Why a country with such a serious height disadvantage is crazy for basketball, we'll never know. But Filipinos love the sport, whether watching it or playing it.
Virtually every town has a court, which doubles as an events center, concert hall, and all around meeting place. During our visit, Kip has played in more than a few games, where he's learned height isn't a hindrance for the locals, nor are flip flops or bare feet.
While driving a borrowed motorcycle around the tiny island of San Antonio last week, we saw a group of guys gathered around a make-shift backboard with hammers, nails, and a rope, so we pulled over to see what was going on.
One of the neighborhood kids had found an old, rusted rim, and most of the town/village/barangay came out to help hang the new goal using whatever materials they could find. The best part--the goal would be hung from a coconut palm about 30 feet from the beach.
We joined in the construction project, hammering nails, sawing logs, and offering mostly useless advice. Liz also taught some of the young girls a few English words, while Kip and the guys went about putting up the goal.
When it was all done, we got lots of hi-fives from the kids. And Kip even got in a quick 3-on-3 game to test out the new addition, which luckily worked quite well. Unlike his jump shot.
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