For years I've heard people question our country's obsession with basketball. Basketball, according to some, is a dead-end sport for us hobbit-like people. We're not tall enough, fast enough, or athletic enough to compete with caucasians (they're bigger), blacks (they're faster than a speeding bullet and can leap tall buildings in a single bound), and yes, even the Chinese-- who have the luxury of having a billion players to choose from.
But hey, obsessions aren't supposed to make sense. Filipino bodies may have been made for football, but Filipino hearts belong to basketball. Take myself, for example. I may enjoy playing the beautiful game more than shooting hoops, but I'd be lying if I said I'd prefer to watch the finals of the UEFA Cup rather than the NBA Finals.
Why the love affair with hoops? Why the sudden dip in office productivity during the NBA Finals? Why the noticable absence of male students in UP (and, I suppose, other universities) during the start of classes?
Basketball is just more entertaining to watch, period. Football fanatics will say otherwise, but then again these are people who've grown to love the sport, understand the intricacies of the game, and appreciate everything happening on the pitch even if a single goal isn't scored in ninety minutes of play. In short, football is an acquired taste, one that is best acquired when one is young.
Basketball, on the other hand, is exciting to watch, even for the uninitiated. With only ten players on the court, the viewer can be taken close to the action, and see the likes of Lebron James soar for dunks (tell me, who doesn't know Lebron James?). Even when the camera zooms out and shows all the plays unfolding, it's easy to keep track of players darting in and out of the paint.
There is a lot of grace, power, speed, and skill on display in both football and basketball. You just don't see most of it in the former, unless you're really familiar with the game of football (read: you play the sport).
Football may be closer to being the ideal team game, a sport where the individual weaknesses of the players can be overcome by great team play. It's a sport where star-laden football superpowers can be upset by the collective effort of a group of spirited, well-motivated average players. A good example is South Korea's upset win over Italy in the second round of the 2002 World Cup, which would be akin to the Philippines beating the US in a basketball game. (Well, I may be exaggerating a bit here...)
If the greater probability for success dictated the focus of our national sports programs, then football would be the logical sport of choice. Unfortunately, it does not. As with most matters of national policy, popularity reigns supreme, and right now basketball is the most popular sport among us Filipinos, hobbits or not. So unless we can re-orient succeeding generations of Filipinos, we'll have to settle with finishing last in the sport we love watching the most.
But hey, obsessions aren't supposed to make sense. Filipino bodies may have been made for football, but Filipino hearts belong to basketball. Take myself, for example. I may enjoy playing the beautiful game more than shooting hoops, but I'd be lying if I said I'd prefer to watch the finals of the UEFA Cup rather than the NBA Finals.
Why the love affair with hoops? Why the sudden dip in office productivity during the NBA Finals? Why the noticable absence of male students in UP (and, I suppose, other universities) during the start of classes?
Basketball is just more entertaining to watch, period. Football fanatics will say otherwise, but then again these are people who've grown to love the sport, understand the intricacies of the game, and appreciate everything happening on the pitch even if a single goal isn't scored in ninety minutes of play. In short, football is an acquired taste, one that is best acquired when one is young.
Basketball, on the other hand, is exciting to watch, even for the uninitiated. With only ten players on the court, the viewer can be taken close to the action, and see the likes of Lebron James soar for dunks (tell me, who doesn't know Lebron James?). Even when the camera zooms out and shows all the plays unfolding, it's easy to keep track of players darting in and out of the paint.
There is a lot of grace, power, speed, and skill on display in both football and basketball. You just don't see most of it in the former, unless you're really familiar with the game of football (read: you play the sport).
Football may be closer to being the ideal team game, a sport where the individual weaknesses of the players can be overcome by great team play. It's a sport where star-laden football superpowers can be upset by the collective effort of a group of spirited, well-motivated average players. A good example is South Korea's upset win over Italy in the second round of the 2002 World Cup, which would be akin to the Philippines beating the US in a basketball game. (Well, I may be exaggerating a bit here...)
If the greater probability for success dictated the focus of our national sports programs, then football would be the logical sport of choice. Unfortunately, it does not. As with most matters of national policy, popularity reigns supreme, and right now basketball is the most popular sport among us Filipinos, hobbits or not. So unless we can re-orient succeeding generations of Filipinos, we'll have to settle with finishing last in the sport we love watching the most.
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