Just like most Pinoys, I am a self-confessed basketball
fanatic with immovable loyalty to my favorite teams since the first time I
learned to handle the orange rubber ball.
For the local team it has always been San Miguel Beer and
for the international team, I will forever be a Laker fan.
For San Miguel, it all started when the team was composed
of the efficiently coached, solid core of Samboy Lim, Hector Calma, Allan
Caidic while for the Lakers, it was always the fascination with the triumvirate
of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and James Worthy. Both were elite teams
at that time.
As time went by, San Miguel declined with the coming of
the dynastic Alaska Milk team, but I still kept rooting for the beermen. At the
other side of the globe, the out-of-this-world insanely ridiculous exploits of
the Chicago Bulls and his Airness has left everyone jaw-dropped and in awed but
I stuck it out with the then struggling Lakers. Talagang matalo-manalo San
Miguel at Lakers lang :D.
Before officially turning pro at 18 years old, I have
already read some intriguing write-ups about Lebron James about his amazing
hoop skills and how the basketball world have come in anticipation for him to
enter the NBA. And so he did.
Alas, his colourful years have been a roller coaster of
highs and lows (with mostly lows) as critics and fan alike magnified everything
he did on and off the court. At times, he did seem to have committed blunders,
most notably, when he decided to leave his hometown crowd after seven years of
frustrations to seek his first championship elsewhere. Then, he started winning
and kept on playing on the finals game in the next four years. With all the
recent success and amidst the back-dropped of winning more championships in his
present team, he seemed overwhelmed and content from the outside. But the “kid
from Akron, Ohio” feeling the deep tug in his heart all those years being away
decided, in his own words “ to return home and help his hometown win their
very-first ever sports championship”.
His demeanor and big-heart decision deserves admiration.
So whether his return will finally be fruitful or just
another short-term crack at redemption before moving elsewhere again, he would
be closely watched.
As I said, I will be a San Miguel-Laker fan for life but
I will also count myself now as a Lebron-Cleveland fan for some feel-good years
to come.
It’s a prodigal son-like storyline worth rooting for.
PS.
It’s crazy out there in Germany with all the World
Cup frenzy and euphoria for winning the world’s most prestigious cup. Congrats to my
German friends!
