So here are my photos of the beautiful Slinger Girls.

This time around, with little children. The kids are new to this and are simply adorable!

With the little ones around, the dance gets a bit messy but it still makes us all go, “Aww…” with a smile.

The little girls weren’t even sure which way they should be facing, lol!

Other than the exciting game and the vibrant dancers, I always look forward to the KissCam. At half-time, the cameraman will pick an unsuspecting couple in the audience and zoom in on them.

Kiss Cam!!

Those who got caught by the KissCam will have to kiss each other! Now you know why Lennie brought Sharon for a Slingers game on their first date, eh?

Typical Asian shysters, the guy will usually give the girl a quick peck on the cheek while the girl blushes with a hand over her mouth. Haha!

I love making people feel embarrassed.

Come for the next Slingers game! Tuesday 16 December 7:30pm, Singapore Indoor Stadium.

1. The Referee Always Stands in Front of the Photographer

For instance, here is a photo of Eric Sandrin gloriously slamming the ball into the basket.

Dramatic slam dunk by Eric Sandrin

For this shot, I employed the technique of stretching my entire body and neck to the left, something that was learned from watching reruns of Lion King.

Timon as a photographer whose view was blocked by a referee

But still…

*sigh*

The solution is to keep changing location until you’ve found a spot that the referee doesn’t hang out at. (You could also keep running around the court and blocking the spectators’ views and tripping over all the other photographers.)

2. Basketball Players Run at the Speed of Light

I snapped this photo of Darren Ng running towards the basket from the other end of the court.

Run Darren Run!

The next millisecond, he had turned the corner.

Run!

The milisecond after that, he had jumped into the air!

And the very next milisecond, the photographer have missed the shot of the player dunking the ball into the basket!

Scoring against the odds

Donuts! There is a solution though. Just manually set your camera to take multiple shots instead of a single shot when you hold down the shutter button.

Related tip: Don’t neglect to read the camera’s manual to figure out how to change the settings in the middle of a game.

3. Choose Life, or Choose to Snap a Picture

I was happily snapping away when I saw through the lens that a ball was flying at full speed to punch the camera into my face.

Meteorrrrr! Arrrrrrrrrrr!

Thankfully, a player made a sudden lunge and captured the ball at the last second so the photographer didn’t have to be disfigured. What would you have chosen?

4. Shoes are Distracting

Spit-shiny basketball shoes

Some of the players have such nice shoes that it tempts you to daydream about shoe-shopping. Don’t. Just don’t. Keep your lenses on the ball, the players, and the game.

5. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a photographer will need a better camera and better lenses to capture the really good photos.

Too true. ;)

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For extra talling power, Mum boils bean soup with not only a lot of beans but also the roots of bean trees. I ate every bean that was served, and drank every drop.

Mum also said that if I were to skip rope every day, I will be very tall. So I skipped rope and looked far from serene when skipping rope, as opposed to the little fairy in the picture above.

After so many years, I kinda feel ripped off. May be I should have played basketball. Both Eric Sandrin (2.06m) and Sam Harris (2.21m) play basketball for Singapore Slingers.

Their next game is on Nov 5th against Malaysia’s All-Stars who probably ate a lot of beans and skipped a lot of rope like I did. It’s going to be a lot of fun, don’t miss it!

Images from http://allposters.com

I love Cheezels! They are my favorite snack food and you can only get the chunky and cheesy ones in Australia.

At the second Singapore Slingers vs Philipines’ Air 21 basketball game, Kim Chi and Krisandro distracted me with a pack of Cheezels. 

I was admiring the Cheezel between my fingers before popping it into my mouth when out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Eric Sandrin had caught the ball.

He jumped straight up to chuck the ball into the hole when all of a sudden, his body swooped sideways. His body fell and thunked against the floor!

1. Eric jumped up and Air 21′s #33 slammed into him

Whoops…

THONKKKKKK!

As Eric laid motionless on the court, I was honestly frightened.

It was just like the time when I watched the filming of Contender Asia. One of the kickboxer was boxed into the air and when he landed on the floor, he hit his head so hard that he fainted. He had to be rushed to the hospital.

