Basketball is the greatest game ever invented. In spite of the various rules and manuals developed over the years since James Naismith first thought about throwing a soccer ball into a peach basket suspended up on a pole, the object of the game remains simple: put the ball into hoop more times than your opponent and you win the game.

Over the hundred or so years the game has been around, with the coming and going of Moro Lorenzo, Lim Eng Beng, Caloy Loyzaga, Sonny Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Samboy Lim, Alvin Patrimonio, Johnny Abarrientos, Eric Menk and Mark Caguioa, the rules have remained unchanged: put the rock in the hole more than the other guys and you win the game.

We've seen the bicycle shot, the "arinola" shot, the behind the back dribble, the crossover, and the ever-increasing influence of the NBA in Philippine hoopdom but the game remains the same. There are no points for dribbling and passing. You want to beat the other team, put the ball in the bucket more than the other guy.

In a country that has the PBA, PBL, UAAP and NCAA, as well as a plethora of smaller school leagues, provincial leagues, industry leagues (for instance a Shipper's League courtesy of the Aboitiz Group and other maritime businesses) community leagues and a boatload of friendship tournaments, there is only one place where I go to catch basketball at its most unadulterated best, the streets.

It doesn't matter if its the YCL court in Project 2, the Marilag court in Project 4, the infamous Bahay Toro courts in Project 8, the 5th Avenue courts in Caloocan, the Paraiso courts of Manila, or any of the millions of makeshift courts all over the archipelago. There is nowhere else you can catch basketball at its purest, where the game is the only thing that matters.

In Bahay Toro - Quezon City's answer to the famed Rucker Park of New York - everyone from up and coming varsity stars to former pros mix it up in all-business basketball. Talking trash buys you a busted lip and the derision of a crowd who know what basketball is really all about. Officiating here is strictly honesty system, and controversy is settled with the age-old "miss" system. If you dispute a call made by an opponent you troop to the foul line and take a shot. You miss your opponent gets the ball; you make it you inbound and go at it all over again.

This scene is replayed in all of the other street courts all over the country. There is also the "tunnel" system, where losers crawl in between the legs of the losers, sometimes in a straight line, sometimes in a zigzag, depending on how badly you were beaten. And there are high stakes gambles here as well. A truly serious game could have as much as a case of beer on the line, sometimes a couple bottles of soda. Money seldom comes in unless its an organized community league. But unlike in the million-peso games of the glamour leagues, there is personal honor here, where money changes hands immediately and winners buy drinks for everybody.

This is where all the big stars started. No country club basketball for the true hoops warriors. You learn the game, and respect, by taking your own share of street justice-style humility.

THIS is hardcore basketball.

The game's the thing.