This piece took me the longest to finish but somehow, I know I’m writing it at the exact pace I should be, just as the universe intends me to and not a day too early or late.
A few months ago, I found myself walking hurriedly down West 43rd Street in Manhattan, New York City. I was 15 minutes late, no thanks to the unpredictability of New York City’s subway schedule, rushing to my meeting with Erwin Benedict Valencia at Hudson Yards just a couple hours before he had to head to work. In stark contrast, the 45-year-old multi-hyphenate was the epitome of calm when I found him waiting at his hotel’s lobby.
Valencia is a physical therapist, athletic trainer, strength and conditioning coach, sports scientist, health and wellness coach, and life coach. “I’m pretty much do-it-all and be-it-all as it relates to sports medicine, wellness, health and well-being in general,” he says. He’s also the team physical therapist and wellness lead for the biggest market basketball team in the NBA, which makes him the first-ever Filipino to be part of any major US sports franchise in an official capacity, something that many other Filipinos do not seem to realize. You can find him on his team’s bench every game night and, for a country obsessed with seeing one of ours finally make it to the league, we’re about seven years late to the party.
“I was talking to a friend over dinner the other night and we talked about how kilig is one of the few Filipino words in the dictionary that has no translation,” Valencia shares. “Butterflies in your stomach. That awe I feel every time I step into The Garden, there’s really nothing like it. It’s the buzz of the crowd I imagined when I was 18. It’s almost like watching a Broadway show but then there’s a basketball game that’s in there at the same time. The overall experience still continues to give me butterflies. Gets me kilig. Especially when the Playoffs hit. It just made me realize, wow, this is what people live for and why the most fanatical, die-hard fanbase in the world, as it relates to basketball, is in this city.”
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Just fresh off the end of his eighth season, Valencia’s journey to the NBA was one that has taken him around the world. “I went through a lot of life changes as a third-culture kid. I was born here and then I moved to Davao, moved to California, and even when I moved back to Manila when I was in fourth grade, it was difficult for me to understand who I really was,” he shares. “I was the American boy in the Philippines and I was the Filipino kid in the States.” Valencia went to school in De La Salle Zobel before moving on to the University of the Philippines en route to a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy. The path to navigate may have been something he had to discover along the way but the destination was always defined to Valencia.
“To this day I remember going to a Sports Medicine Association of the Philippines Conference with Dr. Canlas there. I was a young PT student,” Valencia recalls. Dr. George Canlas or Doc C, as he is fondly called, is one of the Philippines’ most respected doctors , if not the most, specializing in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine. “I heard he got a fellowship with one of the teams in the NBA and I told him that one day, I was going to be in it full-time. Him being the only one that ever touched that surface, I took it as a challenge to be the first one to swim in it. In a sense, he became a mentor to me because of that.”
CONTINUE READING BELOW
watch now
Valencia is the first-ever Filipino to be part of any major US sports franchise in an official capacity
PHOTO: Erwin Valencia
Post a Comment
Coming to America
The first step towards realizing that dream was coming back to the U.S. “They always say that America is the land of opportunity but the opportunity isn’t there for you to just step into,” he explains. “You have to create that opportunity and this is one place that you know if you do create it, if you work hard, and you find yourself understanding what you need to do in order to get there, you will get there. You just need patience, time, hard work, and of course, the ability to manifest and allow the universe to be on your side.”
Valencia had a number of stops along the way before making it to the league and by no means was it an easy ride, but he persevered and one thing he made sure to do was to keep on learning.
“The funny thing is it all began with me being here in New York, so it’s really ironic that the wheel of life has brought me back to the city that started my career in physical therapy, athlete training and sports medicine. I was here after finishing an athletic training masters degree in sports medicine and then went to Yale for a one-year fellowship program after spending time at Stanford for some internships. I began coming to New York initially because I was living at Yale and came here to visit my best friend who at that time was going to Fordham Business School. One of my friends from Alabang growing up, my buddy Paolo Castillo who was my classmate from Zobel kept saying, ‘You’re always coming here on the weekends. Why don’t you just try living here? You know you want to.
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
“So angsabi ko, ‘Sige na nga. Right after I finish my fellowship at Yale, I’m going to live in New York.’ We lived in this tiny apartment on the Upper East Side where, because it was my first year, he was nice enough to give me the bigger room of an already tiny apartment, but it was an amazing adventure for me to be here and while I was there, I was already honing my skills. I was finding a way to be different from everybody else and I looked to alternative medicine and a lot of the alternative techniques in physical therapy and sports medicine.”
Valencia studied at the University of the Philippines and earned a degree in Physical Therapy before moving to the U.S.
Getting to First Base
At 26, Valencia had interviewed for an internship with the Boston Red Sox but a three-day continuing education class in Vermont would alter his plans.
“I was the kid sitting in front of the whole class and every time the lead instructor would ask a question, I had an answer for every question he had.” There were a number of medical staff from a few professional sports teams attending the class and the instructor told them to take notice of Valencia because he clearly knew his stuff. Sure enough, an offer came his way, albeit not the most lucrative or glamorous. Although overqualified and underpaid, he didn’t mind taking the job just so he could learn more.
