NBA, basketball’s leadership

The NBA has landed in the Philippines! October 10, 2013 will go down in history as the day that NBA players played a real game (albeit pre-season) on our shores. Believe it or not. Finally, this basketball-mad country has done it. And it couldn’t have come at a better timing and a better place. Fresh from hosting the FIBA Asia Championships 2013 where the national team placed second and qualified for the FIBA World Cup 2014, the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena stood tall and made the country proud once again.

Evers since we were a kid, we always wondered if we would ever have an NBA game here in our lifetime. In the 70s, I can still remember when the NBA games we saw on TV were super delayed, in black and white, but still very much followed by our parents. Back then, it was about Wilt Chamberlein, Jerry West, the Lakers and the Knicks. Honorable mention here were the Sonics, Trailblazers, Bill Walton, Elvin Hayes and the Bullets. Most of the NBA news could be seen only in the newspapers. The 80s was a little better when satellite dishes and the Far East Network or FEN in Clark Air Base became a source of live NBA games on TV. Highlights? The Lakers and Celtics. Again, newspapers were the top source of news, while games on TV were delayed. Watching games live on FEN was a very big thing then. The 90s saw the proliferation of more satellite dishes, and the introduction of cable TV gave the public quicker access to the real thing. On the Boulevard and Harrison Park were the places to be in order to watch games on a same-day delayed basis where the wide screen would feature a game recorded from earlier in the morning. VHS tapes of these games were also out for rent for those who wanted to watch games at home. The entry of 2000 meant more live games on cable TV and even on regular free TV. Sports channels sprouted on cable TV and for the first time, different channels featured NBA games. Live feeds were now the norm and one didn’t have to wait for the newspapers of the following day to monitor results of NBA games.

And finally, no more TV, no more cable. They’re here in the flesh. They played a real game at the MOA. Although we didn’t watch it live (watched it didto sa aMOA), we’re proud and glad that this actually took place in our lifetime. Global indeed the game has reached, marking the growth that the sport has taken through the years. The NBA is no longer about U.S. basketball. Its market is now the entire world, second only to football, but very much vibrant and with still a huge room for growth worldwide. With more NBA players coming from football turfs Europe and South America, basketball has now become global.

What next? It will be interesting to see what effects this will have on the local market. For starters, I’m sure the TV audience will increase twofold, and this is great news for ABS-CBN/Studio 23, BTV and NBA Premium, the channels which carry NBA games. Higher ratings will bring in more advertisers and subscribers. On the game per se, we can expect everything to level up. The silver medal finish of the Gilas Pilipinas team will also surely add to this competitive level, knowing that we’ve qualified for the FIBA World Cup. As an added bonus, the Philippine Under 16 team also won a silver medal at the FIBA Asia U16 Championships and will also play in the FIBA Under 17 World Championships 2014. All this is significant for the sport which has been maligned for spending too much attention and resources for something which we can’t dominate at the world level. But it surely doesn’t look like it’s going to stop growing now, does it.

Let basketball take the lead for others. This is where I wish other sports like football and volleyball will also follow suit. Amidst all our problems on the political front, there is so much more we can do in other sports. Boxing is still growing. Billiards/pool may have quietly slowed down a bit, but can still be boosted. Football fever is still in the air but is also waning. It needs another shot in the arm to keep it growing. Volleyball has grown with the presence of semi-pro leagues and has even filled up the MOA Arena for a collegiate championship game. Many still question why basketball and we say why not? Let basketball be the sports market leader for the country, and let it lead other sports to reach levels it has never reached before.

* * *

Time-out: Good luck to USC at the Visayas Regional Finals of the BEST SBP Passerelle Twin Tournament. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].