Over a century ago, Canadian James Naismith was sent out to Springfield, Massachusetts assigned to run a YMCA athletic training school. During the cold winter months, trainees needed a diversion from regular activities not suited for indoors such as baseball and lacrosse. Stuck within the confines of the school, the cabin-fever-ridden trainees were in need of a new game combining the best aspects of the popular sports of time appropriate to be played inside in the cozy conditions of a gymnasium. On either side of the gym, suspended 10 feet from the floor, Naismith nailed peach baskets to the facility’s walls. He then gave the students a soccer ball for students to toss around. It was to be used to score points through aiming the ball into the halo-shaped rims of the peach baskets made of wood. Today, Naismith’s cure for the cabin-fever-ridden trainees has grown to become among the world’s most popular spectator sports, known internationally as “basketball.”
As little as I care to admit, basketball has, directly and indirectly, played an important role in my life. Growing up in suburban Buffalo, New York in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, my father, a successful businessman in the tire and automotive industry, purchased land used to build my childhood home from former Buffalo Braves coach, Dr. Jack Ramsay. With the transaction closed vicariously through Ramsay’s lawyer, the bushy-eyebrowed coach was already in Portland, guiding the Trailblazers to victory,
I often wondered what Buffalo was like with an NBA team, as I was too young too remember the days when the team swooshed, squeaked and dribbled to a roaring crowd at War Memorial Auditorium. I also wondered why he was addressed as “doctor.” Was it for his Ph. D. in basketball? Was is something he attained like Julius Erving did by being the originator of the slam dunk?
The sport of Basketball briefly began to pique my interest in 1984 when a University of North Carolina standout was regularly highlighted for feats that seemingly defied laws of gravity and physics the fortnight of Los Angeles’ Summer Olympics. With his superhuman vertical leap he gave the appearance of an albatross-like creature. He went on to be known as Micheal “Air” Jordan.
Though, I was never much of a basketball fan, I too wanted to “be like Mike.” The last of the Gen Xers, I can recall desiring and owning, not one, but two pairs of the former Chicago Bull star’s shoes in my childhood. The first incarnation I had as a fourth grader were the original pairs released. They were black and red, with winged basketballs painted along the ankles. The insignia often provoked thought, triggering the question, “what if basketballs had wings and could fly?” The space-age look of the second edition were attention-getters for students and teachers which earned me the title of “Captain Moon Boots” in middle school as much in the same way Ramsay and Erving had earned the distinction of “doctor.’
Strangely, when I play basketball, I prefer wearing inline skates over any pair of Air Jordan’s because it gives me an unfair advantage. Fortunately, I have traveled many times, but never been caught in the few pick-up games I have played throughout Buffalo and Los Angeles.
While in the Philippines, I was surprised to find thong sandals were commonly worn by locals on barangay or village courts throughout the Philippines. I can recall sitting beside a six-year-old girl watching a game between villagers. Dressed in beachwear, the young men played frantically as the six-year -old gave her best color analysis of the game. Like an aspiring Marv Albert, “Two points, three points,” she yelled after every swoosh of the net.
This New York Times article posted Wednesday, June 5, explains the epistemology of basketball’s roots in the Philippines. Like the sport’s original beginnings, the YMCA was instrumental bringing the game to the archipelago after Spain surrendered the Philippines to the Americans following the Spanish-American War.
YMCA missionaries brought what was once a winter sport played in a gymnasium to an outdoor tropical setting. From the slums of Manila to the barangays in the province, basketball has taken the country by storm.
Footage of boxer, basketball player and team owner Manny Pacquiao in action