Eight Steps on How to Exorcise the Ghosts of the Past

Credit: Peanuts

October 1994:

I was fairly new to being a basketball fan. It was just one and a half years when I first started watching Philippine hoops but I had quickly developed a passion for the sport as I rooted for the Purefoods team in PBA. It was also a good time to be a Filipino sports fan as the country was fresh from Onyok Velasco’s gold silver win from the previous Olympics. The country had talented athletes like Alvin Patrimonio, Johnny Abarrientos, Nelson Asaytono and Vergel Meneses. It was the first time I would get to root for the all-star players from the other rival PBA teams. With the unified force, I was hopeful we would bag the gold.

I followed the games and reality started to sink in that the Philippine team wasn’t that great as compared to the other countries. We lost our gold dreams when China defeated us. I was still hopeful for the bronze when we faced Japan on that Sunday afternoon. The team was quite putting an effort from it with flashes of brilliance from Johnny A (a player I used to root against) from time to time. Alas, the Philippine national team lost in a dramatic ending. I was devastated as I could not believe that we could not even grab the third place in that tourney.