QUINITO HENSON MY HERO!

During my high school days, I used to send letters to Mr. Quinito Henson's "Hoop Notes" column in Sports Weekly Magazine (SWM). I'll send it thru my dad, who'll drop by at the Manila Post Office to mail it, so it can reach SWM's office on time. I am very happy whenever Mr. Henson answers all my querries in his column. I did not miss a single issue of SWM because of Mr. Henson's columns which includes "Hoop Notes", "NBA Weekly" and "Punchline", not to mention his numerous special articles.

When he started writing the "Sporting Chance" column, I immediately started buying the Philippine Star and up to this day, I never miss a single issue! Mr. Henson's style in writing is one of a kind. He is subjective and his articles are very informative.

Sometime in 1998, its was mid-afternoon and I was busy attending to my work at Philippine Postal Corporation, when I received a phone call and whoa!, the secretary of Mr. Henson, Ms. Babes Angat was on the other line and she was asking for help in behalf of Mr. Henson. I was very surprised and I almost fell out of my chair! My hero needs postal assistance and what a coincidence that the call fell on my hotline, considering that there are a hundred lines at the Philpost Office. She told me that Mr. Henson was worried about a cheque, which he expected to be delivered a week earlier, from China. The cheque represents payment for his services in covering an Invitational cage tourney in Shanghai (which was shown on ESPNSTAR SPORTS). I told Ms. Angat to call me back in 10 minutes as I have to call up the Postmaster of Makati Central Post Office to inquire on the matter. I called up the PM at Makati CPO and whoa! the cheque was there and he told me that he will be the one to personally hand it over to Mr. Henson that unforgetable afternoon. Soon after, about an hour later, I received another call and this time, my hero, Mr. Henson was on the other end, and he graciously thanked me that the cheque was finally handed to him in his office by the said PM. We had a long chat on the phone as I introduced myself as a longtime and loyal fan of his. From thereon, we had become friends and texted each other, even when he is abroad covering various sporting events.

The best thing whenever Mr. Henson comes home from covering NBA games in the US is that he does not forget to bring the usual "pasalubongs" for me. From 1999 to date, I had stored the pasalubongs in a special area in my library at home called "Quinito's Place". Among of which were various NBA media guides, NBA finals media guides, NBA All-Star Media Guides, NBA Officials Media Guides, numerous NBA books, NBA t-shirts, caps, wristbands and the latest of which is the Pacquiao-Marquez Media Kit.

Eventually, Mr. Henson became my godfather in my wedding last December 2005. Mr. Quinito Henson will always have a special place in my heart as a true friend and one of the most influential persons in my life!