sport is beautiful

Just in case I cannot stress it enough -- I love sports. These days, most of the things I love watching on TV (outside of the usual teleserye marathon that follows the evening newscast that follows the day-long news monitoring on cable) is a good game -- may it be football, basketball or volleyball, my top sports of choice (and the occasional nailbiter of a tennis game, I suppose).

The thing I like best is the down-the-wire basketball game -- nothing that can make me happier than switching to a channel by accident and finding a ball game in its dying seconds with the score tied. ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.



It doesn't even matter who's playing, doesn't matter what league it is, or if it's the UP Maroons to begin with (perhaps the only basketball team I'm invested in -- outside of Smart Gilas din pala).

I'm in love with movement and teamwork and the sheer determination and clutch that is needed to win a tight game (plus of course, that surge of adrenaline that you can't get anywhere else.) Pardon me, I've been in love with this game since I was ten -- which was when the guys next door introduced me to street basketball. My life has never been the same since.

It's been a good few days for sports around here -- UAAP's basketball season is here and we've been trying to watch the games religiously on Thursdays and Saturdays at work. UP notched an AMAZING second win against FEU on Thursday, and this afternoon, UE won its first game against a very stunned NU squad in a heart-stopping match that ended with UE ahead by only a point.

UP's win was a blowout -- the lead was double digits, hence I cannot tell you what happened in the dying seconds as that would be irrelevant. What was very relevant, however, was how Jett Manuel played. Good lord boy, good job. I am liking this squad's performance so far that I actually remember their names.

Speaking of things I do remember -- you should have seen how UE squeaked past NU -- the game was so tight that when NU's star player Parks missed his first freethrow (would have tied the game at 72 had he sank it) I actually YELLED. I think he missed his second free throw on purpose -- he got his miss, but the putback (that would have won it, btw) didn't quite make it. There was a tense jump ball near NU's ring, but alas it got tapped to a UE player, AND THAT WAS THAT.

Dear lord. These are the moments I live for, really.

(In this afternoon's second game, DLSU lost to Adamson. I have no words for the atrocious misses they made in the dying seconds. Just plain unlucky, these guys.)

Speaking of another thing I remember -- FEU defeated UST last week when one of their rookies, Tolomia, sank a game-winning three pointer in the last few seconds of the fourth quarter. UST always suffers the most heartbreaking of losses, I'm just sayin'.


(And also in this vein -- San Beda nailing a layup in the dying seconds of its game against JRU to win by a point. OH MAN I LOVE THIS GAME.)

Speaking of heartbreaking losses -- I think we're all moving on from the Phil NT's heartbreaking elimination from the World Cup qualifiers when we lost to Kuwait, but man. I cannot ever forget how intense that game was. Caught the first leg in a bar in Makati with a few college friends; we ended up cursing at the giant TV like we were eating nachos in our own living room (haha). The second leg was equally intense -- I liked that better because at least we scored a goal (and via Stephan Schrock, no less!) and that goal was nothing short of glorious -- from Chieffy's fantastic ball handling to Schrock just coming out of fucking nowhere to catch the Kuwaiti goal off-guard with that goal during additional time in the first half. Lovely, lovely.

Postscript

Sigh. You know what I'd like better aside from watching quality sports game?

Playing some. Oh man. I miss having teammates and getting sweaty and being competitive haha. We should just form an all-women U-30 (LOL UNDER-30) league of ANYTHING.