Hoops and Heritage | A conversation with Author and former Hoop Nation Host Rafe Bartholomew

Rafe Bartholomew is an author whose work on Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball contains generations of Philippines basketball history that Filipinos across the globe have enjoyed reading for over a decade. Despite not being from the Philippines himself or having any connection to the motherland whatsoever, Rafe embarked on an adventure of a lifetime to immerse himself in our culture and learn about the ins and outs of Philippine basketball. Rafe’s book is a no holds barred account of his time in Manila- from seeing the ingenuity of ballers fashioning used parts for hoops and the discovery of how government politics play into professional team dynamics; it reflects a three-year journey through Filipino basketball culture that eventually culminates into what he calls his forever “love letter to the Philippines.” We get to chat with him and learn more about his journey and what led him to write one of the foremost canons of our homeland’s favorite pastime.

Photos Courtesy of Rafe Bartholomew

His journey started in New York City. From an early age, his passion for learning and curiosity to accumulate knowledge paid off as he tested into a specialized high school. From there, he went on to North Western University in Illinois, where he got his masters in Journalism and another degree in the span of five years. This is where he ultimately gained inspiration to branch out of his familiarity and catapult his life into a direction he had never imagined.

“My love for the game started through playing. I grew up at a time where it felt like everybody in New York City played basketball. My dad, who I was close with, and still am, had played high school and small college basketball in Ohio where he’s from before he had moved to New York, and so he began taking me to our local recreation center when I was probably 7 years old and I think every weekday from 3PM-5:30PM after school was reserved for kids under 18. When nobody was there, he’d play me one-on-one and just put me through drills. I was playing all the time. At a young age, I was pretty big. I grew up to be 6 foot 3, which is tall but not that tall for basketball, when you get to the higher levels. But at that age, I was one of the tallest kids around. That advantage was always there from the beginning. I think the thing that really hooked me was when I was 12 I got to play with our neighborhood traveling team. I was selected to play with the good kids,” mentioned Rafe. 

Every Saturday, they’d play in places like Uptown Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens. Playing alongside Rafe as a teammate at this time was none other than Smush Parker, who is best known for playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat in the NBA. 

“Because we had him and some other players who were very talented, we all thought we were great at that age. We would go into gyms all across the city and win by like 70 points. We probably got way too full of ourselves as some 12 year olds. But at that point in time I thought I was going to be the next Chris Webber or the next Larry Johnson and play basketball for the rest of my life. And I did, but just not in the same way that I thought I was going to. I got hooked early and always stayed in touch with the game.”

After wrapping up his college years, Rafe packed his bags and hopped on a flight to the Philippines to dive right into the Philippine Basketball scene. This big shift of his life was action taken on a simple thought that crossed his mind one day as he was reading.

“It really began by the stroke of luck, or circumstance, or fate, because obviously I am not Filipino. My parents are not Filipino. I don’t have an Uncle. People in Manila would always ask, “Do you have an Uncle or someone in the military that made you come?” The answer was no to all of those things. It was a book that I had read while I was in college working on an independent study that was focusing on sports writing and this was a book called “Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure” by a Sports Illustrated writer named Alexander Wolff. He had traveled all across the globe, and did chapters on basketball in a number of different countries. It was the chapter on the Philippines and the PBA that sort of blew my mind and first exposed me to a basketball culture and history that I had known nothing about at the time. For me, it was just these 17 pages in a book that sounded like the most amazing passionate basketball environment I had ever heard of,” recalled Rafe.

His fascination grew even more as he discovered that men, women, and even children regularly played basketball in tsinelas (a rubber slipper). He enjoyed the resourcefulness of Filipinos in making their own hoops out of available materials and the rich Filipino Basketball history that was highlighted in the book. Despite having little to no general knowledge on the Philippines, outside of what he had read, he decided to take action and apply for a government grant to continue learning more.

