Air time in US

DETROIT — We were shocked out of our pants. ABC, which holds the exclusive rights to the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals, showed us on US TV for a few precious minutes during the second period of Game 4 last Sunday night (Monday morning, Manila).

Solar Sports producer Erick Tam, broadcaster Vitto Lazatin and I didn’t know we were featured by US commentators Al Michaels and Glenn (Doc) Rivers–until we started to get text messages from our cellphones.

NBA’s Julien Segui said no foreign broadcasting team had ever been featured on free-to-air US TV during a regular season or playoff game. The Philippines was the first.

In the All-Star Game last February, the French broadcasting team was briefly featured but that was on the cable TNT network, not on ABC.

I was told we were shown twice. The first shot was fleeting. The second was a little more prominent as our voices were heard, drawing a reaction from Michaels and Rivers saying they would’ve analyzed the game just like us.

It was an honor for Solar Sports to be picked, considering there were 38 international TV broadcasters on site. Among the countries that sent broadcasters to cover the Finals were Japan, China, Israel, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Germany and Poland.

Game 4 posted an overnight rating of 14.4, the highest for any Finals game in three years. The rating translated into an audience figure of 10.9 million homes. It was 66 percent higher than the 8.7 rating for Game 4 of the San Antonio-New Jersey title series last year.

Rudy Martzke of USA Today said ABC has won the prime-time network ratings race each night a 2004 Finals game was played.

The rating meant millions of American viewers caught a glimpse of what we looked like covering the game on the front row of the upper level reserved for international broadcasters at the Palace in Auburn Hills. The Philippines, China and Spain were on the first row.

Erick, Vitto and I were so proud that the Philippines, through Solar Sports, was given such a recognition by the NBA.

Adam Graham of the Detroit News even wrote about us in his piece on ABC’s broadcasters whom he accused to be pro-Lakers.

"At the opening of the second quarter, in a nod to the worldwide interest in the NBA Finals, play-by-play was turned over to two announcers from Solar Sports in the Philippines," said Graham. "For a fleeting moment, Pistons fans didn’t have to sit by and listen to the ABC commentators fawn over their beloved Lakers.

My sister Irene and her husband Jordan, who live in New Jersey, couldn’t believe their eyes when we came on ABC. My other sister Vicki’s son Chris was in his friend Victor’s Falls Church, Virginia, home when his Uncle Quinito suddenly appeared on TV. Chris quickly phoned my sister to watch the game and she caught the tail-end of the spiel.

Shell star Tony de la Cruz’ father Manny phoned the next day from Los Angeles to congratulate us for our cameo appearance.

Here are some of text messages we received:

From Vince Hizon in Pennsylvania: "Hey, we saw and listened 2 u guys on the NBA Finals game. That’s so awesome. Made us really really proud. Great job, guys. U were seen n heard 4 abt 2 minutes. Vitto did his intro then u talked abt how ur predictn was a win 4 LA and u did a bit of stats. It was Taglish so when it went back to Doc Rivers and Al Michaels dey sed it was good, dey understood half of it. U made us real proud guys. Cant wait 2 brag abt it during practice 2mrw."

From Janelle So in Los Angeles: "Hey Quinito. Saw u n ABC. And did u knw dat dey put ur voices in? M proud f u. Go Pinoy."

From Roy Gonzales in Los Angeles: "Hey, u wer n tv ncluding da broadcast 4 about 3 minutes. Congratulations and thank u 4 putting us n da face of da world again. U guys wer great. Vi2 sound also. Dey catch u guys on da sgment wer u guys talking about prediction n Lakers scoring 20 points per quarter."

From former Philippine tennis player Nina Castillejo’s husband Steve Theras in Los Angeles: "Congratulations. We just saw you twice. Awesome. Your play by play Taglish was heard for 20 seconds and they zoomed in on you guys twice. Jackie and Sarah (Castillejo) saw it as well. Nina and I were just yelling how cool is that."

Erick, Vitto and I owe it to Solar Sports for giving us the opportunity to bring the NBA Finals straight to you from where the games were actually played, live via satellite. Our heartfelt thanks to our Solar Sports bosses William and Wilson Tieng, executive vice president Peter Chan Liong, vice presidents Ronald Tieng and Ralph Roy, Erwin Tieng, Rico Arce, Arnold Arandilla, Chum Cornejo, Hope Magora, Baye de la Paz, Mark Maramag, Jay Lara, Donna Reyes, Andrew Santiago, Mate de Quiros, Froilan Manila, Ochie Gonzalez, Ron Regis and the IBC TOC group.