THE ENDURING ALLURE OF BASKETBALL: WHY IT CAPTIVATES FANS

In 1975, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was established as the inaugural professional basketball league in Asia. It was created in response to the burgeoning popularity of basketball in the Philippines, with the goal of elevating the sport professionally. Initially starting with seven teams, the league has since evolved into the premier basketball competition in the country, producing basketball icons like Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Alvin Patrimonio, and Benjie Paras.

The intensity of basketball competitions varies during international events, exemplified by the 2023 Asian Games when Coach Tim Cone led the Gilas Pilipinas team. The team garnered significant support, evident in discussions across social media platforms. A comprehensive study conducted by Capstone-Intel identified 502 Facebook posts specifically mentioning Coach Cone. This generated a consolidated engagement score of 165,852.8, considering both shares (30,927) and reactions (1,282,387) on the mentioned posts.