Hoop dreams

Last night, I had to drive to Ultra to be present in an interview of Philippine Daily Inquirer with the Nokia RP Youth Basketball Team. Since it was my first time to go there, I had to ask several Pasig dwellers how to get to the friggin place. All of them gave different directions but they all mentioned it was near St. Paul. Luckily, I'd pass there when I used to collect my sister in UA&P so I was sort of familiar with the area. After finding and entering the complex and what must have felt years of driving down, straight, and up, I finally reached the main basketball court. At first I wasn't sure if it was the right place but the guard said it was the one and only court in the gargantuan (and very poorly lit) complex. The only time I sat in a basketball coliseum (PE classes not included) was when Princess Caroline visited and there was some outreach thing happening. Looking back, I don't know why I was even there. Anyway, the interview was scheduled for 8pm but the players didn't all come on time so the writer had to do his thing one by one. Same with the shoot. We were done by a little before 11pm because we had to photograph two players who came in very, very late. The practice was scheduled from 10pm to 1am for the kids to get used to the time difference between here and Teheran, Iran where they will be competing this Monday against all the other youth teams from all over the world. I asked the team's spokesman why Iran, of all places but I don't remember what he said. I was totally bothered by the heat and stuffyness of the place. The kids were amazing though because even at such a young age (ages 15-18), they already were able to battle it out in the basketball court against other teams from Taipei, Lithuania, and Malaysia (to name a few). The writer said they all the players he interviewed had very good sound bytes. So I guess they all had an inspiring story or two to share. It was pretty obvious that they loved the game. Sitting ringside and watching them shoot hoops, I noticed their disappointment when the ball didn't shoot but would beam with delight when it did. It reminded me of my nephew, Marco, who is vying for the basketball varsity team in Ateneo. Gabby said all he wants in life is to be a basketball player. Or was it just play basketball? I forget.