“It knocked my socks off. I thought right then, I would love to go and see this for myself and try and learn about it, and maybe write about it. That’s what gave me the idea to put in an application for this government grant to go study and would fund one year of independent research in another country and you have to come up with an idea for what it was and write a long essay about how you were going to achieve it and all those things. I was just very fortunate that it came through and I got that opportunity to take it from the inspiration that the book gave me to living it.”

Before he knew it, Rafe was battling the humidity of the Philippines and pursuing his passion in full force.

“When I first arrived in the country, I would say not just for weeks or months, but I think most of my first year living in the Philippines, I would consider myself clueless. I was affiliated with Ateneo de Manila University for my grant so I was living near there in Katipunan. Because I had six months between the period of when I was notified that I was going to be moving and when I actually moved, I made some efforts and took some beginning Tagalog lessons and tried to learn what I could. Six months of once a week lessons helped some, I knew basic words. It still felt like I didn’t know anything,” recalled Rafe.

However, six months of Tagalog lessons and research on the Filipino culture were not enough to prepare Rafe with the tools he’d need to transition with ease as he embarked on this journey across the world and into the hustle and bustle of the Philippines. He quickly came to find that the way to achieve his goals would be filled with obstacles and roadblocks, many of which he’d battle on his own. 

“There is so much difference between living in a major American city and living in Manila in terms of getting around and lifestyle. But still there was a comfort level in going from one city to another. I’ve always liked maps and learning my way through an environment, especially an urban environment. So I started walking around my neighborhood then I started to see how far I could get walking. I’d do things that, when I would tell people what I had done, they’d think I was insane. I’d say, “Oh, I walked through Edsa today” and they’d ask, “How are you alive? How’d you do that?” But doing those crazy things helped expose me to the way people would interact with me.” 

Culture shock came in many ways for Rafe, sometimes it was navigating his ways through the public transportation system and riding jeepneys, other times it was attempting to break the language barrier while communicating with others. However challenging they were, these obstacles did not, in any way, stop Rafe from pursuing his passion. 

“The cultural norms around hospitality and being welcoming and friendly to foreigners, especially, which obviously there’s also a colonial mentality side of that, but in terms of just the way that you’re welcomed and encouraged to engage in the culture in as many ways as you are willing to, which in my case, there was really nothing I would say no to, that also makes it easier to feel comfortable and slowly get accustomed to living in a new country. It’s almost like everyone you meet is rooting for you to get it right, and they’re willing to help if you’re willing to ask,” he shared. 

After a year of learning and acquainting himself with the ways of the Philippines, Rafe started to work on the book proposal that would potentially change his life forever. 

“I remember feeling like I had only begun to scratch the surface of the bigger basketball story. I still feel that way. I’m so thankful I got to write almost 400 pages about it, but part of me still thinks of all of the history, stories, and profiles that I didn’t get to include. After that first year, I knew I wanted to turn it into a book. I didn’t know if I was capable of it. I had written some long individual stories but until you’re there trying to write a book, you wonder if it is even possible. But I knew I wanted to try. It was a slow process. I had to first get a literary agent. Once I found one that was interested in representing me for the book, that’s when I was able to take a letter from my agent as proof that I was serious because I was only 24 or 25. But I did have some clips, I was able to publish Philippine basketball. The first one that came out during my first year was about an import. I began writing stories about American players, playing professionally on PBA teams,” mentioned Rafe. 

These stories were done by Rafe for a number of publications, one of which included the New York Times. Compiling all of these published pieces together, along with a letter from his literary agent, Rafe approached the PBA to see if they would support and embed him with a team to write about the league from their point of view. This agreement with the PBA was what launched Rafe into his relationship with the Alaska Aces, the backbone of the book. 

“Hearing that the Alaska Aces franchise was willing to let me spend a season with them, that was one of those moments where I was like, “wow, this might actually be real. The ride does not have to stop here.’ Because if the PBA said yes and none of the teams agreed, I don’t know how I would have turned it into a book from there. So that was really a big turning point and it also ended up being the heart and soul of the book with all the characters, players, and coaches. It brings it to life and makes it feel like more than just an academic study. It also introduced me to friends that I have kept for the rest of my life.”

