Pacific rims

Three years after first landing in the Philippines, author Rafe Bartholomew flew back to New York City, overwhelmed and reluctant to leave after imbibing the Philippine basketball scene. He can finally sit down and finish the book, which kept on growing the longer he stayed.

“The more I learned, the harder it got to finish the book. At one point, I thought it would reach a thousand pages,” Bartholomew jokingly told The STAR. “There was a time I was sure I was almost finished, then somebody told me, “What, you haven’t written about Crispa-Toyota?” That added another 20 to 30 pages right there.”

Bartholomew, who gained attention when he wrote about the Ateneo-La Salle rivalry for The New York Times, recalls the aftermath of that article. Not only did it make him recognizable here, but also generated a wave of popularity for him and his family, particularly his father, who runs the oldest bar in New York City.

“At first, the editors weren’t too keen on it,” the Northwestern graduate admitted. “But when it came out, it became the second-most e-mailed story for the paper for that week. People were coming up to my dad at the bar and asking if he had copies of it.”

Bartholomew spent a season following the Alaska Aces, and scrimmaging with many younger players from every league, including most of the Fil-Ams in the PBA. The Alaska experience will be one of the main threads of the book, tentatively titled “Pacific Rims”.

I asked Bartholomew what set Philippine hoops apart. He had two answers.

“Well, what really got my attention was La Salle-Ateneo,” he revealed. “And I had to wait a year to actually experience it because of the DLSU suspension. The sheer passion the people have for the games is unreal. And the level of power in the building. I’ve never seen politicians, big businessmen, even the US Ambassador, watch games and become ordinary rabid fans. The crowd is practically evenly split down the middle. You just don’t get that anywhere in the world.”

The second peculiarity is a little more mundane.

“Probably I’d say the signature move in Philippine basketball is the sidestep,” he laughs, shaking his head. “I’ve just never seen that move done anywhere else. Of course, along with the concept of diskarte, as well. The acrobatic, yoyo lay-up, too. That’s probably the Pinoy version of the dunk, I guess.”

Bartholomew also wrote about past and present PBA imports for US publications, and even reported on the tremendous reception that Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas received here. All the input made it all the more difficult for him to prune the book down.

“The idea is for me and my agent to get some sample chapters out to the publisher as soon as possible,” Bartholomew explained. “Then, once we have a contract, I can get the book out in six months or less. The goal is to have it out before 2010 at the latest.”

But Bartholomew promised he would find “any excuse” to come back out here, and is looking at the possibility of doing a book on basketball personalities in the Philippines, or some similar research. He promised to bring his writing, and his game back to the country that has shown him an unmatched fanaticism for the sport he loves dearly, too.