The Philippine Pop-a-shot Queen

Ah, Pop-a-shot. It's a game like basketball, but it's not. Or for a better choice of words, it's the poor man's basketball.

Pop-a-shot, on so many levels, is unlike the real deal. No chest pounding. No teammates. No coaches. No leagues. No cheerleaders. No product endorsements. No jerseys. No chest pounding. No howling. No trash talking. No nut cracking. No jockeying for position. No banging bodies. No rebounding. No running and jumping around. No one putting a hand on your face, and even if you're playing against someone, you'll be competing side by side, not in front of each other, ergo, no defense (unless you're playing with someone sneaky who'll suddenly block your shot or hit your arm). And when there's no defense, there'll be no fouling. Pop-a-shot doesn't offer any of that.

Basketball for wimps? I don't think so.

In Pop-a-shot, you'll be doing a lot of shooting. On you're own. No one to pass the ball to when you're running cold. No one setting you up for the easy deuce. It's just you, the rim, and some distance that prevents lay-ups, but not that far to force you into a jump shot.

In basketball, you have forty minutes (FIBA rules) to make up for the errors you committed throughout the game. And if you're running out of wind, you can always take a timeout for that much needed breather. You don't get that kind of luxury in Pop-a-shot. In most machines, you  need to reach a certain score in 60 seconds to make it to the next stage. As each stage passes, you'll be required to score more in a shorter period of time. It's this condition that makes this game so tough, leaving minimal room for mistake. If that isn't pressure, I don't know what is.

And while height is might in basketball, the arcade favorite doesn't favor six footers and pro ballers. It's all about a nose and feel for the ball -- because you barely have time to look at it and pick it up -- quick wrists, strong arms, a patented release that will help the ball find its way to the hoop, and a whole lot of determination.

Ricardo the busboy: Nothing but net

Yes, basketball demands a lot from ballers. But Pop-a-shot, though a watered down version of the sport, isn't a walk in the park. Otherwise, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James would've destroyed the competition.

That's why I was glad to see Ricardo the busboy, a Filipino national, whoop the asses of the above mentioned All-Star NBA players, two of which are MVPs.

Ricardo was like the closest thing we have for a gold medal for basketball in the Olympics. Since our national team fails to make it out of the FIBA-Asia qualifiers, our ballers will never have the chance to play against Kobe et al. More so, a chance of beating them. The sad part about it is this guy is based in the US, so most likely, he's a US citizen. In the end, we can't totally claim his triumph as ours. Not with his American citizenship.

Glad I met the girl in the video above.

Yesterday, at around 11:00 a.m., I was roaming around Trinoma for my regular mall walks. After window shopping, I decided to drop by at Timezone to play Pop-a-shot. Here I was, watching this girl finish her turn. She was so damn good that the final score was like 750+. Not that I cared. I just wanted to play. But she kept going and going. From what I recall, she was already playing before I arrived. 15 minutes or more passed by and she kept going at it, as if she was an Energizer bunny. At first it pissed me off that I didn't get a chance to play, but this rare talent in front of me reminded me of a Chinese girl featured in Yahoo!Sports. And I was like, if TV Patrol picked up Ricardo, and Yahoo gave the Chinese girl some exposure, how come no one was paying attention to this Pinay whom I believe rivals the skills of the said Chinese girl?

Mustering up the courage to talk to a stranger, I approached the girl, fighting off the urge to tell her to let me play, I interviewed her and found out who she was.

Eliz Lintingco.

I brought up the Chinese girl I saw on Yahoo!Sports, asking if she's seen the video. Somewhere in the middle of all the words, she mentioned that there's a good chance she already squared off with the said girl. It was then that I found out that Eliz won the Pop-a-shot tournament held in Quantum-SM Megamall last April 2010. Being the winner of the said tourney, she represented the Philippines in the 5th China Cup Street Basketball Tournament, the World Championship of sorts for Pop-a-shot, last August 2010.

Finally, a homegrown talent with Filipino citizenship. And while Eliz didn't win it all back in China, considering it's the first time the country sent a delegate to the said tourney, her 16th place finish among several representatives from across the globe is pretty good.

But if you think Eliz is going to rest on her laurels, you're dead wrong. In all her sweat, the swollen arms from launching consecutive projectiles towards the bucket, Eliz gives off an aura of sheer determination, a feeling you could sense even if you're a few feet away from her. After I finished talking to her, I walked away with a feeling of both satisfaction and disappointment. The latter for not being able to shoot some hoops. The former for meeting one of the best Pop-a-shot players in the world, and probably the best in the country, seeing her in all her glory, continuously working on her craft. After all, how often do you get to rub elbows with a world-class athlete. And while Pop-a-shot isn't officially a sport, due to the physical demands of the game, Liz is an athlete in my eyes.

I just wish we can appreciate her while she's still around. For all we know, she could become an OFW and dump her current citizenship for greener pastures. And when the rest of the world recognizes her, she'll be nothing but Ricardo the busboy II, a Filipino national with a not-so Filipino citizenship.

I hope somewhere, somehow, a major media outfit hears of  Eliz Lintingco and shows her some love.