THE Fiba top guns are no movie buffs.
Movies don’t swim in their minds.
Not even operas like Turandot; or, even Miss Saigon, if not Mama Mia!
Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables does not touch them.
So, OK, Lou Diamond Phillips delivered an Oscar performance during the bidding presentation in Tokyo for our hosting of the 2019 International Basketball Federation (Fiba) World Basketball.
Noble mission, but on the wrong stage.
For, this is not Hollywood.
Not even Bollywood; to them, slum millionaire is nothing but a figment of imagination.
You make a bet, show us the money.
You ponder a pitch, hum us the tune.
We showed Araneta, Mall of Asia in Pasay and, yes, that 55,000-seat, architectural marvel called Philippine Arena.
They all amounted to nothing. No dice.
China showed eight world-class basketball arenas and that was no fiction but fact; like piranhas, the Fiba pack devoured it in a snap.
We promised to build more to match—even surpass—China ’s spanking venues.
Never mind, the Fiba bosses said.
You can keep those for future use, kiddos.
The Fiba top bananas are an impossible, inscrutable, bunch.
Like tax sharks, they go current not only once but at all times; Manny Pacquiao only knows that too well.
If this were boxing, Pacquiao was up against Mike Tyson.
The Fiba only likes, lives by, bigs.
You make a promise, no, they tell us, show us your wares.
The Fiba moguls aren’t a gullible throng but a hardy herd of material custodians.
Matter is what they want to see, always; air is meaningless.
Fiction is for the moon river crooners, whose passion for success is heart-driven.
Calloused are those that adore only the color of money.
Did I not say Les Miserables does not tickle them one teeny-weeny bit?
Did I not say Turandot does not pinch a nerve?
Did I not say Mama Mia! does not make them laugh?
Did I not say Miss Saigon does not tug at their hearts?
Maybe, even Fiddler on The Roof will not make them cry?
It’s almost a given: Only the likes of The Godfather will appeal to them.
Or The Valentine’s Day Massacre, if not Schindler’s List.
The Fiba demigods only believe in the moneyed, the powerful, the First World.
Dreamers do not exist; Third World are but dregs of the Earth: Good for nothing.
MVP had millions of money to unleash to snare the 2019 Fiba Worlds.
But how can one defeat an entire government?
Didn’t eight other countries immediately surrender at the mere sight of Mao’s cap, including First World Canada and France?
The Fiba brat pack looks at track records first before anything.
China has the 1990 Asian Games and the 2008 Olympic Games, to cite but only two of their numerous stupendously hosted events.
China will host the 2022 Winter Games and, don’t look now, but it will also stage yet again the Summer Games in 2024.
And us? Just the SEA Games in 1991 and in 2005. The first and last time we hosted the Asian Games was 61 years ago—in 1954.
OK, OK, we did the 2013 Fiba Asia Cup but, hey, only because Lebanon, the original host, had backed out due to a civil strife over there.
Fiba fair?
Not really. Just being realistic. And practical.
Frigging passion is fashionable no more.
THAT’S IT. The 41st season of the Philippine Basketball Association will not fire off until October 18. That’s two weeks after the conclusion on October 3 of the Fiba Asia Cup in China. Give credit to the PBA board, whose generosity allowed the league not only to lend its players to the national team set to play in the Fiba Asia Cup but to also move its schedule to give way to the tournament that will select the lone nation to represent Asia in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.