Vote for Manila

Recent Manila visitor Gilbert Arenas would make a heckuva political campaigner. In one of his riotous TV ads for Adidas, Arenas plays the role of an African-American US President who jokes about painting the White House black. It’s not meant to mock the Bush presidency (although you wonder because Arenas is supporting Barack Obama). Arenas does it in the spirit of fun. Of course, the pitch is to buy his Black President Gil Zero signature Adidas shoes.

Arenas is such a convincing salesman that in 2006-07, he collected enough fan votes to earn a starting berth in the East team for the NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas. He nosed out Vince Carter in the balloting. Arenas joined Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Shaquille O’Neal in the elite first five. Carter was picked as a reserve along with other guards Jason Kidd, Joe Johnson and Chauncey Billups.

Whether his support for Obama will translate into significant votes in the race against John McCain remains to be seen.

One thing for sure, Arenas is turning out to be quite a politician himself.

In his latest nba.com blog, Arenas spoke about his whirlwind four-day visit here two weeks back and couldn’t believe the superstar reception he received from Filipino fans. Obviously, he never expected basketball to be so popular in a country that’s not known as a global hoops power.

Arenas went as far as urging other NBA players to take time out and visit Manila. That’s a huge endorsement coming from a legitimate NBA star.

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Here’s what Arenas wrote in his widely read blog:

“I’ve never seen fans (in Manila) like that in my life. One thing I want to say about Filipinos, they’re very warm people, very good-hearted people. Like everybody was nice. You know, you meet nice people but a whole country of nice, genuine, warm-hearted people was unbelievable. These are diehard fans.

“I really didn’t know if I was in Game 7 of a playoff series. I couldn’t tell the difference. Everywhere I went, it was just bananas.

“I did a couple of mall tours. I also helped a kid with his wish. It was in one of the poverty areas in Manila and there’s a group called GK (Gawad Kalinga) that builds homes for people all over the world. They helped this community out by putting people in homes. I guess a couple weeks before we got there, a hurricane (typhoon) hit and destroyed their community and GK helped build it back up.

“One little kid who lived there wanted a basketball court for his community so all the kids could play so I donated, with the help of GK and Adidas, a basketball court to that community and the kid was very happy.

 “You have to look at the Agent Zero posters they had out there. They put me in a cape at one of my last events in Manila. It was at one of their biggest malls and they were predicting it was going to be crowded. I mean, crowded to me is a Saturday afternoon at the mall where you have to wait in line for 10 minutes to pay for your jeans. Their crowded was probably four or five thousand people in the mall. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before and I’ve seen crazy fans all over the world. It was like Golden State against the Dallas Mavericks with Game 3 back in Oakland. It was that type of atmosphere in the mall.

“I was stunned. They made me feel like an NBA star. Any NBA players out there: If you’re having a bad day or you’re having a bad career, go to Manila. They’ll bring your spirits up, trust me.

“I felt like I just won the NBA championship, to be for real.

“After we left the mall, we were looking at pictures from the event a couple of days later and we were telling ourselves, ‘Man, that was unreal.’

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“Plus, with the security I had, I felt like I was the President. I felt like I was Obama. I really felt like I was running in the presidential election especially when I got to meet the US Ambassador out in the Philippines. We had a great time talking to each other.

“We actually went to a college basketball game together. Their college game would be like if it was Duke and Maryland playing each other and you split the crowd in half, 50-50. One side of their gym was blue and one side of the gym was green and everybody was just yelling.

“Backstage, I met Manny Pacquiao, he’s the town hero. I have to be honest. They made me feel even bigger than him at the moment. I talked to him and he invited me to his November fight so if I have time and depending on, if we have a day off, I might go see that.

“On top of everything else in Manila, I stayed at the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in –The Peninsula. I was in the mack daddy “El Presidente” suite and was like the French prince with Geoffrey – I had a live-in butler.

“One more note in Manila, just so you guys can get a picture of what kind of people they are and how much they adore and love entertainers and the NBA. Think about this: If you’ve ever been to a Beyonce concert or anybody’s concert in the US really, if they sell out an arena, it will be 20,000 fans. Last year, in Beyonce’s hometown, Houston, she pulled in 12,000 people to her show. D. C. was her biggest sell, she put 18,000 people in the seats. Meanwhile, she was in Manila for two days to do two concerts and she had 85,000 people, two nights straight.

“She couldn’t even do it in the arena, she had to do it on the lawn. Like, ‘Everybody, y’all just get in the grass, I’m going to perform.’ That’s how the people are out there.”

Manila left an enormous impression on Arenas. No wonder he hopes to come back year after year, if he could, and even said he’ll play in exhibition games here with a young NBA All-Star team whose players he’ll personally handpick.

Nobody ever doubted the warmth of Filipino hospitality. Now, Arenas can attest to it.