LOS ANGELES -- Back in the Philippines, it's a toss-up which NBA franchise is most popular. Without geographical ties, the fan palette tends to run the gamut from the dominant (Golden State Warriors) to classic favorites (Boston Celtics), or, with free agency, wherever their favorite player has landed.
Yet, for most of the Filipino-Americans inside Veterans Sports Complex in Carson, California, on a Saturday evening in the fall, there is no team but the purple and gold.
On this day, eight teams divided between Los Angeles and the South Bay area in four divisions are focused on their own basketball as they play for bragging rights (plus T-shirts and a nifty trophy) at the Filipino-American Sports Association (FASA) "Battle of the Champions."
The rec league, founded in 2009 with seven teams, has grown to more than 100 squads with unconventional names like Fried Rice and Most Hated. There's MPLA -- short for Manny Pacquiao Los Angeles -- consisting of Pacquiao's Los Angeles-based entourage and playing buddies. There are teams organized around their hometowns which speak Tagalog and Visaya, and a team called the Ilongo Boys who, not surprisingly, speak Ilongo.
A couple of noteworthy players have passed through the league on their way to college ball in the Philippines, like Far Eastern University's Jasper Parker. For the most part, though, the league exists as an outlet for area Filipinos to connect through their homeland's primary athletic passion.
"Our number one goal is camaraderie, brotherhood," said league official Laurence Elorde, who is the grandson of Filipino boxing legend, Gabriel "Flash" Elorde.
Even as the players and those who run the league are focused on the court, their minds are also on the basketball scene happening just a few miles away in downtown Los Angeles. The Lakers -- a team once so revered in the Philippines that Laguna province's team in the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association co-opted the name -- has missed the playoffs for the past five seasons.
"It was hard man," said Barius Lingad, a FASA official whose Lakers fandom dates back to when his uncle brought him to meet James Worthy at a Toyota dealership in Inglewood in 1985. Shortly after, the Lakers avenged their championship loss to Boston from the previous season and hung another banner at the Great Western Forum. "I've got a lot of friends from [the] South Bay area who will post something [about how] Golden State is the best. I just let them because it's their time."
It's easy to understand why the Lakers had caught on with the Filipinos. An estimated 600,000 Filipinos live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, according to the 2010 Census, and the city is a frequent port of entry for those migrating from Asia.
Kobe Bryant, the Lakers' franchise player for 20 seasons, made frequent visits to the Philippines, including a 1998 trip where he posed for a photo backing down then-President Joseph Estrada in an imaginary low post. His final game in 2016, where he scored 60 points, was front page news in Philippines. Many fans grew up watching Kobe and Shaquille O'Neal three-peat, before Bryant teamed with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom for another pair of titles.
Now the Lakers have LeBron James, arguably the most dominant player in the league over the past decade, and maybe in history. Wherever he has gone, success has followed, with James' teams being the East's offering to the Finals for the previous eight seasons. But after years of Bryant fans deriding James for bouncing around teams, there is hesitation to embrace their new star.
Older fans, who grew up watching Showtime in the '80s, tend to see above the fray, perhaps enticed by James' pass-first style which had drawn comparisons to Magic Johnson' approach.
"I'm more of a Magic Johnson fan," said Pocholo Gatmaitan, the league's founder. "I'm not a big time Kobe fan and I'm not a big time LeBron fan but I know it'll help the Lakers."
"He's really a good player and I have a lot of belief in him because he's not greedy, he's not a ball hog, but it's a transition and they need some more pieces together," added Tom Trice, one of the teams' coaches. "Probably they need one or two more pieces. And they need someone in the middle."
For now, the Lakers are a hodge-podge of experienced players past 30 (James, Rajon Rondo), younger vets who've been around the block (Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, JaVale McGee) and an embarrassment of riches in young, still-to-be-molded talent (Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma). The mixture bodes well for the team's development, but few in attendance on this Saturday are expecting them to crash the Warriors' party.
"You're not gonna beat Golden State by outshooting them, you're gonna defeat them by defending them and getting under their skin," said Jordan Mangaliman, moments after his Trap Lord$ team won the LA-South Bay title in the Copper division.
Mangaliman talked about the missing pieces the Lakers need to get to the next level: Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard. Asked to pick one player if he could only have one, he agonized momentarily before selecting Davis for his "upside."
"We need scoring; we were the second worst 3-point shooting team last season and KD provides lots of that," said Mangaliman. "That'll be the best duo ever, LeBron and KD. That would rival Shaq and Kobe, and Jordan and Pippen."
There is an expectation of adjustment with an established star joining a young team, and these fans are more interested in seeing how the team looks midway through the season than in the preseason.
A mixed feeling of enthusiasm and hesitation, however, seems to be the prevailing theme among this set of knowledgeable fans.
"It's not that I hate him; I just didn't like how he did the move to Miami," said Chris Cudia, who plays for the MPLA squad. "But he's the greatest player of this era."
PBA players not ready to embrace LeBron
Back in the Philippines, NBA fans and PBA players alike, seem similarly conflicted about LeBron and the Lakers.
PBA guard Alex Mallari, whose NLEX Road Warriors are competing in the Governor's Cup, is a Lakers die-hard and Kobe Bryant fanatic. Reconciling James joining the Lakers has not been easy for him.
"I'm 'purple and gold' at heart. It's always going to be Kobe's town. [LeBron's] welcome, obviously. But it's Kobe's town," Mallari said. "I'm excited for the young guys. We're gonna go as far as LeBron can take us, let's be honest. "
Count Rain or Shine Elasto Painters guard Maverick Ahanmisi among the Lakers and Bryant faithful who are holding their nose and hoping for the best for the franchise with James on board.
"Personally I'm not a LeBron fan, but I'm definitely happy that he's with the Lakers. I'm always gonna root for them," Ahanmisi said. "That's a tough conference, but if anybody can do it, I think LeBron can bring them to the playoffs."
According to data from NBA Philippines, there are 6.5 million Filipino followers on the global NBA Facebook page as of December 2017 -- making the Philippines the largest source country outside the United States. The Lakers Nation Philippines Facebook page surged to over 196,000 from 164,000 since James announced his move to LA.
Atty. Bert Bernardo, the founder of the page, said a good portion of Lakers fans are long time Kobe Bryant fans who until now have hated LeBron.
"Eventually, I think most of them learned to accept the fact that the best player in the world will be trying to lead the Lakeshow to banner number 17, while some are still stubborn," Bernardo said. "Lakers fans are making noise like it was 2010 and our pages are active now more than ever."
Whether in Manila or Los Angeles, Filipino Lakers fans hope to be making noise deep into the playoffs.
ESPN5's JC Ansis and Jan Ballesteros contributed from the Philippines to this report.