k r i s a n d r o

The Singapore Slingers have a month before their next game on the 5th November against the Malaysian All-Stars and were all given a one week break. Nicholas took the chance to organize an outing with a few of the stars on the team and boy were we lucky! My favourite player, Eric Sandrin and the teams tallest player at 2.21m, Sam Harris, were free to accompany the bloggers for a night out in town!

The people in attendance apart from the basketballers were Mo, Nicholas, Hillary, Daphne, Molemole, Jason, KuKuNehNeh and if you haven’t realised by now….. myself as well.

Eric is a huge man himself who stands at 2.05m in height and already attract stares from the crowd with his presence. But when Sam arrived, he became an instant celebrity and if I get a dollar for every stare, jaw drop and photo request from strangers, I would have made quite a tidy sum from that day alone.

We decided to dine at Newton Food Centre and let them try out delicious stuff like Satay, BBQ Stingray, Kang Kong and delicious dessert like Cheng Teng, Chendol and Ice Kachang. We then drove to City Hall and took a long walk in the heat to the Esplanade and the Merlion and to Raffles MRT where they took a train back to where we started just for fun.

Eric and his girlfriend, Mo

Chopsticks that look like toothpicks in Sam Harris’ hands

Satay will be a million dollar business if he sells them!

This is how pathetic it is when a 1.77m tall Singaporean faces off with them

If you look closely, Sam cast a shadow ON THE CEILING!

Eric trying to sneak on the Merlion

MRT cabins were not built for people of their size

It was great fun hanging out with the basketball stars that day and they were extremely funny and friendly! I have to warn you people on the dangers of neck aches when talking to Sam Harris for extended periods. Wahahahaah!

Catch them in action on the 5th of November at the Indoor Stadium!

Thanks to Nicholas, Hillary and Daphne, I was invited to watch the games of the Singapore Slingers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in the Singapore Challenge Series. Yes, I mentioned ‘Singapore’ 3 times in the last sentence. Sue me.

For the uninitiated, the Slingers is a Singapore professional basketball team which were founded in 2006 and have been playing in the Australian NBL for the past two seasons. In order to continue in their plans of playing in an ASEAN professional league, they have withdrawn from the Australian NBL in July this year and set up this interim competition held in Singapore to prepare them for the direction that they are undertaking.

I heard of the Slingers early last year through newspapers but being a football player, the news of such a local basketball club had me as interested as a lion with a plate of cabbage in front of it. After hearing about the team again through a few bloggers followed by the bugging invitation from Daphne, I decided to bring along KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) and watch the 1st two games of the Slingers against a Philippines team called Air21 which were played on 16th and 21st of September.

What can I say! After watching the two matches, I AM A CONVERT! The action on the courts were fast paced, the players were no amateurs and there were plenty of drama with many heated moments during the games. KKNN is totally attracted to a Slingers player called Eric Sandrin and during last game on the 21st, she was shouting at one point going,

“ERICCC~!!! I LOVE YOUUUU~~~!!!!!”

Eric Sandrin, if you are reading this, my girlfriend has never shouted ‘I Love You’ to me before. I want to strangle you if not for the fact that you are one of my favourite players from the team. Of course there are other factors like you being 2.06 metres tall and having all that strength but I shall not go into that…

Eric is a total joy to watch. Besides looking the part with his Korean-American heritage, he is a monster on the court with his defensive and attacking capabilities and I totally dig his aggresive style which rile up the opponents and that creates chaos on the courts when the opponents fail to keep their cool. There are many more gems in the Slingers team like the sharpshooter Darren Ng who is a doctor by the way and blogs over here. I shall stop talking about the players from here onwards before this turns into a 1000 word essay and turn you readers away.

Support the Slingers and be their 6th Man!

The thing that is apparent and very sad is that the turnout for the opposition team was much more than the people who came to support the Slingers. Do run over to Sistic’s website or Slingers website to find out how you can purchase the affordable tickets to their games. Trust me! You won’t regret it!

Or if you are a blogger, please email me using the contact form found here and I shall try to get you guys some complimentary tickets.

Next game is on the 30th of September (Tuesday) at 7.40pm! I can’t wait!!!!

[All images are from the Slingers Official Website]