55,000 fans and nowhere to hide: what it’s like to play in basketball’s biggest arena

Jamie Malonzo got there early, one of the first players to arrive. He knew this was a different thing altogether. He knew the 55,000-capacity Philippine Arena was something else.As Malonzo warmed up, the crowd began to file into the stands for Game 7 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup. Fans tried to get his attention, yelling and waving their arms madly. This game, Malonzo knew, would be unlike any other he had ever played in.“For me, warming up in there was not about trying to warm up my body. It was more about practicing cancelling out the outside noise – it was like practicing a different part of your brain,” the Seattle-born forward says of the game in January 2023.When the game started, things didn’t get any easier.“It was definitely hard to hear,” the 30-year-old says. “I remember that being a problem.”In fact, Malonzo and his team had to invent hand signals to combat the fan volume.“When you were on the court and you look up and you see these people way, way, way, way, up there in the upper bleachers cheering – it was crazy,” he says.Today, most professional basketball arenas seat between 10,000 and 20,000 people. The capacity at Madison Square Garden, for example, is 19,812 for New York Knicks games. The Philippine Arena seats nearly three times that.Until this month, it was the largest indoor arena in the world. (The KJC King Dome in Davao City opened on 1 September, also in the Philippines, and holds a whopping 75,000 people.)“In other places, soccer is the biggest sport,” says Malonzo, whose mother was born in the Philippines and moved to Seattle as an adult. “But that same enthusiasm other places have around the world for soccer is equaled in the Philippines for basketball.”While Malonzo now plays in Japan, he spent four years playing in the Philippines. There, he saw it all.“If you look at the poorest streets of the Philippines, if you look at the richest streets,” Malonzo says, “anywhere from the poorest to the richest area codes – you’re always going to see a basketball hoop kids can play on.”Basketball started to grow in the Philippines during the American colonial period in the early 1900s. Founded in 1975, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was Asia’s first pro basketball league. It has hardcore fans, brilliantly named teams – from the Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots to the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters – and very specific rules: for example, certain competitions limit the height of foreign players. The national team has also recently featured several acclaimed NBA players, including former NBA sixth man of the year Jordan Clarkson.Malonzo found success in the league, perhaps most notably in that raucous Game 7 in 2023, when he scored 22 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, earning the Best Player of the Game nod.“I’m pretty familiar with the place,” Malonzo says, with a laugh. “It was the arena I won my first championship in the Philippines, which meant a lot for me.”Originally slated for 13 January, that particular Game 7 was pushed back two days because of demand for tickets, and it ended up being the most attended PBA game in history.Malonzo’s Barangay Ginebra San Miguel beat Bay Area Dragons – a guest team from Hong Kong that season – 114-99 in front of 54,589 people. The game broke the previous PBA record of 54,086 fans, set six years prior.“It was for sure nerve-wracking,” Malonzo says. “When you think about how many people are there watching you – it’s so intense. Any little movement you make is noticed by that many fans.”The O’Dea High School graduate, who was taken second overall in the 2020 PBA draft out of college, says it took time to adjust to the tens of thousands watching. “It just took a few good plays to settle in, to kind of get comfortable,” he says.Soon, though, he realized most of the fans were cheering for his team. They wanted the team from Hong Kong, who boasted two former NBA players, to go down hard. And go down hard they did.Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel dunks during Game 7 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup. Photograph: Xinhua/Rouelle Umali/Xinhua/Alamy“When you realize the fans are with you and cheering you, it makes it special, for sure,” Malonzo says. “It was really important that we got the win in front of our crowd. To this day, I’ve never even come close to a crowd that capacity. It was huge!”Malonzo was a star during his time in the Philippines, where fans treat their basketball players like idols – literally. “That’s the word they use all the time,” Malonzo says. “Idols.”Eldridge Recasner, who enjoyed a number of years in the NBA with teams such as the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets, later played in the Philippines. The point guard was in the country in 1992.“As soon as I walked off the plane, everybody knew who I was,” Recasner says.Chris McCullough, who was drafted by the Brooklyn Nets in 2015 and played 59 games in the NBA, agrees. “The way they love basketball out there, it’s unheard of,” says McCullough, who won a PBA championship in 2019. “It’s more than in America – they live and die with it.”When he first arrived in the country, Malonzo says he wasn’t quite sure what he was getting himself into. He didn’t want to play in Europe and he didn’t particularly want to try out for the NBA’s G League. Instead, he chose to honor his roots.“I felt like I wanted to do something meaningful,” Malonzo says. “I felt like going back to my mom’s home country – that meant more to me than playing in a place like Europe.”He played for several years for the country’s national team before more recently deciding to sign a contract this year to play in Japan. But it was while playing for the Philippines that he suited up and played in the giant 55,000-person venue for a second time, just a month after that famous Game 7.“Carmelo Anthony was at that game,” Malonzo says. “He’s my favorite player of all time. Yeah, that arena is a special place for me.”In the Philippines, basketball players almost can’t fathom their impact on the community, Malonzo says. Impoverished people spend their last bit of money on game tickets. They travel from far and wide, often by rickety bus, just to watch.“Some of these people don’t have anything,” Malonzo says. “So, if you’re able to give back to some of them at the games – if they ask for pictures, autographs, I try to always stop. I just want to be able to give back.”Malonzo remembers a key play during that Game 7 in 2023. Early on, he got the ball and took it to the rim for the game’s first dunk.The crowd erupted.“You could feel how crazy it was,” he says. “It’s safe to say you could actually feel the crowd.”But in the Philippines, that’s just how it goes. Basketball brings people together.“That’s the beautiful part about it,” Malonzo says.