San Miguel was my favorite PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) team back when I was a child because of Samboy Lim aka Skywalker. When he quit playing in PBA, I lost interest and basketball became the #1 cause of fights between me and my brother Ivan. We fought over the remote control whenever he wanted to watch PBA games on TV and I hated them, most especially when the last two minutes of a game dragged on due to so many time outs and commercials.
I had no choice but to grudgingly give way, though, because during that time (in the 90s), PBA was the most popular TV show in the country, and my dad and our neighbors also liked to watch.
They were so popular, in fact, that one set of puppies bred from our dog Candy was named after basketball teams – Alaska, Pepsi, Purefoods and Swift. We kept Pepsi for many years and sold the others. When Pepsi grew older and PBA became less popular, people thought she was just named after the softdrink unless my mother explained (which she often did).
Another reason why Ivan and I fought over basketball was that he constantly practiced his dribbling in our living room and the noise drove me crazy. Can you imagine how hard it was for me to hear the TV show or the person I was talking to on the phone?
He said he was a good player and until now I don’t know if he was just bragging with no basis because I never saw him play. I never saw anyone play, actually. That was how much I disliked the sport.
So it’s funny that I started to get interested in it when I started working in Makati and discovered Timezone’s hoops. I discovered that there is a definite sense of accomplishment when you take aim and the ball swishes cleanly through the hoop.
I started to regret that I hadn’t taken up the sport like my brother. Maybe then I would have grown as tall as him (he towers some 6 inches over me, which he attributes to all the stretching that he did for the game). Maybe then we would have fought over who would get to dribble the ball in the living room instead of why he was doing so.
That is why I put down “play a real basketball game” in my list of hundred things to do before I die.
23. Learn the basics, then play a real basketball game
When Jaypee asked me if I was interested in joining a girls basketball team he was forming, it did not even take me two seconds to say yes.
It was only after a minute that I thought to inform him that I knew next to zilch about basketball.
To my delight, he said this was okay, since he would be coaching us the basics.
So it was a week or so after that when we had our first meeting, and I noted that almost all AP girls had joined in as well and that most of us were as clueless as I was. Thus, the motto for our team FSS Queens was coined by our coaches Jaypee and Thom: “we may not be the best team, but we are the best-looking.” XD
They could not book a court for our first practice session, so we had a classroom session instead. Jaypee and Thom taught the terms and rules for the game.
The following Tuesday we already had a court, so off we went and practised for two hours. We dribbled with our right hand and then our left hand and then with both and learned how to do chest passes. Then we played a half-court game and I was happy because I landed a shot. We won, 3-0.
Yesterday we had another practice session, and though we still had the dribbling drills, our coaches also focused on teaching defense and shooting and rebounds. It was very exhausting and painful (someone stepped on my bad toe) but fun. Our first competition is next Saturday against some seasoned players.
After the practice, we got really hungry, so Osma volunteered to take Kay, Rhods and me with her to The Fort. We were supposed to have lunch in Market Market but after the bombing incident in Glorietta 2 last Friday, we thought it best to stay away from big malls.
So we went to Pier 1 instead, and after a hearty meal, we headed to Serendra. The place is really beautiful, a picturesue park flanked by expensive shops on either side.
I pointed out Fully Booked, a bookstore with four floors. There was a Starbucks cafe at the third floor, so we each grabbed a book and read it with a cup of frappuccino.
We left at around 6, after I had finished the book I was reading, Mitch Albom’s For One More Day (a touching, riveting read, I must say). I insisted that they let me finish it. They in turn were amazed that I was such a fast reader.
Osma then took us to a barbeque stall fronting La Salle CSB. She had long ago mentioned to me that she’d someday bring me to the place with really delicious isaw. She was right. The isaw there was so yummy, we all had second helpings of three isaw each.
I also had a trip down memory lane when I saw my childhood favorite Haw flakes and Lala chocolate being sold at the sari-sari store beside the stall.
When it was time to bid goodbye, we all agreed that this was one majorly fun bonding session indeed and that we should definitely do it again some time. Antipolo, anyone?