I was kidding around when I wrote the post about being very worried about Eric Sandrin, but after seeing this, I don’t think it is funny anymore. I am worried about all the players. Eric was not the only one who got hurt that night. Doctor Darren, who is the Slingers’ star player, injured his shoulder too.

What’s scary is that #33 did this when there was only 13 seconds left to the game, when hurting another wouldn’t have made any difference as his team would still have lost to the Slingers.

Why did he do it? What was he after? Is it like the Joker in Batman Returns who is ever ready to be evil for evil’s sake?

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But the new players for the Singapore Slingers are very much in control of their game. Doctor Darren netted the most balls, scoring a total of 28 points.

Eric Sandrin stole the show though. Eric didn’t seem to get along with #16 from the Air 21 team from the start of the game.

There was so much animosity between them that halfway through, #16 tried to karate-chop Eric’s head!

HOMIGOSH! Eric, are you safe?!

As soon as the game was over, the girls checked if Eric suffered any major injuries.

Daphne Maia, me, and Kim Chi squeezing Eric. (Le Shane renamed herself as Kim Chi, after Eric’s favorite food).

Eric didn’t squeal when we squeezed him so I think he is okay, but Kim thinks she will need a more thorough inspection to be absolutely certain. *BIG wink*

But I peered and peered at the Slinger Girls and couldn’t find my favorite cheerleader of last season.

Have she changed her make up and hair so drastically that I couldn’t recognize her any more or have she left the show completely?

Oh well. For this season, I have a new favorite!

She is the one whose face is shielded by the clapping hands. Just like my favorite Slinger Girl of last season, she warms the game with her enthusiasm. I love happy peeple, don’t you?

I know this is a terrible photo of the glorious lady as you can’t see the bright smile on her face. I WILL snap more pics ( hopefully better ones) at the next game this Sunday.

Do join me to watch the Singapore Slingers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Tickets are very affordable, from S$6 – S$16 only.

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And all the photos were turning out to be a blur.

I was so frustrated. I really really wanted to show you Shane Macdonald’s new haircut.

It was only when all the fast-paced action sequences were almost over that I discovered, hey hey hey, there is a visible difference between snapping photos with Anti-Shake switched on and without.

See that! Men rising into the air!

Can you identify the sportsmen?

Anyway, Dato’ came to Singapore is to give away money to become the chairman of Singapore Slingers. You know how Air Asia sponsors the best football team in the EPL – Manchester United? Air Asia also sponsors the best basketball team in the NBL, the Singapore Slingers.

During the game, Dato’ personally gave away free tickets to fly to Gold Coast, Phuket, and Kuala Lumpur to any one from the audience who can throw the ball into the basket.

Oops, haha. No comments.

After the game, we – Dato’ Tony, Precious & Geekonomics were like best buddies. *Ahem*

Next game, Dato’ Tony will be here again to give away $1,000,000.

Will it be like taking candy from a sleeping baby?

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I took a long time to think of a new name for myself. I wanted a name that captures my Asian heritage, but I didn’t want it to be too Asian that westerners will never be able to pronounce it right.

After a long time of thinking it through, this is what I came up with. Hope you are willing to accept me with my new name,  :lol:

The opponents know him, they have marked him down. At every game that I’ve watched, Mike is always literally barricaded by humans. This makes it painfully frustrating for him to play.

Yet, again and again, we have seen Mike rise against the odds. He’d duck them in the most unexpected ways, grab the ball, rush it in to the end of the court like a police car chase, and score.

Just look at all his old pictures, courtesy of Andrew David Images.

Chances of Mike scoring this? 99%

The art of twisting your body at the last second

Mike’s head is screaming, “Never, ever, ever, ever,ever give up!”

He may be half your height, but his jump is three times as high

Unstoppable, what’s new?

At yesterday’s game, Mike Helms was top scorer again. It was,

Singapore Slingers 119 (Helms 31, Grizzard 24, Knight 21)
Brisbane Bullets 102 (Williamson 23, Rychart 20, Bruton 18)
@ Singapore Indoor Stadium, 02/12/2007. Crowd: 3,000

Well Mike, if you’d like to set up shop to sell your autographed photos, let me hook you up with an online shopping cart.