By Eloisa Lopez MANILA (Reuters) - *Photo essay: It may be dwarfed by other nation's sporting prowess, but the Philippines' fervour for basketball is ...
It may be dwarfed by other nation's sporting prowess, but the Philippines' fervour for basketball is gigantic, and enthusiasm for the sport is only intensifying ahead of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, which opens in Manila on Friday.
"We are excited since the tournament will happen here. There are many players from the NBA that we are excited to see," college student James Froilan Almeda told Reuters near championship venue Mall of Asia Arena. The NBA is the U.S. National Basketball Association. The appeal of basketball endured through the decades because of its simplicity, veteran sports anchorman Sev Sarmenta said.
Jessie Conde, a regular at a court built by waste pickers in the slums of Tondo, said he always turns to basketball when things get tough at home or at school. Even though the cheapest ticket for the World Cup costs almost half the minimum daily wage, organisers hope to smash the record attendance of 32,616 fans that watched the 1994 FIBA World Cup finals in Canada.
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