A Barangay Ginebra game in the PBA is typically a whole-day activity for die-hard fan Percival Romero Go.

As the head administrator of the fan group Lahing Ginebra, Go arrives at the arena hours before the gates open to help out the Gin Kings’ marketing team for game preparations.

From balloons to posters that will be used by their members for cheering, Go makes sure those are taken care of.

But just like any other PBA fan in the recent Philippine Cup, Go had to watch his favorite team from home, with the league forced to adopt a bubble setting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is a world of difference,” Go said in Filipino when asked about the experience of being a fan at home. “When you’re in the venue, you support your team all out.”

“When you’re at home, sometimes you cannot prevent yourself from shouting and jumping out of excitement. But you cannot express your feelings a hundred percent because you also worry about your neighbors.”

The PBA successfully opened its 45th season in March with San Miguel kicking off the All-Filipino conference with a dominant win over Magnolia.

But the league eventually had to put the tournament on hold due to the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country and the enforcement of strict quarantine measures.

Other leagues followed suit like the UAAP scrapping the remainder of its season and the Philippines Football League (PFL) postponing the opening of its new season.

It took several months before local sports returned as the PBA and PFL finally secured approval from the government to restart their respective tournaments inside a bubble.

Bubble life

“Of course it was not easy. Being in a bubble, you’re away from your family and friends,” said Meralco Bolts rookie Aaron Black.

Aside from enduring the grind of a compressed PBA conference, players like Black dealt with homesickness and the fact that they missed special family occasions while being holed up in a bubble.

There was also anxiety about the coronavirus, particularly when the PBA reported a player and a referee tested positive for the virus.

Subsequently, the player and referee yielded negative results in their confirmatory tests as the rest of the PBA contingent in the bubble in Clark, Pampanga breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“I’m sure everyone in the bubble was scared once we found out that there was a possible case,” Black said.

“But at the same time, I was pretty confident that if the PBA was able to pull off getting the bubble started, that if there was a possible case, they would be able to contain it quickly and nobody else would be affected.”

While fans were sorely missed by the players, Black said there were advantages to being in a bubble.

“You really just had to focus on the game, you did not have to focus on the fans or the noise or things like that. Plus it was better communication for the players because there was not any noise inside the gym,” Black said.

That was probably a major reason why the Bolts reached the Philippine Cup playoffs for the first time in 5 seasons.

Meralco dethroned San Miguel in the quarterfinals for a first-ever All-Filipino semifinals appearance before it fell short to eventual champion Ginebra in a do-or-die match.

“It was definitely fun. First and foremost, just the fact that we were able to give the Filipino people some entertainment, something to enjoy for I think 2 or 3 months,” Black said.

“This pandemic has been so hard on everybody. I’m sure a lot of Filipinos really enjoyed watching PBA basketball everyday.”

Not quite the same

Go fondly talked about Ginebra as the franchise ruled the Philippine Cup for the first time in 13 years.

A hard-core fan, he enumerated the venues where the Gin Kings won their last 5 championships – at the Philippine Arena, Mall of Asia Arena, Araneta Coliseum, and the latest, at the Angeles University Foundation.

“I’m really, really proud. The bubble is historic. For sure the players are really happy, what more the fans who had been waiting for that championship for a long time,” Go said.

Yet, Go still longs for the feeling of celebrating that title triumph with the entire Ginebra crew in person.

The Gin Kings normally stage a victory party for their fans a couple of days after winning a championship but the pandemic has ruled out the possibility of that happening.

“We celebrate by ourselves at home. I’m happy but sad at the same time because we do not have a celebration for this championship,” Go said.

Sports drastically changed as much for reporters.

For Aaron Bayato, a broadcaster for DZSR Sports Radio, nothing beats the feeling of watching and chronicling games live.

“It is a higher level of adrenaline when we’re in the field,” Bayato said in a mix of Filipino and English.

“When we’re in the field, we see the raw emotions of the players and we hear the things they talk about that cannot be heard on TV. It is different when we’re actually there.”

No thanks to the pandemic, the usual interview scrums have been replaced by virtual press conferences.

Also, access to athletes and sports officials now depends on their availability, unlike the pre-pandemic times when ambush interviews were customary.

Bayato, though, is just grateful that sports has somehow hurdled the challenges of the pandemic.

“It is a big thing that sports was able to come back because of the efforts of our frontliners, our scientists, and a number of our righteous leaders regardless of whatever bureaucracy that happened,” Bayato said.

“For me, it is not as fun compared to the pre-pandemic times but it gave me a deeper meaning to appreciate sports, how we follow sports and the superstars that we idolize and cover.” – Rappler.com