Green Journal: Jason Perkins v.5

In this penultimate Green Journal, Jason Perkins talks about basking in the euphoria of the UAAP championship they won this season among other things. Heading over to Bacolod to celebrate the Maskara Festival, Perkins also talks about the local crowd and the native food, particularly their famous Chicken Inasal. He also talks about how the feeling of winning a championship is like and how words are not enough to describe it. It’s been a whirlwind two weeks for Perkins and with the UAAP basketball season over, he is looking forward to visiting his family in the United States. 

Bacolod was really fun. My favorite food there was the Chicken Inasal, I probably had like nine or ten while we were there over the weekend.

The first time I went to the street, there was a ton of people. They were congratulating us and they were taking pictures.  We met up with the mayor and he gave us security, so we had security guards and all. I didn’t know the UAAP would be that big all the way in Bacolod, but with the way they’d cheer for us, it was really cool. Going down the bus, they just kept chanting “La Salle Champions” many times.

It’s been a lot of fun these past two weeks. I’ve been hanging out with my friends, eating a lot and today’s the first day I’ve gone back to the gym since the championship. It’s been tiring with all the TV appearances but they’re all fun. I remember hanging out with friends till late at night and we’d have to wake up at 4:30 am but it was cool too cause I didn’t expect to be on TV. It was tiring going around but I’d rather wake up knowing that I won the championship rather than waking up feeling tired knowing I lost the game.

The thing I’ll miss the most from the UAAP I guess is the environment, the atmosphere. It’s hard to explain or even describe. During Game Three, I wasn’t scared at all, I wasn’t nervous. I didn’t think that we would lose at all, when we were down 15. Like what Coach Juno [Sauler] said, basketball is a game of possessions. We took it one possession at a time. There was one point though, when I thought about the chance of losing, being down 15 and all, but you’re not supposed to think negatively about it. During the game, I remember sitting down when we were down 15 points thinking, “Man, I’d much rather be up by 15 than down 15.” Our last game was also the second game I didn’t eat a Belgian Waffle before a game. The first time was during Game One, when we lost, but I guess it didn’t matter in Game Three.

When the buzzer sounded, it was surreal. I really wanted to do this for my mom. When Karim [Abdul] missed that shot, I sprinted down the floor, and I hugged Kib [Montalbo]. I just started slapping the floor for like ten seconds because, in the words of Coach Juno, it was my choice! At that time, I didn’t know why I was doing it but I guess it was just my choice!

The best moment though was when I was hugging my mom after winning. Like she said, “You did it, you did it for your dad,” so it felt like a big wave was lifted off my back because I put in all this work. I really sacrificed a lot for this so I felt really blessed especially with everything that happened going to the championship, from Jeron [Teng] making that winning shot [against Ateneo], Almond making his [winning shot in the third game of the finals] and [Roi] Sumang [of UE] missing that free throw [forcing overtime, one that the Green Archers would win]. So yeah, I really felt blessed.