BASKETBALL
Red Sports 5
Wednesday, 26 September 2007 at the adidas Singapore office
For a three-week period, many of you had a lot of fun voting for the Red Sports 5. You chose your best five players to form your dream team. After everyone contacted me via email, I finally got the chance to meet them. I was a little late because of a prior meeting and when I walked in, all the players looked at me in complete silence. I think their first thought was: “Ah, uncle Les is a real human being and not a computer android.”
The Red Sports 5. Guys, back row, left to right: Goh Kong Tat, Dominic Lim, Randy Ng, Jabez Su, Benny Lam. Girls, left to right: Hannah Ng, Olivia Lee, Rachel Wang, Zoe Eng. Tung Yee Nei didn’t contact me (Uncle Les will keep the prize for you, don’t worry). © Leslie Tan/Red Sports
On the table in front of us was a mountain of adidas products kindly provided by uncle Hans, untouched. (Everybody say, “Thank you, uncle Hans”. Bow three times.) Everyone was polite enough not to touch it before I came. After figuring who was whom, I made all of them pose one at a time with their prizes. I think some were quite embarrassed and would have rather faced a free-throw pressure situation, losing by one, with two seconds on the clock, then to go through another shoot with me again. Randy Ng, in particular was so embarrassed he was blushing non-stop while his schoolmates made fun of him in the background.
Left to right: Benny Lam, Dominic Lim, Randy Ng, Jabez Su, Goh Kong Tat. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports
Since all the guys were there, I asked them to pose for a picture (above). Before I took their shots, I said, “So, do you need to put on your school badges? I don’t mind how you dress, but I don’t want you to get into trouble.” Some of the guys – who shall remain nameless – said, “No don’t worry, uncle Les. No need.” So I was happily snapping away when Mr Ian Chew, teacher-in-charge of basketball at Catholic High, walked in and the first words out of his mouth was “How come you’re not wearing your badges?” Uncle Les just cracked up in laughter and said to Ian, “I knew you were going to say that!”
Anyway, it was all in good fun and you’ll see more of those pictures in the next few weeks as I will be posting separate interviews with each of the players. So look out for those stories.
Jeremiah Lim, one of the five readers who voted and won a prize. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports
Tan Jun Ming, one of the five readers who voted and won a prize as well. Jun Ming plays for Yishun, and coincidentally, his team won the 2007 adidas It Takes 5ive Schools’ Basketball Championship. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports
i like read the later update in the redsports