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Basketball is big in the Philippines, it is everywhere. There are no streets that do not have a basketball hoop on it. Filipinos usually improvise when setting up those hoops; we usually mend planks and attach a personally welded hoop on it before attaching it onto a tree or electric posts. Unlike here in Northern America, a portable basketball hoop is expensive in the Philippines; that means the middle class people improvise their own hoop and make the most out of it. I remember me and my neighbours gathered some planks and nails to create our own hoop on our street.

Ever since I was a kid, I knew that basketball was big in the Philippines, it’s like a constant. I spent my early childhood in the late nineties, so needless to say I caught Michael Jordan’s peek and his Chicago Bulls era. There were no other NBA players who Filipinos idolized at that time. And I also remember a young Kobe Bryant being compared to him as the next Michael Jordan.

When I was a kid my mom didn’t allow me to have a video game console, only my weak personal computer that could not support a Play Station emulator. I remember myself having to go to my neighbor’s house after school so I could play NBA Live 2001 with him. My lack of video game console made me an outdoor person as a child and also made me love physical sports. I believe that playing basketball when I was a kid made me taller. Nobody in my family was a six footer except me; I am 6’2 which is tall for a Filipino.

Height is might in basketball and Filipinos were known for being short. Even though the Philippines loves basketball, our love wasn’t enough to compete with the whole world in the game of basketball. The height differences may be the biggest factor. The Philippines had the best finish by any team outside Americas and Europe in the 1945 Fiba World Cup, winning the bronze medal. And also we had the fifth place in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Those were the last great feats our basketball team has ever had outside Asia.

It was August, 2014 when Filipinos had a string of heartbreaks during the FIFA World Cup, which was held in Spain. Our team did not have much experience in facing power house teams such as Argentina which was ranked 4th, Greece which was 10th, Croatia and Puerto Rico on 12th and 16th and Senegal which was ranked 31st. Philippines was ranked 28th overall. The Philippines’ only game won was against Senegal on a 79-81 scoring. Our team put up a good fight against Argentina having only a 4 point lead at the end of the game, Croatia having just a three point lead 81-78 and Puerto Rico just having 4; 73-77. The games were so close that Philippines even managed to handle the lead for quite a bit until crunch time where the lack of coaching and player’s experiences kicked in. Those losses eliminated us from the Olympics.

On July 4-10, 2016 there will be another Olympic qualifying tournament that will be held in Mexico, Philippines and Serbia. The tournament is for teams that were eliminated during the 2014 FIBA World Cup. The Philippines hasn’t made it through to the Olympics for a very long time. I’ll be supporting my fellow Filipinos on all of their upcoming games in the tournament, especially against the ranked 5th overall France on the first round.