baller.room

DANIELLE CASTILLO (@danny.cstllo ) for BALLER ROOM

Notes by Danielle Castillo:

I grew up seeing basketball as aggressive. There was always pain involved. You had to suck it up. Pick yourself up when you fall. Get back on your feet. Shout when you need to. The court was often used by men to get forceful—to be assertive, unyielding.

But Baller Room was different. I found myself watching their gestures, witnessing how a sport I had always known to be relentless could suddenly feel nurturing, even graceful. I saw it in their hands—in the way they held each other. Someone picks you up. Someone unknowingly guards your back before you hit something. Someone banters mid-game, then offers a respectful handshake. Someone calls a foul and checks in before the play resumes.

In the hidden court at Cubao, a group of men plays basketball for hours. Music blasts in the background, and every now and then you see them dance around. The space becomes a dancefloor, and I watch in awe as they allow themselves to be—to move, to exhale.
I wonder if they see the difference it makes—how it brings them together, not out of self-importance, but out of quiet care for each other.

POWER FORWARD.