June: Of 28th SEA Games and NBA Finals

What an NBA 2015 finals! I was a huge fan from the 1992 Bulls era, till it faded a little in the post Jordan era, followed only a tad of the Kobe/Shaq or the Robinson/Duncan era. June has always been a fond memory of mine as it's a period of NBA, with several mornings glued to the TV. Being rather flexible with my time, I followed game 5 and 6, and this young chap Stephen Curry was electrifying when the time matter with ultra fast crossovers, clutch 3 pointers and left handed lay ups.Golden State was a truer team and the self-declared 'I'm the best player in the world' - Lebron James; when asked why should the Cleveland Cavaliers win the championship.

Till the 2016 season, I love this game!

Prelude: The 28th sea games were back to Singapore after a 22 year wait. I remembered Joseclin Yeo literally carrying the Singapore team on her back in 1993, with ultra super exciting relays with the team trailing after the 3rd swimmer and Joscelin Yeo lighting up the pool with her power being the anchor and catching up with other teams and finally winning in the final seconds. I guess swimming its so ultra exciting compared to say the any sprints up to 200m, where anything longer on the track, it's difficult to have such to and fro type, even for relays as they loop around an entire stadium. In 1993, Joscelin would turn fulfil her destiny from being a sports girl/woman of the year to the 1993 SEA games most bemedalled swimmer of 9 golden shiny medals. Fast forward to 2015 and an almost brand new generation of young athletes have taken over the leadership from Joscelin and crew. It's also an era of rebirth for Singapore with a new National Stadium in a spanking Sports Hub, a totally transformed Marina Bay area, world class performing arts venue - Esplanade. We are 8 years into the iphone/smartphone era, making this the very first games with several (i think 8) channels on simultaneous live-telecast on Toggle.sg. This SEA games was truly memorable, with a setting of SG50, a brand new stadium, the opening was in jeopardy of being pale by comparison as it had a completely boring middle section, ending with a very heartwarming final torch relays with several parent/child co-carrying the torch, with a heartwarming final torch bearers Fandi Ahmah and Irfan Fandi doing the final honours of lighting the cauldron. I had hair standing up on my forearm for the salute, and memories of the 2015 YOG came flooding back with the torch carried on water and being lighted in a tornado like spinning make-shift cauldron on the floating platform.

A golden games: I was glued to the telly every night after work, with Swimming finals having majority of Singapore swimmers taking to the top step of the podium, and a majority of games were won in record time. (where previous records were mostly set in 2009 in the 'fast suit' era). The top swimmer was Joseph Schooling, a teenager about to turn 20years of age, a beast, gladiator, smirker-a-tad-arrogant-deserving true blue Singaporen son. Schooling blasted to 9 gold medals, in every single event he entered, ala Joscelin Yeo in 1993. Other notable mentions in the pool were Tao Li (queen of sprints in the backstroke / fly, Ting Wen, Zheng Wen (king of backstroke)).  Other uber games were the Female Netball finals against Malaysia which had me on the floor (off the edge of my chair from minute 1), and cheering and shouting at my telly everytime Charmaine Soh makes a shot. Yet more games included Silat, Bowling, sailing, canoeing. Not worth mentioning in the same sentence are table tennis and football.

Kelly Latimer: One of the most welcoming host, Kelly's persona makes you feel like you're in her living room. Similar to Paula Abdul (Formula 1 @ Star Sports, (now Fox sports), Kelly is pretty, articulate, asks the correct questions and handle the pace of the interviews and nightly 1hr summary at 1030pm with poise. Countless athletes were interviewed and it's amazing how young there are (or how old I'm getting compared to the ever-green nature of athletes.

Summary, a wonderful 84 gold haul for Singapore and a prideful couple of weeks!