But Filipinos practically ignore these two outdoor games. We prefer basketball. In fact we are crazy about it, and are hopelessly hooked to it like an addict to forbidden drugs. We are so enamored with basketball that we foolishly persist in dreaming of becoming a world-class basketball country.
In retrospect, however, the Philippines was the undisputed king of basketball in all of Asia for over 30 years - 1930s to 1960s. In 1954, we ranked third in the World Championships. We also finished fifth in the 1948 London Olympics. (That was "noong araw") Today, we cannot even qualify to join the Beijing Olympics. The last time we were in the Olympics was in 1972 in Munich, Germany, where we placed 9th in a field of 12 nations.
Why do we like basketball so much? Well, unquestionably, it is an exciting, action-packed game involving a lot of varied movements. It is essentially an offense-oriented game, and its high points are the shooting and passing skills of the players.
Basketball was invented on American soil by James Naismith, a Canadian who is officially recognized as the "father of basketball."
In 1891, while a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School (for PE instructors) in Springfields, Massachusetts, Naismith was directed to devise an indoor game to be played during the winter months.
Now, how did Naismith conceive the game? Here's the account of Leonard Keppatt of The New York Times:
"Naismith simply took a standard soccer ball, hung a peach basket 10 feet above the floor at either end of small gymnasium divided his 18-man class into two nine-man teams, and made the object of the game an elementary one: throw the ball into the other basket. Running with the ball was forbidden."
The five-man team took effect only after six years in 1897. The rules of the game were made one at a time during the actual experimentation stage, sort of trial and error method.
Naismith started the game by placing the ball at center of the gym and let all players scramble to get hold of the ball first. This resulted in a riotous situation as there was a lot of elbowing, pushing, holding among the players. He corrected this by having just two players face each other and jump for the ball as he tossed it high above them. This was called the center jump.
Another rule that was discarded was that a player holding the ball could not run with it. He had to pass it to a teammate. This slowed down the game, so Naismith allowed the players to bounce (dribble) while running.
Indeed, basketball had an awkward beginning. The peach basket had a closed bottom so that when the ball falls in, the game stops and somebody had to climb a ladder to get the ball out. Again, Naismith slashed open the basket's bottom and the game picked up speed.
Basketball was player in all YMCA branches. In ten years it was played in most US colleges and became very popular, and YMCA found it too large to administer.
This gave birth to the AAU - American Athletic Union, which took charge of amateur and non-college basketball.
Organized professional basketball emerged only in 1946 with the formation of the Basketball Association of America (BBA), then came the NBL (National Basketball League), and the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967, which merged with the NBA in 1977. The NBA was formed in 1949.
The most famous professional basketball team was the Harlem Globetrotters, an all-Negro ballclub that specialized in comedy routines. They traveled around the world, hence the name "globetrotters." NBA great Wilt Chamberlain once played with them.
