Victory of Mt. Everest proportions

By Al S. Mandoza

(Happy birthday to my beloved, writer-journalist Sol F. Juvida [July 23], who is incisive columnist Jun Velasco’s comadre. Also to Malaya Sol M. Sadiwa [July 21], who is Ilak’s charming sister and daughter of Ricky & Malaya.  Incidentally, Malaya Sol is the birth-mate of Danny “Sir John” Isla, the bosom buddy of Rene So, who is the affable owner of Toyota Dagupan-San Fernando-Baguio.)
 

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THE visiting NBA Stars led by Kobe Bryant have yet to play the PBA Stars and Smart Gilas as I write this.

Deadline ditch we call it.

But then, the outcome is almost beyond doubt:  The NBA Stars will win both games scheduled July 23 and July 24 at the Cubao Big Dome.

How can the PBA Stars win Saturday’s first game when they aren’t even the best in Asia?

How can the Smart Gilas Philippine Team beat the NBA Stars today when they are the longest shot among Asian countries to clinch a basketball slot in the 2012 London Olympics?

Not that I don’t believe in our very own heroes.

I trust their abilities, but their skills aren’t quite enough to match those of Bryant & Co.

The NBA Stars are not only among the best in the world but also the basketball kings in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

You are both the world champions and Olympic toasts, what does that make of you?

Also the champions of the universe, the solar system, Galactica?

So then, the question:  Why are we then playing the NBA Stars when we couldn’t even have an iota of a chance to score an upset?

One, goodwill.  Sports is not simply winning.

Sports is more than winning a game, pocketing a series, capturing a crown.

More than anything, sports is a war to preserve peace minus guns, mortars, howitzers – and even missiles, if you will.

Sports is the one remaining weapon of humankind to preserve friendship among nations, transcending race or religion, ideology or political system.

Sports is also basically entertainment at its best, usually squeezing out the best from us with extraordinary excellence achieved beyond human endurance.

I raise a glass to Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP), the astute businessman who practically financed the exhibition in partnership with the PBA.

Just imagine how much money spent by MVP to fly Bryant and his fellow superstars here.

“Between expensive and very expensive” was how one MVP aide described the project.

If the original NBA lineup has not been changed, Bryant, the Los Angeles superstar, was with fellow celebrities Chris Paul and Kevin Durant.  Also listed to play was Derrick Rose, at 22 the youngest winner in this year’s NBA MVP derby.

As I said, the PBA Stars, led by James Yap, played yesterday merely for goodwill as they themselves were no fools to believe they could win.

Just the fact they were afforded the luxury of trading shots with the NBA Stars was already victory of Mt. Everest proportions – as is also in the case of Smart Gilas today (July 24) when the Nationals play Bryant & Co.

Pitted against the masters of the game, we can only think like masters of the game, too.

That’s the most we can do.

To think otherwise is to fly to the moon on a toy balloon, if not a broomstick.

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