Now I fully understand why the league, Philippine Basketball Association, and its players should owe it to the fans. The paying fans who would spend their last centavo just to watch their favorite players in person. The fans who would troop to the playing arena, come hell or high water.
We, sportswriters, are privileged to enter the playing venue for free, get access to the players and coaches for an interview and the team statistics to share with our readers. We cover the games by jotting down the most important part of the game—the turning point, the most significant baskets and so on.
When we sit in the press box, we are not allowed to cheer, shout, clap or show any emotion that would favor any team, lest our neutrality and credibility will suffer.
For many years that I covered the PBA, I could not let out the fan in me. It has been like I was afflicted with a tumor that could not be operated on. It could not be retrieved, It just stayed there.
Then one day, it dawned on me to finally discover what it feels like to be a die-hard basketball fan.
Honestly, I don’t cheer for any team. But to deliver a piece that would really describe a die-hard basketball fan, it has to be something about a fan of the Barangay Ginebra, admittedly the most popular basketball team of the decade.
Team NSD
Team NSD is facebook community of Ginebra fans. The group is just of the fan clubs in social media. One of the admins in the community, Geexie Kathrene, added to me to their chat group.
Here, they talk about updates on their favorite team and players. The schedules of the games. Their thoughts about the most recent game.
For Game 4 of the Ginebra-Meralco series for the PBA Governors’ Cup on Oct. 20, the group decided that some would line up in the morning to buy tickets for the group. Geexie, a para-legal executive, was among the early birds in the group. She was at the Araneta Coliseum ticket booth as early as 9 a.m.
“Kahit kulang ako sa tulog, go lang,” she said with a smile. She got her tickets at 1 in the afternoon. Then she converged with the other members of the group at a restaurant nearby to while away the time. The game wouldn’t start until 7 p.m.
Most members of NSD are students. The millennials who inherited their being Ginebra fans from their parents, who were solid Sonny Jaworski fans. Some are holdovers from the Jaworski era, like Maritz Velicario, who like her husband, has been a long-time Ginebra follower.
“Sobrang nakaka addict po ang maging basketball fan, laluna na po ung bonding namin,” added Geexie.
Then we got our upper box tickets, just a notch lower than the bleacher seats. It was my first time to watch from that view above the Coliseum. We joined Team NSD. We availed of the red TEAM NSD shirts made by one of the group’s admins. Then we cheered our lungs out. I was up there where no media colleagues could see me.
It was a different experience. Unlike when I was covering at ringside and would follow and record every significant stage of the game.
On that night, I was cheering for every basket. I couldn’t remember the biggest lead by either team or how many times Ginebra and Meralco changed leads in the game. I didn’t even notice if coaches Norman Black and Time Cone shook hands after the game.
It was because we would cheer for every Ginebra point and we would fall silent every time Meralco basket. I could remember anything. All I could remember was I was shouting my lungs out, together with the crowd.
In the final seconds of the game, we were just shouting that most of us didn’t even realize that Ginebra has a couple of timeouts left that It did not elect to use. We fell silent again when the buzzer sounded after a miss by Ginebra import Justin Brown Lee.
The boxscores showed Meralco leading the final count, 85-83. Then I overheard quite a lot comments from the crowd.
“Ay tapos na pala. Nakalimutan yata na wala nang oras,” I overheard someone asking.
“Bat hindi tumawag time-out si coach?”
“Masisira kasi ang momentum e, fastbreak kasi.”
“Parang wala nang time-out.”
“Hinde Meron.”
Up there in the upper box, the fans are the commentators, the analysts, the coaches.
The mood turned gloomy for a whil until somebody shouted in a cheerful tone.
“Okey lang un, tabla pa naman. Next ulit kita kita tayo sa Philippine Arena. (for Game 5).”
When I check the chat group, the NSD members are re-grouping again on how to proceed to the Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Some of them were inquiring if there are free buses going to the venue, situated outside Metro Manila. Velicaro herself was planning to do it again and drive her way to the play arena. They are prepared to again do what it takes to watch and cheer their favorite team.
It’s on to the next game.