The mother of all books on Philippine basketball is out.
“It’s a book that begged to be written,” said Noel Albano, the distinguished author of the book, “When We Were Champions,” during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum (PSA) at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
A jaded sportswriter and former newspaper managing editor, Albano presented his book before mediamen Tuesday, and vowed to take readers back in time, in the country’s most glorious years in the sport.
“In this book you will read about the tales by our elders. The great Philippine teams of the ‘50s and ‘60s and further back to 1911. It covers a period of six decades (until 1973),” said Albano.
He said the men behind the book exerted the “best possible effort and got the best possible assistance,” and that it was written “as objectively and as honestly as possible.”
“Now that it’s been printed, I leave it all to destiny,” said Albano.
“It’s a labor of love – 10 years in the making. It’s about time we write a book about the history of Philippine basketball,” said Ray Roquero, another sportswriter and former mayor of Valderrama in Antique.
“Reading this book is like watching Netflix,” added Roquero, who helped publish the book with great assistance from Anak Kalusugan Partylist Rep. Ray Florence Reyes.
Albano said the next plan is to knock on the doors of the country’s leading bookstores and the Department of Education on the possibility of distributing the book in schools, colleges and universities nationwide.
Albano told the forum presented by San Miguel Corporation, Philippine Sports Commission, MILO, Philippine Olympic Committee, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) that the book will take readers back to nine or 10 Far Eastern Games and as many Asian Games, the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1954 World Championships, among others.
“It’s about what made us great and what made us lose our way, when Filipinos were nearly unbeatable and what made us a basketball nation,” added Albano, who spent countless hours digging deep in the different libraries gathering all the content needed to make the book a reality.
Indeed, “When We Were Champions” is a must read.
