Thursday, June 19, 2008

land of the giants

for the past few weeks, i've been lucky to watch philippine professional basketball games live! the last time i got "hooked" with basketball was during the era of Yves Dignadice, Samboy Lim, Benjie Paras, Ronnie Magsanoc and their contemporaries (O di ba talagang matagal na!) During my younger years, i used to watch Atoy Co, Abe Guidaben, Billy Ray Bates of the ever famous arch rival teams Crispa and Toyota (hahaha! do you guys remember them?!?!)

after that long gone era, i settled for basketball in the office. most of the players were my friends. they were average in height, tallest guy happens to be my boss who is a little over 6 feet. but they can play real classic hard games. it was i guess the proximity with the playing court that allowed me to witness how physical basketball is, the banging of bodies, elbows and knees here and there, bodies dropping on the court. there were times i had to cover my eyes because it was to painful to see.

and a month ago, i went to the land of the giants. it was my first time to watch professional basketball, and the first thing i uttered - " siyet, ang lalaki nila." my gulay! they are real giants!!! (mukhang hanggang waistline lang nila ako!)

we were seated at the patron rows. these were the seats directly behind the players' bench. (yes ganun kami kalapit!) the players were just a spit away from us. although there were some "average-sized" players (like 5 ft 9-10 inches), most of the players were tall, and had big built. I would have appeared like a dwarf if i stood beside those guys!

at first it was their sizes which overwhelmed me, but later on, i found myself yelling and clapping and cheering for the game. i didn't have a particular team, but i was enjoying every play!

thanks laurie for the tickets and for all those very interesting footnotes on the players! =)