The Final Score: Marcus Douthit on being Pinoy, naturally

Right after the Philippines defeated Iran in the Jones Cup, Marcus Douthit said someone from Iran gave him an offer to play for a club team. He told them he had a contract with Smart Gilas. He said they were offering him a chance to leave and play elsewhere, for more money, for a life possibly better than the life he has now. Marcus told them, “No thanks.” “Because it’s not about money,” Marcus stressed. “I won’t leave a situation to go chase more money when in the long-term, I’m looking at something different. This is more for my family than it is for me.”

Douthit lives in the Philippines. His kids go to school in Taguig. His wife goes to Shopwise to buy groceries. He brings cupcakes to school. She hosts parties for friends. Just like they’re home. I asked Marcus, “Do you still get homesick?” Marcus shook his head and quickly answered, “No.” Douthit’s answer seemed more instinctive than prepared. He smiled afterwards, like he realized how easier it was to say no instead of yes. “The only reason I go home [Syracuse in the United States] is to attend to business,” Marcus shared. “Because I have everything I need here. So it’s not like I’m missing out on so much. It’s just like home.”     Home. During our conversation, Marcus said “home” several times. Home didn’t refer to upstate New York. Home referred to the Philippines, for now. But If I believed in what he suggested, home refers to the Philippines, for possibly a long time. “Since last year, I’ve started to make the Philippines my home.” See, Marcus says that word again. “I’ve started to do more things here. This situation here is like the best situation that I can be in.” A document says Marcus is a Naturalized Filipino. I don’t know what it means really. I find it easier to understand that he competes with Pilipinas on his chest. That he prefers to live here. That he insists on having his children study here. He doesn’t have a single drop of Filipino blood. He can’t speak Filipino. He can’t stand balut. Yet to me, he seems more Filipino than what custom dictates. Somebody offered Marcus more money and the chance to leave. Why is he still here? It’s not because of Pinoy food or the stuff people buy in Greenhills or the DVDs they sell in Metrowalk. He admires how Filipinos respect their elders. He’s amazed at how Filipinos smile through adversity. He says, “I’ve never been to a place like this.” So he stays because he chooses to. “People used to ask me a lot ‘Are you going to stay and live here?’ and I used to always react with ‘Oh no, no’ and I was being honest,” Marcus admitted. “But now after living here, I’ve started to learn things and see how things work, I definitely just want to stay here after I’m done with basketball. “I don’t want to play nowhere else.” - AMD, GMA News