I cannot remember how long I have been a basketball fan. From the first time I ever saw a PBA game live in the early 1970’s at the old Araneta Coliseum I fell in love with the beauty of the game, with the sheer poetry in motion, with the performance art aspect of the sport.

When I entered university a long time ago, it seemed quite natural that I would become a college basketball fan, and it has been a very rewarding, entertaining, at times even heartbreaking experience that continues to this day.

Over the years I grew to appreciate not just local basketball but also international basketball. I grew up in the era of Magic, Bird, Doctor J and Kareem, just as David Stern was transforming the NBA. From the days of late-night reruns, Magic, Bird and later on Michael Jordan, turned the NBA into a fulltime global game for a global audience.

On local shores Sonny Jaworski was rewriting the books on how long a professional basketball player should keep going in the PBA. He had outlasted nearly the entire Crispa lineup as Bogs Adornado, Freddie Hubalde, Bernie Fabiosa and Atoy Co had called it a career even as the likes of Samboy Lim, Allan Caidic, Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera, Jojo Lastimosa, Benjie Paras, Bong Hawkins and Johnny Abarrientos had just started coming into their own as superstars. The Big J was in the middle of championships against the first generation of PBA warriors all the way to third generation superstars. He fought Crispa, Tanduay, Purefoods, Shell and Alaska in epic rivalries.

Ateneo-San Beda had come and gone in the old NCAA, Ateneo-Lasalle came alive in the UAAP. San Beda is in the midst of an NCAA basketball renaissance. Lasalle remains the top team in the UAAP. These are the basketball stories that become legend.

These are the basketball stories that define generations. These are the basketball stories that will be brought to you by Basketbolista.