“I wanted my foot in the door. That began the journey of being a minor league athletic trainer and strength coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league team in Bradenton, Florida,” he shares. “I was bussing 18-year-old Dominican kids, Venezuelan kids, even a couple of American kids from a motel I lived in with them to a field where it was a hundred-plus degrees, a hundred percent humidity, but it was one of those learning years. I learned how to accelerate the process of being in sports medicine, to work with baseball programming, and to understand the culture and the politics (of a sports organization). Not unless you’re in it, you won’t learn it.”
After a year, Valencia decided to go backpacking around Europe and when he returned stateside, Cirque du Soleil was already offering him a two-year contract to work for them while he was in the South of France. His work the previous season also caught the eye of other clubs who were interested in his services.
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
“I had two or three other baseball teams calling me, including the Pirates saying, ‘Look, we love what you did. We love what you sacrificed. You took a 75 percent pay cut to come to Florida even with your credentials. We love that you did that, and we want to know what would it take for you to come work for us.’ Because the Pirates gave me a shot, I decided to go with them, which led to the next seven years of my life in Major League Baseball at the Pittsburgh Pirates, which I’m so blessed to have experienced.”
The Universe Loves Hugs
After leaving baseball after the 2012 season, Valencia tried his luck with two NBA teams, although both did not fall through.
“It broke my heart because I thought I had done everything I needed to do to get into the league and, apparently, it wasn’t enough. Maybe it wasn’t the right timing,” he remembers. For the next year and a half, he continued traveling the world.
“It was a personal growth journey to learn from the masters from around the world by spending time with amazing sports teams in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, and Asia not only as a consultant but also as a student. I also started a socially responsible company for sports medicine education that brought some grassroots and innovation education to places around the world with no access to it called KinetIQ as well as started the beginnings of Grasshopper Project, which is my non-profit,” Valencia shares.
Waking up in Prague on the morning of his birthday in 2014, Valencia gave thanks for the blessings he was enjoying. “I gave gratitude to the universe for giving me the opportunity to work all over the world, to impact and influence people, and also to do it while literally dancing around the world,” he laughs.
Continuing his prayer, he said, “I’m grateful for everything but there’s only one thing that’s been missing in my life that if I could ask for it, You would make my life complete. God, Universe, whoever you are up there, I’d like an opportunity to be able to work in the NBA.”
So, instead of partying it up in the Czech Republic that night, Valencia decided to celebrate by spreading the love and giving out free hugs. “I decided to make these signs with two friends from Prague, we went to the middle of Prague center, the clock tower, and for three hours we gave hugs to strangers with wanting nothing in return.”
Giving out free hugs on his birthday in Prague
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Whatever positivity he sent out to the universe must have worked wonders and Valencia did not have to wait long to see the results. “Around two days later, I got a call. It was from a buddy of mine who was a consultant for a team that was looking for a performance director,” he says. “Where are you?” his friend asked. “I’m in Prague giving hugs,” he replied awkwardly. Valencia was asked if he would be interested in the job and his jaw dropped. “I just wished for this two days ago. Was this really happening? I tried to play it cool as much as possible but deep inside I was on fire. I was like, wow, this is unbelievable. We proceeded to go through the process and then a couple days after that, another team called me,” he remembers. “Literally within a three week span, five teams called me.
“When dreams come true, it’s not because you just wish it, it’s because of the fact that you visualized it or dreamt about it at a young age. This is what happened to me when I was 18, I dreamt of it clear as day that it was going to happen and then I prepared for the path to make sure I got there,” he shares. “I did the work, I went to school, I grinded it out, I did an internship, took a 75 percent pay cut, moved multiple places, had to do volunteer work, and then when opportunities came, I didn’t try to push it. I tried to find the one that really worked for me and that’s how I found myself being in New York.”
Childhood Dream Come True
Making it to the NBA was one thing but the privilege of having worked for his childhood hero Phil Jackson at the beginning of his career in New York was something else. “It was the opportunity for me to work with someone who I’ve always idolized, somebody who I watched since I was a little boy,” Valencia says. “There was something about how the Chicago Bulls played under Phil, something about how the Lakers played under Phil, and I realized it wasn’t the players that I looked up to but it was the Zen Master. It was how he literally coached their lives, taught them meditation and mindfulness, which was the journey I’d been on. To meet somebody face to face, to be a person he would consider a colleague and a friend, and to this day answers emails and text messages was probably my biggest dream come true.”
Known to be unorthodox in his own ways, Jackson was one of the first people who encouraged Valencia with his alternative ways of working. “He gave me the opportunity to really go into the mindfulness world. I had known it, I had been doing it on my own but it’s one of those things that I kind of kept to myself but he allowed me and said ‘Hey look, you take this and you run with it.’
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
Today, Valencia is a mystic who helps multi-million dollar athletes find their center.
Valencia says he would eventually like to come back to the Philippines and give back to the community here
Being Different
What Valencia does for his team is unlike anything we’ve ever seen anywhere. His methods are the result of his many travels and training, learning from different cultures and creeds.
