Streak Shooter

Being here in the US after one year makes me miss the old grind of being a sportswriter back in Manila. As I posted before, I had no choice because my mother wanted me to stay in California for good as she is not in good terms anymore with my uncles and aunts back home. One time while my mom and I were clearing out some old things owned by my late stepfather here in our California home, I saw an old clipping of an article that came from the defunct magazine Scoreboard written by Bill Velasco where my name was mentioned. At that time, Bill was a columnist for Scoreboard and I was in my last year in college at the University of Santo Tomas. Bill was also active in the PBA as a producer and anchor for Vintage Sports, which covered the games at that time. Here are excerpts: "James is a bespectacled and (hopefully) graduating (journalism) student from the University of Santo Tomas. The sportswriting fraternity in general considers him a pest ... because of his persistent, ...

Will ABS-CBN air more NBA games this season? (photo courtesy of AP) The ongoing court case between ABS-CBN Sports and Solar Entertainment over who really owns the television rights of the NBA could have an effect on the league's millions of Filipino fans. ABS-CBN and Solar have filed counter-suits against each other over the case of carriage fees that the network reportedly failed to pay to the Wilson Tieng-owned company. As a result, Skycable -- an ABS-CBN-owned company -- pulled out both BTV and NBA Premium -- both Solar-owned channels -- from its lineup and many Sky subscribers have since moved to other cable providers like Cignal and Cablelink. ABS-CBN responded to disgruntled NBA fans by airing additional games on its Sports+Action Channel during the last playoffs while Fox Sports also aired some games but only twice a week because of Solar's contract with the NBA. As of now, there's no sign on whether both parties are willing to settle the case so there...

Ever since I moved to the US in March last year, my life has gone through a lot of changes. Being alone and at home everyday is a far cry from my life as a sportswriter before because I have to guard the house while my mother and sister are at work. Finding work here has been a struggle because jobs are limited owing to the fact that we live in a rural area which is 30-40 minutes away from big cities like San Francisco and Oakland. A lot of stores and other businesses here in our area in California are starting to close down due to declining sales resulting from many people resorting to online shopping. And whenever my mother is at home, I help her with the household chores because she is already 70 years old and she's preparing me for my future. Right now, life in the United States has become a problem especially here in California where there are a lot of homeless people on the streets while other immigrants like me aren't as lucky. You see, my mother had to work ...

One TV show that I find enjoyable watching here in the US is The Jump, a daily talk show where reporters from ESPN talk about the NBA. The show originally took a break during the NBA off-season but due to the tremendous popularity of the league, ESPN decided to make it a permanent show all year-round. The Jump is hosted by ESPN veteran Rachel Nichols but right now, she is on a summer break so ESPN reporters like Ramona Shelburne, Amin El-Hassan and Brian Windhorst are pinch-hitting for her. Rachel Nichols (photo courtesy of her FB page): Host of The Jump on ESPN. Ever since the NBA season ended, the pinch-hitters have been talking mostly about the drama surrounding the Cleveland Cavaliers who are in turmoil because of Kyrie Irving asking for a trade and LeBron James speaking out about his possible move to another team in free agency and even talking about politics in the light of many Americans hating President Trump. Ramona Shelburne (photo courtesy of ESPN) Another ...