San Juan Knight Harold Alarcon Knows How to Win

Harold Alarcon learned how to win on a sun-baked concrete barangay basketball court in Negros Occidental. The stakes were rarely glamorous, and sometimes they were simply enough to buy dinner.

Growing up in Silay, the athlete played on the kind of provincial court that defines grassroots Philippine basketball: raw concrete, worn bleachers, a single hoop, and little else. The games, however, were dead serious. Streetball in the provinces is a beautifully violent, physical, and high-pressure subculture, frequently fueled by small bets—a setup that permanently forged the guard’s famously relentless, ice-cold approach to the game.

“Every game, every time na maglalaro ako, kailangan ko manalo [Every game that I play, I needed to win],” he says.

There was a practical reason for that attitude, too. Growing up, Alarcon’s family did not have much money, so winning could mean having something to eat. He recalls using his winnings to buy food for himself and his teammates. The victory meal? A burger and a Mountain Dew.

It was on those very same neighborhood courts that Alarcon’s meteoric rise began. After being spotted dominating in an inter-barangay tournament, he was quickly recruited by Bacolod Tay Tung High School. It didn’t take long for the major Manila programs to notice. He eventually moved to the National University (NU) Bullpups, helping anchor a dominant high school championship run before taking his talents to the Diliman campus.

At the University of the Philippines (UP), Alarcon became part of the so-called “Maroon 5”—the group of five players who spent their entire collegiate careers together and reached the UAAP Finals every season, winning two championships along the way. His final season was arguably his loudest, as he posted a career-high 34 points in Game 1 of the Finals against La Salle, even though UP ultimately fell short of the title.

Now a professional with the San Juan Knights in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), Alarcon is adjusting to a different level of basketball. In March, he dropped 23 points, five rebounds, and two steals in an MPBL preseason win over Caloocan, earning Best Player honors.

Yet for all the attention that comes with his increasingly busy basketball résumé, Harold Alarcon remains pretty low-key. He has described himself as someone who leads by example rather than by giving speeches, letting his game do most of the talking.

And Manila, for all its basketball opportunities, still cannot quite replicate home. He misses his childhood friends and cousins, and especially the uncomplicated feeling of playing in the province.

“Pag nasa province ka lang, ma-ffeel mo lang yung enjoyment [When you’re in the province, you really feel the enjoyment],” he says. “Yung feeling na kung saan ka talaga nag-start. [It brings you back to the feeling of where you started].” These days, the court is bigger, the stakes are higher, and the food probably costs a little more. But the basic assignment remains the same, which is to win the game, then figure out what comes next.