Hoopology: Time to get Nashty

It's time.

It's no secret how i prefer point guards over lumbering big men or the more athletic wing men in basketball. i always cheered for the Hector Calma, Ronnie Magsanoc, Olsen Racela type of ballers over the likes of Allan Caidic, Alvin Patrimonio, Benjie Paras or Samboy Lim... (Outside liking Ato Agustin, the one year or two i tried to impersonate a scorer...)

Sure, you admire these big-time perimeter players coupled with their aerial acrobats or outside sniping and dominating moves inside the paint... But what lured me to the spitfirish guards are their sense of teamwork and instinct on running a team, being a leader... And no, i won't mention that my height force/d me to play the one-spot. You can't force me to imitate those big guys. Because i just can't.

Over the years, this infatuation with point guards remained. In the early 90's (maybe late 80's) when i was just a greenhorn basketball fan, i was hooked up with the San Miguel franchise and from then on decided that it was going to be my team for life. Through thick and thin, i supported the Beermen (or whatever the team moniker is.) Roughly 2 decades later, and now a certified basketball addict i still have the same admiration for the court generals of any basketball league.

Eventually, everyone ends up following the NBA. Blame Michael Jordan and the Filipinos passion for hoops, i remember the 90's as a coming of age for the Philippines and their basketball. What i remember was that you had to be uberlucky if your free tv offers an NBA game for a single month. Details are kind of hazy, i can NOT remember which channels offered such. Maybe it was ABSCBN or GMA or PTV. i am not sure. What i am sure of is, the basic basketball fan thirst for any NBA-flavored basketball and it was simply bliss being able to watch ANY game, with or with out Air Jordan.

Fast-forward to the turn of the century, the NBA can now be seen on a regular cable channel and eventually Solar Entertainment go the rights to the NBA broadcast and started showing games on Solar USA or Solar Sports... You could say that the addiction started here (though developed way before...) Add up the internet highway and the usual dose of broadsheet news... Wham, you're hooked for life.

So it's coincidence that i ended up working for Solar--- that story another long one and will be told in another day. (Left side of the brain says however that you can control coincidence via desire, passion and love.)

Which brings me to Steve Nash, arguably the best point guard in the NBA the past three years. i feel this is the year that he will bring home the bacon. The year which the gentleman from Canada will say: "Kiss the ring, bitches." Particularly to superstars such as Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and bestfriend Dirk Nowitzki all of whom have denied Nash an NBA championship one way and the other.

The Phoenix Suns are all set to take on rivals and defending titlists San Antonio Spurs in the first round match-up in the first round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs. And as usual, it will be a classic in the making. i see this one going the whole nine yards.Game Seven as the Suns pull off the victory!

Right in the middle of it will be Steve Nash, 15th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft--- former back-up to Jason Kidd before finally making a splash at Dallas to legitimize himself as one of the best passing point guards in the league. Eventually, he ended up in Phoenix where he enjoyed his best years as an NBA player winning the NBA MVP twice in the last three years....

More than the individual awards, Nash is unselfishness personified so much so that it will not be justice if he can't win an NBA championship... But that my friends is not happening this year. It's time. Nash will deliver all the way this season. Book it. After all, Jason Williams, a role player did his part to help the Miami Heat win... Already about time Steveee does... And we will all be one happy point guard family.