Showtime comes back to basketball

Ooohs and aaahs filled the Big Dome. They were magicians, pulling bunny after bunny out of the hat, dazzling the crowd like little children.

This was basketball for the people.

Last Sunday, the AND1 Mix Tape Tour made its second trip to the Philippines, to the delight of basketball fans all over the archipelago. Streetball legends like Dennis "Spyda" Chism, "Half-Man, Half-Amazing" Anthony Heyward, who incidentally got this nickname six years before Vince Carter, Grayson Scott Boucher a.k.a. "The Professor", Waliyy "Main Event" Dixon and, my personal favorite, Jamar "The Pharmacist" Davis.

Nine members of the AND1 team flew to Manila to face a team of Pinoy streetballers and some from the college ranks.

"We’re very excited," said "Main Event" Wally Dixon, who was part of the original five that AND1 Mix Tape project assembled in 2000, along with streetball legend and now Houston Rockets guard Rafer "Skip To My Lou" Alston, who ushered in this Mix Tape madness.

For those not in the know, the AND1 Mix Tape is a compilation tape of street basketball at its finest. It features all the crazy tricks, high-flying dunks of actual basketball games featuring a killer hip-hop soundtrack. The Mix Tape is shown in AND1 stores all over the world.

"It started in New York," said Dixon, a New Jersey native. "At first there were four or five hundred people watching us, then it grew to thousands. After that, the AND1 team started touring across the US and later, the entire globe. The best thing about being on the road, Main Event said, is seeing different cultures. The best thing about the Philipines? "The hotels," joked Dixon.

With so much hype for these cagers, Dixon promised not to disappoint the Filipino fans. "We’re going to put on a show and shock the fans," said Main Event.

That they did. In a packed Araneta Coliseum, the AND1 team wowed the fans with several slick moves that many of the spectators, including myself, haven’t seen before. Jaws were dropping all over the place as "The Pharmacist" and "The Professor" showed their crazy ball handling skills and high-leaping 5 ft.10 inch guard "Spyda" rocked the rim with ferocious slams, including one where he hung on the rim, lifted his feet above his head and hunched up, a move that you would associate with Spider-Man. I guess that’s why he’s called "Spyda." "The Pharmacist" had some highlight reel material of his own. Twice during the game, Amar Davis schooled his Pinoy defender with a series of street moves, ranging from crossover dribbles to pulling the defender’s shirt over his head and then went for an alley-oop pass between his legs to his high-flying teammates. The raucous crowd stood in ovation, followed by some blurted expletives in disbelief. 

The game, really, was more of a show, as nobody cared what the final score was (I think we lost by 50). This spectacle of amazing athleticism reminds us that there can be more to basketball than championships, fame and fortune. The infusion of hip-hop in the game, as evidenced by the courtside DJ, creates the atmosphere for showmanship and flash. By bringing the street element to this game, AND1 has made it possible for us Pinoys to see our favorite sport played on a completely different and arguably more entertaining level.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m definitely getting tickets for next year’s Mix Tape Tour. It’s a rare opportunity to get to witness such novel creativity and athleticism. It’d be interesting to see if they can outdo themselves after such an entertaining game.

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For questions, comments or corrections, please e-mail me at emailcarlramirez@yahoo.com.