Basketball scuttlebutt

Is there too much basketball in the Philippines?

What seems like a laughably obvious answer may actually have dire consequences for people whose futures and passions in other sports, according to legislator whose opinion definitely carries much weight on this matter.

Representative Monico Puentevella, chairman of the House Committee on Youth and Sports Development, has sounded the alarm on the detriment our overwhelming (but perhaps misplaced) love for basketball has had on other sports. Now, it is not so much a question of how to bring basketball’s popularity down, but how to lend a helping hand to sports that are being hurt by its sheer magnitude.

Puentevella, himself a champion tennis player lured by the glamor of hoops, enumerates how many athletes have been lost to the obvious attractions of basketball, somewhat akin to young men being lured away from their wives by the image of a voluptuous young vixen.

The most obvious result from our being enamored with basketball is the sudden lack of employment (and forced retirement) of some of the game’s biggest names. As of this weekend, over a hundred PBA cagers were still unsigned to new pacts, and many of them known players at that.

For long time PBA fans, we ask ourselves what the world is coming to when a Jojo Lastimosa, Dindo Pumaren, Ronnie Magsanoc, Noli Locsin, Gerry Esplana, Alvin Teng, Dwight Lago, Dorian Peña (almost all of whom have had fruitful careers with PBA titles on their resumes) are still jobless. That means the market is oversaturated with players.

And that is not the only sign that we have perhaps become too myopic with regards our choices of sports. Many players from other sports (former soccer players Francis Arnaiz and Jojo Lastimosa, the Codiñera brothers for softball, and national volleyball player Ramil Ferma, for example) gave up starvation for a more lucrative livelihood on the hardwood. And there will be many more, many more.

Just how addicted have we become to basketball? The PBA runs 10 months of the year, averaging 15 hours of television airtime a week. The PBL, roughly 12 hours. The NBA, about 11 hours. That’s a whopping 38 hours a week. Add to this all the shorter leagues like the UAAP, NCAA and others, plus mentions of all these results on evening newscasts, and you have a virtual lockout of other sports. Other favorites, like boxing and billiards, never get more than five hours a week on free TV. We even import American ballers, and fly in half-breed Filipinos for our viewing pleasure. To think that baseball and volleyball were once tops in our country.

The number of on-going basketball tournaments is a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms: UAAP, NCAA, PRISAA, PICAA, CUSA, NBL, PNL, PBL, CESSAF, PBA, SBP, WNCAA, not to mention Fr. Martin, Ambrosio Padilla, Bert Lina and the Champions League contributing mightily to the proliferation of hoops.

What can we do about this gross imbalance in our sporting preference?

If authorities had their way, many government-organized multi-sport events would not include basketball. Puentevella notes that, if not for a conscious effort to exclude basketball from the Palarong Pambansa, it would be the centerpiece event of the whole shebang. Everyone would skip other events, and join basketball, instead.

The backbones of sports promotions are the local government units and private sponsors. If the NSAs were really doing their job, they would be having regular monthly tournaments and national championships given prominent play on sports pages and radio broadcasts.

Also, if the local government units do not promote other sports (martial arts for self-defense, as an example) then we would be left with nothing but basketball, basketball and basketball.

Two good points, however, have been brought up to help alleviate this situation, ironically by politicians who have served in sports’ highest positions in Congress.

Freddie Webb, former chairman of the House Committee on Youth and Sports, once reflected that he did not understand American football. However, since it was always on cable, he would occasionally catch it while flipping through the channels, and watch. Gradually, he learned not only to comprehend it, but to enjoy the game, as well. Interior Secretary Joey Lina, who created the Philippine Sports Commission to be a policy-making body (and not a piggy bank) when he chaired the Upper House version of the committee, went so far as to suggest that basketball players represent the country in other events like athletics and swimming. How about that?

This is not to take a shot at basketball, which has provided entertainment, revenue, employment, hope and value to our people. But perhaps the big brother should help its less fortunate siblings, and give from its excess to those whose mere substance is already wanting.

What do you think?

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