experiences of my life. So at school,
Speaker 1: much like many many other schools in the Philippines, we
Speaker 1: had what were called recess runners. So during the school day,
Speaker 1: we had a recess period and one of the kids,
Speaker 1: the runner, he'd sprint up to the pay phone to
Speaker 1: call his cousin, his friend, or whoever it was they
Speaker 1: knew that was wealthy enough or lived far away from
Speaker 1: Manila enough sneak enough to have one of those bootlegs
Speaker 1: satellites that provided a hazy feed of NBA games. The
Speaker 1: runner would call his guy, ask for the score, what
Speaker 1: was happening in the game, how many technicals did Dennis
Speaker 1: Rodman have? What color his hair is? All that stuff?
Speaker 1: And he'd come running one hundred meters back into the
Speaker 1: canteen and yell into the entire student lounge where everybody
Speaker 1: would be their waiting. That morning of game six, the
Speaker 1: runner came back. He kind of messed up the story
Speaker 1: of that last play. It's like a classic literal game
Speaker 1: of telephone because he came back sweat all over him, right,
Speaker 1: he's gasping for breath, and he said Jordan pushed off.
Speaker 1: He hit the game winner. Jordan pushed Russell the bulls win.
Speaker 1: That may have been the last shot Michael Jordan will
Speaker 1: ever take in the NBA. What's Joan's left hand here
Speaker 1: as he gives Russell the push. Referee can't see that.
Speaker 1: That's the image we had in our minds, in our
Speaker 1: minds as ten year olds. Michael Jordan assaulted Bryan Russell,
Speaker 1: just physically hurt him. Because the guy on the phone
Speaker 1: told a recess runner that Jordan pushed Russell, and it
Speaker 1: was our only way of knowing what happened in the moment.
Speaker 1: And it stayed like that in my mind for about
Speaker 1: a month and a half before someone finally lent a
Speaker 1: VHS recording of the game from the States. It was
Speaker 1: a copy of a copy of a copy. And then
Speaker 1: I saw that, yes, MJ initiated some contact on that
Speaker 1: famous play, but it was more like a love tap
Speaker 1: than the crazy shove that we had imagined in our mind.
Speaker 1: It was physical assault. You're telling me this all started.
Speaker 1: All this talk about a push off started from a
Speaker 1: bad game of telephone at your school. That's how this
Speaker 1: push off on sense got started. Jay, I'm sorry, City
Speaker 1: of Chicago. I'm sorry it was all because of one guy.
Speaker 1: Have won their sixth NBA championship and it's their second
Speaker 1: three people. Looking back on it, though, I'm happy I
Speaker 1: lived through those days before streaming and cable made it
Speaker 1: so easy to follow the NBA games. I'm proud that
Speaker 1: I came of age during a time when we would
Speaker 1: do literally anything to get a scrap of information about
Speaker 1: our favorite teams and players, cook up wild schemes just
Speaker 1: to hear game updates. Where there's a will, there's a way,
Speaker 1: And when it comes to the Filipinos craving for NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: there's an entire world's worth of willpower coming out of
Speaker 1: this small island nation. We asked Donna as if there
Speaker 1: were any misconceptions about Pinoy basketball culture that she'd like
Speaker 1: to clear up. Maybe people just aren't aware. Maybe they've
Speaker 1: seen photos or videos of these like makeshift courts. You know,
Speaker 1: you know, all of that is absolutely true. You can
Speaker 1: literally find like a makeshift in every neighborhood. But it's
Speaker 1: just that it's not a passing hobby for a lot
Speaker 1: of Filipino fans. It's actually what we're discovering and constantly
Speaker 1: astounded by this is that Filipino fans are actually quite
Speaker 1: sophisticated and knowledgeable about NBA basketball. So if you go
Speaker 1: up to somebody who's like playing barefoot or in flip blop,
Speaker 1: they actually know the nuances of the game, they know
Speaker 1: the players, they know the history quite well. So that
Speaker 1: might be a little bit surprising to people just how
Speaker 1: again sophisticated and knowledgeable Filipino fans are. So much has
Speaker 1: changed over the last ten twenty years. I'm gonna kind
Speaker 1: of date myself here by talking about a little bit
Speaker 1: about this, but that's really kind of dictated by the
Speaker 1: growing demand for for NBA content. So I guess if
Speaker 1: you go back, like maybe the eighties or nineties, you
Speaker 1: really only watch games on a laid basis, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to find ways to watch a game. There used
Speaker 1: to be these two American military basis just north of Manila,
Speaker 1: and they had access to the Far East Network, which
Speaker 1: is guests the Armed Forces Network in the US, So
Speaker 1: if you live close enough, you could pick up the
Speaker 1: signal and be able to watch like American television, including
Speaker 1: NBA games. And now, of course NBA fans in the
Speaker 1: Philippines can file the league and watch basketball with every
Speaker 1: waking hour of their days thanks to International League Pass,
Speaker 1: domestic and international media coverage of the league, and cable
Speaker 1: channels that run live NBA games in the morning and
Speaker 1: replays at night. But they don't take that access for granted, Nope.
Speaker 1: Filipinos are now among the most engaged NBA fans in
Speaker 1: the world, and the league has taken notice. But I
Speaker 1: think for the first real change really came about with
Speaker 1: you know, obviously the advent of satellite technology and cable TV.
Speaker 1: You know, it's more people you know, got PTV subscriptions.
Speaker 1: We went from getting just a few delayed games per
Speaker 1: week and now you have you know, live games daily.
Speaker 1: So twenty ten we even launched a twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven NBA channel, which we still have today and we
Speaker 1: air now about roughly eighteen games on TV per week.
Speaker 1: The game is definitely evolved. A lot of it, I
Speaker 1: think is it just exposure, not just the NBA basketball,
Speaker 1: but like you know, international basketball, there's FIBA, you know,
Speaker 1: other professional leagues like the Year League that your Panby
Speaker 1: League on Australian NBA. So if you watch like a
Speaker 1: PBA or a UAP game now you'll see that influence
Speaker 1: in their self play, you know. I think again the
Speaker 1: game has changed a little bit and we're now playing
Speaker 1: a little bit more above the rim, but like there's
Speaker 1: still a lot of play below the rim, so you
Speaker 1: can see a lot of that creativity and just trying
Speaker 1: to get to the basket and trying to make those shots.
Speaker 1: You should see the Donner s Ai cross. Nobody has
Speaker 1: seen it at this point. I think we've done about
Speaker 1: all we can to illustrate just how widespread the Philippines
Speaker 1: basketball obsession is, and how the country's love of the
Speaker 1: game runs as deep as it can get. I imagine
Speaker 1: that fifty four thousand people watching a basketball game, I
Speaker 1: mean the regular US NBA arena. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, twenty three, You know, this is fifty
Speaker 1: three thousand people. It's a love affair. It's a love
Speaker 1: affair with the NBA. One part still feels like it's missing.
Speaker 1: Note we adore basketball, sure, but why what part of
Speaker 1: our history turned the Philippines into a nation of hoop
Speaker 1: heads rather than a country full of soccer or cricket
Speaker 1: or baseball fans. Listen to episode two of Hoops Paradise,
Speaker 1: The Philippines Love of the Game to find out. Available
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.