Beyond his veteran presence, Joe Devance gave plenty to the Barangay Ginebra faithful during their run inside the PBA bubble.
With fans still banned from the SMART 5G-powered AUF Sports & Cultural Center, the 13-year vet made himself the window for them to see life inside the bubble through his YouTube channel.
For the now-11-time PBA champion, this was his service for the legions of Ginebra fans.
“It’s just one of those things that it’s good for the fans to see what’s going on in the bubble, because they don’t have access to go to the games,” he told Tiebreaker Times.
Devance started the channel back in May of 2017, though he rarely updated it.
But when the PBA announced that the Philippine Cup would take place in a bubble in Pampanga, the 38-year-old revived his platform.
Devance produced a total of 44 episodes, diligently uploading each entry even in the wee hours of the morning.
Besides the games, Devance was also able to show the fans the other side of his Ginebra teammates, and even the other teams inside the bubble.
He also admitted that vlogging helped in breaking the monotony of being inside the bubble.
“Well, I don’t know if it’s helping, but I don’t want to bother my teammates and force the issue. Everybody was willing to have some airtime,” he continued.
“It’s just a small sacrifice that we are making for the fans.”
At the end of it all, Ginebra was able to end its 13-year Philippine Cup title drought.
And Devance is glad he could document the most unique season in PBA history.
“Ten, fifteen, to twenty years from now, we can look back at this and say it was crazy. It’s kind of like the Bulls documentary. Well, it’s not like we are comparing ourselves to the Bulls, but seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff, at least we were able to show it through my channel.”
