CAGE MAGAZINES

Kudos to Emerald Headway especially to Miss Joanna Policarpio as the much-awaited ATHLON SPORTS Pro Basketball NBA 2009-10 preview magazine had finally been delivered to my office this morning. And as usual, what sweetens the pot was the additional two complimentary magazines in which I picked the July 2009 issue of SLAM with a face-off cover of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and July/August issue of NBA HOOP with KB24 on the cover. By the way, I got the ATHLON issue at P 799.00.

It has been a yearly tradition for me to buy various NBA preview magazines prior to the opening of each new season. I started securing it since 1980 and my first two NBA annuals are the GAME PLAN and Petersen 1980-81 previews which I still safely kept in my library at home.

Through the years, I was able to collect various NBA preview magazines such as Street and Smith, The Sporting News, CBS SPORTS.COM, Basketball Digest and Tower Sports, which is the only locally-produced NBA magazine in the country. The monthly issues of SLAM and NBA HOOP keep me company during the course of an ongoing NBA season.

For me, everything now is all set for the coming 2009-10 NBA season. Let the games begin.

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My warmest regards and many thanks to my godfather, Ninong Quinito (Henson) for handing me over also this morning my usual pasalubongs from his trip abroad. Mr. Henson is fresh from his trip in Milan, Italy, where he covered the Philippines campaign in the World Amateur Boxing Championships.

This time I got three European basketball magazines namely SB-Super Basket from Italy (September 8-14/09 issue), Gigantes Teledeporte Del Basket from Spain (September 22-28/09 issue) and the Spanish Basket Life with an all-NBA special issue (Issue No. 19).

It’s really a blast, Ninong Q!

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Do not fail to catch the opening day of the newest pro basketball league in the Southeast Asian region, the Asean Basketball League, tomorrow, at 6:00 PM over ESPN with our very own Philippine Patriots visiting the Satria Muda BritAma at the Britama Arena in Jakarta, Indonesia. On Sunday, it will be the Brunei Barracudas at Singapore Slingers at 4:00 PM at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

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Herewith are the completed NBA transactions covering the period September 29 to October 7:

Wednesday, October 7

New York waived guards Gabe Pruitt, Ron Howard and Sun Yue and forward Warren Carter.

Tuesday, October 6

Charlotte exercised the contract option on guard DJ Augustin through 2010-11.

Minnesota waived guards Jack McClinton and Alonzo Gee.

Monday, October 5

Philadelphia waived forward Rashad Jones-Jennings.

Denver waived forward Keith Brumbaugh.

Phoenix waived forward Raymond Sykes.

Friday, October 2

Chicago waived guard Curtis Stinson and center Steven Hill.

Milwaukee waived guards Dominic James and Mark Tyndale and forward Marcus Hubbard.

Center Cheikh Samb signed with Real Madrid (Spain).

Wednesday, September 30

Los Angeles Lakers signed guard Thomas Kelati.

Oklahoma City signed guard Tre Kelley, forwards Mike Harris and Michael Ruffin and re-signed forward Ryan Bowen.

Sacramento signed center Melvin Ely.

Phoenix signed guards Dan Dickau and forwards Raymond Sykes and Carlos Powell.

Philadelphia signed forward Rashad Jones-Jennings.

Tuesday, September 29

Miami signed guard John Lucas and forwards Alade Aminu, Andre Brown, Shavlik Randolph and Anthony Tolliver.

Atlanta re-signed guard Mario West and forward Othello Hunter and signed guards Juan Dixon, Mike Wilks, Aaron Miles and Frank Robinson and centers Garret Siler and Courtney Sims.