Love + Basketball

Basketball became an obsession for me during my grade school years. There were other sports, but basketball reigned supreme.  At home in Loyola Heights, I would place the small plastic garbage containers on top of the corner desk in my room and shoot baskets with a hard plastic ball pretending I was a pro or an Ateneo basketball player. The constant ball bouncing off the wood floor, the thump from my Francis Arnaiz jump shots and the sound of the hard plastic ball
hitting off the wall from my Jimmy Mariano bank shots drove lola (grandma) Albe crazy; whose room was right below my room which I shared with my tita (aunt) Winn and Marian.

The first warning is a visit from the maid who had been summoned by lola Albe to deliver the warning. The second warning is an intercom call from lola Albe's room which was normally handled by one of my tita's. If the first two warnings do not work, then the final straw is a direct visit from lola Albe who would come marching up the staircase destined to shut the commotion completely. I would normally hide in the closet (which hid kids perfectly) before lola Albe's arrival and simply listened to her scolding which she delivered methodically from the doorway without stepping into the room.  I would later move bedrooms to minimize personal visits from lola Albe.

So when the movie One on One came out in 1977, starring Robby Benson and Anette O'Toole, this basketball crazed kid embraced the movie as if it were my story. My Fair Share, the movie's love song theme became an instant hit in Manila. In a heartbeat, Robby Benson joined the ranks of Shaun Cassidy and Donny Osmond as teen heartthrobs of the 70's. Love conquers all and this day belongs to me where my other favorites from the soundtrack by Seals and Croft.