If you ever wanted to know just how much the Philippines truly loves the sport of basketball, hit play on NBA’s podcast ‘Hoops Paradise!’
People often mistake the Philippines’ national sport to be basketball (in reality, the country’s national sport is Arnis).
Meaning no offense to Arnis and any other sport, but this is an understandable mistake. Frankly, in the Philippines, nothing comes close to basketball in terms of being as beloved and universally embraced across our island nation.
Capturing the country’s craze for the sport, in February 2023, ‘Hoops Paradise: The Philippines’ Love of the Game‘ debuted.
A partnership by the NBA and iHeart, hosted by Cassidy Hubbarth of ESPN and Nikko Ramos of Titan, Hoops Paradise tells our country’s basketball crazy story in a highly entertaining and fresh approach.
A Hoop-Loving Nation
From creatively expressed insights about how a basketball jersey is one of the most common items to be found in an average Filipino’s wardrobe, to actually finding in data that the Philippines has the highest percentage of its population that consider themselves as NBA fans worldwide (62%), every hoop nut who takes a listen to Hoops Paradise is guaranteed to enjoy.
And, as of writing, the sixth episode is just about to drop!
As tempted as we are to give away more bits and pieces from the podcast, we’re restraining ourselves and will let you enjoy the full experience by listening to the show yourself.
You can check it out here:
We’re pretty confident that like us, you’ll find it to be bitin, leaving you basketball fans wanting more.
To Cassidy and the rest of the NBA content team behind this brilliant concept, in case you’re reading this, we tried looking for a Filipino dictionary definition of the word but we couldn’t find a suitable one. So we’ll instead say it like this — GIVE US MORE!
Images courtesy of NBA Philippines.
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