Words by John Cairns (Photos by Chun Yin Wah)
YUNG SHUE WAN, Lamma Island, Hong Kong – For the second time this year, the Lamma Island Pinoy Basketball League has kicked off a new season with fast and furious action on the neighborhood hoops court. On September 11, fierce competition and seesaw-lead-changes marked the opening games.
Four of the league's five teams played as many of the fans at courtside hopped and screamed in excitement. “Wow!” said a Chinese spectator. “The intensity has gone away up from the pre-season practice sessions.”
Hundreds of people -- players, fans and officials -- participated on the opening day. Many will return each Sunday, approximately from noon until 4 p.m., as play continues toward a title tilt in December.
An expansion team, the Gray Hawks, began on a winning note with a come-from-behind 82-80 victory over the yellow-uniformed Lamma Island Lickers. The Hawks, with a lineup full of limber, leaping attackers, suffered a midgame scoring slump, but recovered in a nick of time against the highly regarded Lickers.
Then the defending champions, the green-clad, slightly renamed Awesome Tigers, outlasted the blue-garbed Lamma Archers 85-70. Early on, the fleet-footed Archers set the pace, but the fearsome Tigers flexed their brawn in the second half.
All five teams gathered for an earlier parade of athletes and an opening ceremony. National anthems of China and the Philippines echoed across the court and among the trees beyond. Near the scorers' table, Hong Kong and Filipino flags fluttered in a tropical breeze. Although the basketball court lacks flagpoles, the organizers cleverly affixed the flags to a surrounding fence.
All players raised their right hands, together taking an oath of sportsmanship, first in English and then in Chinese. The league aims to promote friendship, camaraderie and harmony. As one team's prominently placed banner proclaimed, “We will win with humility, and we will lose with dignity.”
Not everything worked perfectly. For example, a new electronic scoreboard proved difficult for fans to decipher in the bright sunshine.
The league, now with one team more than during its initial season that ended in April, has expanded by opening some roster places to non-Filipino players and by juggling lineups. Now each team includes three or four “import” players (non-Filipinos). All players must live, or have lived, on Lamma. Some are teenagers. Most are older. A few even have celebrated their 50th birthdays.
“Organizers like to talk about the Pinoy players and the Chinese or other imports,” said one such “import player” always ready with an opinion. “Not me! Knowing that so many of the best people in Hong Kong come from the Philippines, I prefer to see myself more as a part-time Pinoy.”
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