Slam Dunk

This anime is the reason why I got into basketball in the first place. I was a hyperactive kid back then, but I had nowhere to channel my energies. I tried Taekwondo for the summer vacation and a couple of months after classes resumed, but the gym where I took lessons was too far so I had to stop. I also played softball with the neighboring kids (I could throw a curve ball that nobody seemed to hit and I didn’t even know what it was called!) but somehow it stayed just that- a game I played with my childhood friends.

When I was a freshman in high school Channel 7 began airing Slam Dunk. Every afternoon after dismissal I would rush home to catch the anime, I would even skip my weekly cleaning assignment but not an episode of Slam Dunk. Suddenly I could understand my uncle when he would talk about the NBA (he used to sound gibberish). PBA games became bearable (it used to piss me off when my father would switch the channel to watch Ginebra’s games). I began tuning in to UAAP and NCAA (and not long after, the PBL, where college cagers would play before being drafted into PBA).

My classmates in high school forgot that I was fair-skinned because I became sunburned due to the hours I spent outside playing basketball. But what the heck, I got better and better, and could beat half the boys my age in our baranggay. Basketball became my passion, perhaps I loved it more than writing or even reading. The only frustration I have about the sport (other than my height) is the fact that I never got to play it for my school. We didn’t have a women’s varsity in high school, and in college, well, I got sidetracked and joined the track team instead, then got sidetracked again and just went on to enjoying my college life in utter bliss and freedom. Of course I would play for my org during sports fest, but I know it would be different to actually don your school colors with pride.

Once I joined the UST Women’s Basketball Team summer camp try-outs. I suppose I was doing fairly well, I kept up with the pace of the regular players, I showed some pretty darn moves, but due to personal reasons I lasted for only one week. (Oh I guess it’s different when it’s your heart that aches than your body.) That’s about the closest I can get to college hoops.

But no matter, I still love the sport.

Other anime about basketball popped up after Slam Dunk, but nothing could ever beat the original.