I wasn't really keen on following this season's UAAP (University Athletics Association of the Philippines) basketball, because my all-time favorite team despite having gone on to the University of the Philippines to finish my undergraduate studies, the De La Salle University Green Archers, is currently serving a one-year ban. When I say all-time favorite, I mean that I've been a fan since I was in grade six, when my mother was still teaching there part-time.
My self-imposed one-year abstinence from the UAAP was suspended, however, when I unintentionally caught the final quarter of Game 2 of the semi-finals between the University of Sto. Tomas Growling Tigers and the University of the East Red Warriors. UST's surprise victory-and indication that this team, which had been under the radar for the past seven years, was suddenly a serious contender for the crown-sent me spiraling back to 1994.
I'm with some of my DLSU block mates at the bleachers of a jam-packed Cuneta Astrodome. I'm wearing the only green polo shirt I've ever had in my entire life. It doesn't even look good on me, nor do I find it comfortable, but it's in the perfect shade of Green Archer green. My friends and I are all tired and sweaty, after having fought tooth and nail to get inside The Dome for Game 2 of the finals. DLSU and UST are tied, 1-1 in the best-of-three finals series, and whoever wins tonight gets the only UAAP crown that really matters-they will be 1994's UAAP basketball champions.
My sandals are broken, but I'm winging it. The line going inside had been so long, it had taken us almost two hours to get in. We're just in time to catch the last two minutes. And we've managed to put ourselves in the UST crowd, putting ourselves in the mercy of, well, the enemy. Three colors of balloons and ribbon confetti are peeking from the ceiling-yellow for UST and green and white for DLSU-ready to adorn either of the two teams. The game is close, there is a possibility for overtime, but Elmer Lago fails to sink the final, could-have-been-winning shot. UST wins. Jason Webb weeps. I go home a miserable, sore loser.
UST repeated that victory for two more years, earning a four-title run that began with a sweep over Ateneo de Manila University's Blue Eagles in 1993. It really was a golden age for them in basketball-and a really bad drought for the DLSU batch that entered college in 1994. The Growling Tigers, with coach Aric del Rosario, were really at the top of their game. I remember something that was said in an interview, though, that stuck to me. I forget who said it; I only remember that the question was something like, "What do you think of UST's reign the past few years, which started with that spectacular, never-before-done sweep?" The reply was more profound that I expected. I really wish I can quote it right now, but I don't really go around scribbling down things people say about the UAAP, of all things, now do I? The reply was something like, "Oh, this will pass. They're at the top now, but it's all fleeting. Tomorrow, it will be another team celebrating." It was a perspective I wasn't familiar with as a teenager living for today, but it really has been "tomorrow" ever since. I really took DLSU's 1994 loss to heart-I swear, I could get a heart attack watching university-level basketball; I really get into it-but I hardly even noticed the seven years that the Growling Tigers didn't even make it to the finals. DLSU has since matched UST's four-peat, beginning in 1998.
And since then, the championship has been won by Ateneo and Far Eastern University.
You win some, you lose some. That's the game.
Last Sunday, after rolling my eyes at an announcement that screamed, "James Yap, magsasalita na tungkol sa pagbubuntis ni Kris!" I found myself watching Game 1 of the finals between Ateneo and UST. Now, the Ateneo-DLSU rivalry is legendary, but having been part of DLSU's Batch '94 has somehow ingrained in me anti-UST leanings, if only when it comes to the UAAP. So I decided to root for Ateneo.
As everybody must know by now, the game was very close. I'm no sportswriter, and the only thing I know for sure about basketball is that whoever scores the most baskets wins, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that when it was down to the last two minutes of the last quarter, it was still anybody's game. With half a minute left, UST scored a basket that gave the Growling Tigers a one-point lead. They dribbled the ball some, ran around some (you get my drift), until there was only one second in the clock, and the UST crowd was already celebrating, because what, really, can be done in a second? But Ateneo coach Norman Black had a plan. And it won the Ateneo Blue Eagles Game 1.
It was a perfect basketball moment if I ever saw one: Macky Escalona makes a perfect inbound pass to a waiting, unnoticed Doug Kramer, who was standing underneath the basket, and Kramer makes the winning shot. In one second.
Now, UST may or may not force a Game 3 this Thursday, and either of the teams can still win the championship. But I envy Ateneo that second, and I know for sure the beauty of that moment, especially for those watching the game live and most especially for those who were actually in the game, will last a long, long time.
You win some, you lose some. But it's never always about winning, or losing. But it's always about stepping up to the moments. Black, Escalona, Kramer-they all stepped up. And that's the game. Email your comments to alricardo@yahoo.com. You may also post them at http://channelsurfing-freeman.blog