Why I Love Rich Alvarez

 

People who know, or found out, that I love basketball wonders why I am into it. It turns I don't look like someone who is into basketball. Imagine an overweight, bespectacled bookworm liking, among other things, basketball. But of course, looks can be deceiving. Anyway, after knowing the first surprising fact about me people ask who my favorite player is. I answer, without blinking, "Rich Alvarez". Common reactions to this are: "Who the hell is he?" "What team does he play for?" and "Why him?" I often answer, politely, "He's in Red Bull [or whatever team he's part of at the moment]." But what I really wanted to say was, "You don't really like basketball enough because you don't know him!" 


Rich's main critics are, in fact, my brothers and sister. Whenever I would watch Rich's game, they would comment "Sayang lang oras mo. Matatalo rin 'yan." Or whenever they win, my brother would say, "Sus, buti malakas kakampi ni Rich." I always defended my favorite player by saying, "Defense wins the game. And Rich defended ___ [the opposing team's star player]." My brother, being the typical Pinoy fan who's more engrossed in fancy moves and high scores rather than noticing the intangible things other players, like Rich, do. Rebound, defend, run the floor, set screens, pass.

Looking back, I first liked basketball when I watched an awarding ceremony of a UAAP season. I could not remember what season was this because I was only in grade school then. I didn't know there were different seasons etc. In the awarding ceremony, I saw this tall, cute player being awarded MVP, with the sportscaster saying that he has won two in a row. What followed the ceremony was the Game 2 of that Finals series, which, unfortunately, I didn't watch because my father wanted to watch other things on TV.


Knowing that Studio 23 aired amateur basketball tournaments, I made it a point to watch out for that MVP. In the Philippine Basketball League (an amateur summer league where "smaller" teams/franchises play against each other; players who're part of the teams are usually those from collegiate leagues like the UAAP and NCAA), I saw the same guy--Mr. Cute MVP--playing power forward for a team named Fash Detergent, where the players from Ateneo's men's collegiate team played. I watched him play and liked his style. Simple yet efficient. Puts up a great defense, shows good lateral movements (in fact, his laterals were so good that he guarded Mike Cortez, a guard, during the Ateneo vs. La Salle finals) and is very down-to-earth. He never bragged about a shot he made, a move he did, and a win they achieved. I did not saw him trash talk. At best, he shows emotion by smiling or by high-fiving a teammate. In a way, he was silent but very passionate about the game.

From then on, I became a self-confessed, obsessed Rich Alvarez fan. I don't know what about him exactly that made me go--Ah that's the player I will be rooting for All. My. Life.--it just happened. Yeah I know.


Despite the up and downs of Rich's career (from a championship in the PBL before he went pro, being top pick in the PBA draft, being benched in his first game as a PBA players, being Rookie of the Year, ACL injury, wins, losses, trades, and criticisms) I still liked Rich and his ways. His career may not be what we (or maybe even he) imagined for himself but that's life, you take what you are given. Rich has taken what life had to offer; what teams had to offer. He did not care when he was benched (or at least, he did not appear to be fazed by it); he did not care if his coach used him sparingly. As I look at him at the bench, I see him eagerly cheering on his teammates, always ready if called on to play. I still like Rich as a player. And I have my collection of newspaper clippings to prove that.