“From my standpoint, usually in other teams, they’ll have somebody that’s like a sports psychologist, or a PT, or a strength and conditioning coach. I think I’ve been blessed enough to know myself really well and to know how I can help the team the best by allowing my own superpowers to come through,” he explains. “It’s the background of being a meditator for more than 30 years. It’s learning from albularyos and manghihilots in the Philippines and what certain techniques they would use that are different from everybody else. It’s learning things like essential oils from my Lola where she got it from China a long time ago. It’s how I can integrate these into a wellness platform in the professional sports setting and still have science and sports science to back me up with the stuff that I do that I give confidence not only to management but also to the athletes that I work with. Not being too highfalutin, but being at their level and understanding that it’s their choices and I’m just mirroring them so they can be the best versions of themselves.”
Is he the norm or is he the rarity? Valencia says he’s definitely the latter. No other pro sports team does what they do because nobody else has the kind of personnel they have. In fact, they pride themselves of having the most diverse staff in the league.
“It takes enough weirdness and the acceptance of that weirdness. It’s the understanding of a professional like myself to say that if you want to be different or unique, you have to make sure you back it up. You also need to have a background that is science-based so that you’re not just a floozie, just a hippie walking around, but somebody who actually has substance,” he says. “Whether it’s the art and science of gratitude or through all the other wellness concepts, being able to do this in a high performance sports world, to this day, has been such a blessing.”
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
The Journey is Far From Over
Some journeys actually feel like they’re only just beginning as you get to your destination.
“Particularly growing up in a culture where, if you’re not a lawyer or a doctor or an accountant or engineer that’s defined as working in an office or clinic or hospital, then nobody says that you’re successful. You could be an artist or DJ or blogger and still make money, still find stability, and still be able to impact people around the world,” Valencia says. “A kid from Manila could make it to Madison Square Garden.”
Making it to the NBA only gave Valencia a bigger sense of responsibility to give back to where he came from. “I think moving back to the Philippines has always been my dream. That’s home, no matter what,” he explains. “No matter how challenging life can be there, whether it’s traffic or politics or everything else, there’s always something inside me as well as my brother, who’s also a changemaker, to want to return home and give back. Even though we’ve achieved what we have in life, finding a way to make a difference back home has always been in our DNA.” He’s already laying the foundation as early as now through his nonprofit organization, Grasshopper Project. “To mentor the next generation of thought leaders and changemakers to become the next me is the ultimate dream. If a young Filipino kid finds his way to the NBA, that would make me happy.”
A sage whose gift transcends the bounds of a basketball court, talking to Valencia was an enlightening experience. My questions turned from sport to spirituality and if it wasn’t for game day, I would have loved to keep the conversation going some more but he still had a bus to Brooklyn to catch. Before we wrapped up, my last question was what advice would he give that next kid who wants to be him someday and he had three things to share.
Visualize and manifest your dreams, Valencia says
“One, visualize it. Understand what your dream is so clearly that you can taste it. You can smell it. You can hear it,” he says. “When I was 18, I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, and it was so real for me. So vivid. I was in the middle of an arena, I could smell the cologne of the coaches next to me mixed with the smell of the popcorn and the hotdogs in the stands. I could hear the music, the sound of the basketball on the court. I could see the flashing of the lights. I could feel the air-conditioning on my skin. I literally was in it. You have to be ultimately clear about what that dream is. You can’t say, ‘ay eto gusto ko. I want to try this.’ No, this is it and you almost feel like you’re in it. No plan B.”
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
“Number two, prepare for the path. Do the internships, take the pay cut if you have to,” he shares. “Make sure you have mentors. Even if they didn’t make it to where you want to go, they have valuable insights from what they’ve experienced. Surrounding yourself with amazing people is also preparing for that.”
“Lastly, manifest it. Give the universe time to ferment it and give you a fine wine that’s ready to open. When you’re making kaldereta or sinigang or adobo and you put it out too early, it doesn’t taste too good but if you let it simmer and marinate, it’s so delicious,” he says. “I think sometimes we force ourselves because there’s an opportunity and we’re blinded by it like those first two teams I tried to get into but they weren't the right fit for me. When you least expect it and you come with pure of heart to set that intention, that’s when magic happens.”
After four months of working on this story, I realized that the universe, fate, God, or whichever Higher Power it is you believe in really does find a way to make things fall into its right place at its perfect time. No matter how impossible things may seem, it will conspire to make whatever’s meant to happen, happen. That dream could be of some kid from Manila making it to the NBA someday or maybe even something simpler like making it to my interview with Erwin before the team bus had to leave for their game in Brooklyn that chilly December afternoon.
You can catch Erwin Valencia and hear him tell his story at opening day of Sneaker Fest 2022 happening at the Glorietta Activity Center this Saturday, April 23, at 3 p.m.
Get The Latest Updates From Esquire! Subscribe to our newsletter!
Latest Feed
Load More Articles
Esquire Money
Most Popular
Most Shared
Close
We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on Esquiremag.ph. By continued use, you agree to our privacy policy and accept our use of such cookies. Find out more here.
