From Vegas to Houston

HOUSTON — It was a backbreaker of a trip but Solar Sports vice president for production Erick Tam and I didn’t mind. The journey from Las Vegas, where we covered Brian Viloria’s defense of his World Boxing Council lightflyweight title, to Houston, host of this year’s National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Weekend, couldn’t be more exciting.

We slept only about an hour before getting up to take the 7 a.m. flight to Houston. No, we didn’t party all night. After Viloria won, we wrapped up our TV coverage and joined other well-wishers in his dressing room. Then I retreated to our hotel room to write my stories for The Star.

A few hours later, I joined Erick and Chicago-based former Philippine national cycling team manager Rolando Hiso for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We finished close to midnight then went to another restaurant, Elements, where Viloria held court with his family and friends.

At Elements, we saw Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in a table with Solar Sports chief executive officer Peter Chanliong and Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn, among others. Arum ordered food for about 20 persons but they were only 10. There were one-pound lobster tails on plates all around.

Viloria wore a brown, ribbed T-shirt and a brown coat. He didn’t look like he just came from a brawl. Viloria said he learned a lot from the 12-round workout, much more than in his one-round knockout over Eric Ortiz to win the title last September.

Viloria’s victim Jose Antonio Aguirre was beaten up badly but gave a good account of himself. For a 30-year-old challenger who was supposed to be blown away early, he survived the full route with the Hawaiian Punch and gained a lot of respect from the boxing cognoscenti.

We said goodbye to Arum and the other guests before checking out the Walgreens store closeby for some last-minute shopping. Among those in the restaurant were Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson, ABS-CBN’s Dyan Castillejo-Garcia and her sister Jackie and Philippine Basketball League (PBL) commissioner and GMA-7 broadcaster Chino Trinidad.

We were back in our hotel room at 2 a.m., packed, showered and hit the sack. The alarm rang at 4:30 a.m. Peter, Erick and I took a taxi to the McCarran Airport at around 5:45 a.m.

Checking in should’ve been a breeze but Erick and I weren’t familiar with the machines that process electronic airline tickets. An airport attendant helped us type in the flight information on a computer which issued our boarding passes. We went through the usual security checks and rode a train to the D-gate where we boarded the plane for Houston. The entire process took a little over half an hour.

I was squeezed in between two burly passengers in the full flight. I couldn’t sleep at first because I felt like the filling in a sandwich. But because I was so tired, I eventually conked out. The flight was three hours long and we landed in Houston at 12 noon, counting the two-hour difference because of the time zone. Houston was ahead of Las Vegas by two hours.

The taxi ride to the hotel took about 45 minutes. We checked in and got our media credentials at the NBA office set up in the hotel.

Erick and I were famished. Luckily, the Galleria mall is just across the street from the J. W. Marriott Hotel where we stayed. We grabbed a quick lunch at the food court then walked back to our room for a nap. We needed the rest for the work ahead. We were up at 5 p.m., dressed and arrived at the Toyota Center at around 6.

Viloria and Gittelsohn flew in from Las Vegas at around 5 p.m. and were at the arena by about 6:45 with Peter. Solar Sports vice president for marketing Jude Turcuato and I did the two-minute unilateral stand-up introduction before the All-Star Game with Viloria as our guest.

There were several friends from home at the Toyota Center. ABC-5 Sports director Sienna Olaso, PBA marketing head Jacques Rubi, Solar Interactive managing director Mikey Garcia and Solar Sports programming officer Martin David, Solar Sports associate producer Donna Reyes, Star contributor and The Filipino Channel broadcaster Janelle So, Star writer Carl Ramirez, PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad and GMA-7 cameraman Lorenzo Fronda all witnessed the All-Star Game.