Back Behind the Mic: Coming Home Again to the PBA

During the recently concluded FIBA-Asia Championship, one FIBA official came up to me and asked a question I wasn’t prepared to answer.

“Why are you called a ‘barker’?”

I really didn’t know what to say.

He went on: “I’ve been all around the world for basketball, and this is the only country I’ve ever encountered where the Public Address announcer is referred to as something akin to a dog.”

At a young age, I learned that “barkers” are those who holler at people at jeepney depots and say stuff like, “Konting usog lang kaliwa’t kanan, sampuan po tayo…O Binangonan, Binangonan, Angono, Highway…”

Later on—in college at UP—they evolved to be known as “callboys” –you know, boys calling out to people to ride the jeepney, right?

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It’s been a fascination of mine on how the Public Address (PA) announcers or “barkers” as they are known only in the Philippines have done such a great job in the NBA, especially Ray Clay when he ushers in “the starting line-up for your world champion Chicago Bulls!” Good buddies Vince de Guzman (Vince St. Price) and JV Faner (Joe Schmo) along with the late Chuck Basilio did an awesome job transforming the old PBA “Foul Jaworski” norm into one analogous to that of Clay and company stateside.

Working as a PBA radio broadcaster in 2003, then marketing director (now congressman) Robbie Puno broached the idea that I give the “barker” gig a whirl.

I clearly remember my first game was an out of town affair in Palawan between San Miguel and Shell and the first sign of trouble was when Billy Moody collided with a driving Edwin Bacani. No big, right? Just look at the referee, wait for his signal and announce the foul. But being a broadcaster, I thought Bacani lowered his shoulder into Moody who looked like he’d established position just in time. So, using my “judgement” I proceeded to call the offensive foul on Number Six Edwin Bacani. The entire Shell bench erupted. The guys beside me at the table all screamed at me different things at the same time, then the referee who made the call (Ernie de Leon) paced hastily towards me with a frown on his face.

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“What did I signal,” he half-whispered to me, in the vernacular.

“Foul on number six,” I replied.

“Did you see me make a gesture for an offensive foul?”

“But I saw that Moody established position,” I reasoned.

“I’m the referee not you,” de Leon snapped. “I called a blocking foul on number six Billy Moody and that's what you should say, whether you agree with it or not! Understand?”

So I “barked”: “Correction on the call: blocking foul on number six Billy Moody…” then the entire San Miguel bench charged at me.

Across the court, Puno and then PBA Technical chief Perry Martinez shook their heads almost in unison and then I asked the guy beside me who was working the scoreboard, “I’m dead, huh?”

“Slightly,” he replied. I turned pale and was distracted until the end of the game but still managed to pull it off without any major hitches since that initial debacle.

Being a PA announcer is not as easy as it looks. One has to look at several things almost simultaneously. One cannot beat the referee to a call. One cannot guess if the perimeter shot was ruled a “three” or a “two”. One must know how many personal fouls and team fouls there are at all times. One must know when the two minutes mark is drawing near. Needless to say, one must know the names of the players on the teams.

I eventually got to do it like Vince and JV and even did an innovation by including the player’s height and school during the player introductions, i.e. "At center standing 6-9 from Cal State Bakersfield, number 88 Asi Taulava!"

There would be days that I’d do the first game on radio then do the second game behind the venue microphone, or vice versa. After over two years of doing that, I resigned in 2005 to take on the Executive Producer job at Sportsdesk for Solar Sports. The PBA barker job was among the first things I missed after my departure.

It would be five years later when I would rekindle my love affair with venue announcing as the Qatar Basketball Federation (QBF) invited me to do the venue announcing for an exhibition game culminating in the championship game of the Emir Cup, their annual basketball tilt for the royalty and the people of Qatar--many of which are Filipino overseas contract workers (OCWs). During that short stint in Doha, some FIBA officials present noticed me and asked me to come back three weeks later for the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup—featuring a very raw Smart Gilas squad representing the Philippines. Those thirteen days in Doha were some of the most memorable in my life as I not only got to do my first international basketball tournament, but I also got to meet some of the stalwarts of Asian basketball (like Lebanon’s Fadi El Khatib and Iran’s Samad Nikkhah-Bahrami) as well as some former NBA cagers (such as Loren Wood, Jackson Vroman and 7’4” behemoth Priest Lauderdale).

I also learned that pronouncing Arabic names was no cakewalk. One British reporter asked me to pronounce Nikkhah-Bahrami's surname and I had to give him a piece of paper with this written: "NEEK-phelgm-HAH BAHrami". He smiled and tried it and had great difficulty. The protocol officer of Iran told me specifically not to call Samad "nikah" because the word "nikah" in Arabic meant something foul, so I practiced saying his last name again and again--but never over my food. Also, the squad from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was named "Al-Nasr". So I announced, "From the UAE, Al-NasSER" and then the team manager went up to me during a timeout and said, "It's pronounced 'Al-NASra'." I also discovered that all "H's" MUST be pronounced clearly. So Bahrain is "BAH-rain" and not "BaRAIN" as we Filipinos all got used to. Iran's star point guard is MAHdi Kamrany and not "Madi", and so on and so forth.

A year later, FIBA-Asia recommended me to handle the PA duties for the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup in Manila (held at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City) and I split the job with veteran basketball barker Rolly Manlapaz.

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Having been accustomed to international basketball already, the Asean Basketball League (ABL) Philippine representatives, the Air Asia Philippine Patriots initially and then the San Miguel Beermen invited me to do barker duties for their home games.

When the FIBA-Asia Championship was scrapped in war torn Lebanon and brought to the Philippines this year, I was immediately given the task along with Manlapaz and Edwin Logina AKA Rick Stryker. The three of us rotated, working two games each per competition day and I had the honor of being chosen to do the Gold Medal match where the host nation took on Iran.

It was also during that tourney that PBA officials Willie Marcial and Ricky Santos asked if I could rejoin the league. I was so flattered that nine years after I had left, they still kept their eye on me and now I’m back.

I did my first doubleheader last August 17th at the Ynares Center, Antipolo (a leisurely five minute drive from my house) and immediately felt the pressure of so many changes from when I started nearly a decade ago. But, like riding a bicycle, I got the hang of it by halftime of the first game and I’m now a regular member of the rotation which features Noel Vilar on Saturdays, Mark Luzon on Sundays and Rob Evangelsita on Wednesdays. I’m assigned to do all the Friday games.

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It’s great reconnecting with friends who continue to play there such as Eddie Laure, Dondon Hontiveros and the inimitable Willie Miller as well as making the acquaintance of the newer breed of the PBA such as Paul Lee, Calvin Abueva and the imports seeing action this ongoing Governors Cup.

I never thought I’d find my way back, being busy with a lot of broadcasting and dubbing responsibilities nowadays, but I did have my longest tenure in sports with the PBA (1997-2004) so it feels like I’ve actually come home.

Thanks for inviting me back, PBA. Now let’s touch lives together.

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com