With the first steps taken into the publishing process, Rafe finally was able to get to work on writing sample chapters to give proof of concept to potential publishers. He and his agent faced many rejections on their quest to find one that saw things from Rafe’s point of view, but after hearing a lot of “nos” and a lot of adjusting, they were able to find the right one. 

While recalling the success that the book had following its release across the globe, Rafe shared, “The first couple of years were overwhelming in a lot of ways. When the book came out in New York, it was one of the best nights of my life. Again, it feels like fate. The events organizer at the biggest Barnes & Noble in New York at the time grew up in Manila. She was Filipina. She was a neighbor of Francis Arnaiz, the famous 80s PBA player. They normally wouldn’t book a first time author writing a nonfiction book about sports in another country. That would not be the normal event for this space. In fact, I remember the night before me, Sarah Silverman had a book signing there. The night after me, I think Anthony Bourdain had a book signing there.”

It was a night to remember for sure. With the buzz around the book and the help of the Philippine Consulate, the entire fourth floor was filled with inspired basketball enthusiasts, eager to get their copies of Pacific Rim signed by Rafe. After all of his hard work, Rafe finally was able to witness it paying off.

“I had to sit up there and read in front of like 300 people and then sign books for hours. It was incredible. The feeling of community that came out of that was bigger than anything I could have dreamed of. And then a few months after that, when I first came back to Manila after the book had come out, I walked into a National Bookstore and there were screens everywhere of a video of me inviting people to my readings in Tagalog. I was so embarrassed, but seeing the way that the book was embraced in the Philippines was more important to me than anything else. Being recognized on the street or on the MRT platform was not something I had expected to come along my career as a first time author but it was certainly something,” he shared.

Now, two decades after its release, Pacific Rims still plays an instrumental role in educating Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike the powerful role that basketball plays in the rich culture of the Philippines. In addition to this, even after all of these years, Rafe makes it a point to stay intact with the Filipino ways.

“I still study Tagalog, more in an upkeep manner than when I was trying to learn actively. I have read and reread Lualhati Bautista books about six times just to keep the language in my head. Because, you know, my family isn’t Filipino so I don’t get to hear Tagalog at home, necessarily. I play in the Film leagues here where they let me play as sort of an honorary half import. I try to consume media from the Philippines. I have had an online subscription to iWantTFC for the last ten years. In terms of sports, I read Spin.ph to get news to continue following the PBA and college basketball. I read the news. I usually try to watch one of the news shows. It’s not regimented. I probably used to be stricter with myself. Now, as long as I get little bits here and there. I try to return to the country and keep up my relationships and keep doing work in the basketball community in any way I can. It’s been a lifelong project of mine. It’s my life now, it’s who I am,” mentioned Rafe. 

After the release of his first book, Rafe went on to write a book about his father’s bartending career in the oldest bar in New York City, “Two and Two: McSorley's, My Dad, and Me” which was released in 2017. He also co-authored “Basketball: A Love Story” alongside Dan Klores and Jackie MacMullan, which hit the bookstores one year later, in 2018.

Throughout his journey in the Philippines, and even beyond it, Rafe has displayed an immense amount of courage and resilience in making his dreams come true. Despite all of the barriers that initially stood in his way, he was able to power through and create a meaningful impact in the lives of basketball enthusiasts across the globe. Rafe’s eagerness to persevere is one of the many things that make him a Filipino at Heart. 

Advice to those who wish to follow in his footsteps: “Don’t be afraid to try something that you didn’t expect to do or that nobody around you thinks is a good idea. If you’re inspired by something, it’s worth looking into, worth exploring and worth trying to go out of your way to make it happen. It’s not easy because sometimes you don’t have time. Sometimes it’s just too expensive. There are so many constraints that can happen but being open and willing to make mistakes and not give up on it will pay off down the line.” 

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Written By Nico Belasco

Photographer, Writer, Speaker, Podcast Host, Creative

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