James Yap

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James Yap
Position Shooting guard
Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight 190 lb (86 kg)
League PBA
Team Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants
Born February 15, 1982 (1982-02-15) (age 26)
Escalante, Negros Occidental
Nationality Philippines
College University of the East
Draft 2nd overall, 2004 PBA Draft
Pro career 2004–present
Awards
  • UAAP Most Valuable Player (2003)
  • UAAP Mythical First Team, member (2003)
  • PSA player of the year (amateur basketball -- 2003)
  • PBL Mythical First Team member (2003-2004)
  • PBA Most Valuable Player (2005-06)
  • PBA Mythical First Team, member (2005-2006)
  • PSA player of the year (pro basketball -- 2006)

James Carlos Yap, (born February 15, 1982), from Escalante, Negros Occidental, is a Filipino professional basketball superstar for the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). He was a 2005-2006 season's Most Valuable Player, and is now fast becoming one of the basketball icons in the professional ranks. Now in his fifth year, he is already a five-time PBA South All-Star team starter through 2004 to 2008.

Contents

[edit] Amateur career

As a kid, Yap already showed athleticism. [1] He first fell in love with football and baseball and track and field, and played these until high school. His uncle Emmanual Yap was one of the few who first noticed his potential in basketball. Growing up, he looked up to one of the most prolific players in the history of Philippine Basketball, Samboy Lim.

Yap emerged to be one of the most promising basketball stars in the Iloilo/Negros region back in the late-90's. Early on that decade, he played for the Bacolod Tay Tung High School and made his mark at the school.[2]. He was transferred to Iloilo Commercial Central High School, displaying his skills. Manila Standard. Along the way, he sparked his team to three consecutive Iloilo PRISAA titles. At that time, it was rumored that the Negros Slashers of the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association was going to sign Yap.

However, as fate had it, Yap preferably primed himself for the collegiate level. He played for the UE Red Warriors under former national team coach, Boysie Zamar, even though DLSU also had an eye on him. [3] In 2002, known for his quick-release shooting and all-around presence, he, alongside playmaker Paul Artadi and hustling Ronald Tubid, brought the Red Warriors to the Final Four after years of absence. However, 2nd seed University of the East lost to a dramatic semifinal series as they faced Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles, the eventual champion. In the same year, he led UE to the 1st Bantay Bata Crossover Cup, exacting a sweet revenge against Ateneo in the Finals. A month after, he once again led UE to the inaugural Collegiate Champions League crown, beating FEU.

In the heat of UAAP [4] (67th season), Yap led the Red Warriors to the Final Four for the second straight time as he topped his teammates in points and rebounding, and closed second to Artadi in overall efficiency rating. Eventually in the semifinals series, the Warriors lost to a much more defensive orchestrated team, Far Eastern University Tamaraws led by tactician coach, Koy Banal. Nevertheless, Yap was named as the Most Valuable Player, stunned everyone else as there were Mark Cardona and Arwind Santos who were neck and neck for the plum. The majority of the UAAP basketball community's nods paved the way for James' win as he topped the vote [5] from coaches, players, and media which accounted for 50%. In the same year, he, along with teammate Paul Artadi, was teamed up with other UAAP and PBL counterparts to lead the Philippines in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games for a gold medal finish. Thus, the Philippines Sportswriter Association [6] honored him the best player in his field, basketball, in the amateurs alongside Asi Taulava in the professional level.

Yap also played in the Philippine Basketball League from 2001-2004. In 2001, he played for the ICTSI-La Salle Archers forming a backcourt tandem with Mike Cortez that almost had their team beating the veteran-ladden, Shark Energy Drink, in the finals. In 2002, he teamed up with guards Mark Cardona and Joseph Yeo, played decoy most of the times while still explosive in a number of games--one which saw him sparking the offense, putting the Archers in the playoffs against Blu Detergent Kings. In 2003, he had to sit out the whole conference long after ICTSI refused [7] to sign his release papers to make him eligible to play for Sunkist-Pampanga. In 2004, Yap signed up for one conference with the Welcoat Paintmasters, teaming up with the comebacking Jojo Tangkay, leading them to a runner-up finish. He and Tangkay lost to Peter June Simon of FASH team for the MVP plum. Yap ended up completing the Mythical First Team.

[edit] PBA career

Yap entered the 2004 PBA Draft, and was selected as the second overall pick by the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs. His teammate Artadi was also selected in a later round which foreshadowed a UE-tandem in the professional league.

Bothered by an ailing shoulder, Yap had a slow start in the 2004-2005 season. Later on, he started to blossom as he had numerous games of which he scored 20 or more points. However, he failed to lead Purefoods past the quarterfinal round against Shell Turbo Chargers. Eventually, he lost to counterpart Rich Alvarez in the Rookie of the Year race.

2004-2005 Rookie Season Averages: (63 games) 27.0 mpg, 12.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.3bpg, 2.3 fpg

In the 2005-06 PBA season, he picked up his pieces and went on for a better display. Along with Kerby Raymundo and import Marquin Chandler in the 2005-06 Fiesta Conference, Yap was a close to prominent force in the Giants' bid to the championship showdown as he came 4th in the statistical race, behind Raymundo, Red Bull Barako's Enrico Villanueva, and Air21's Ren-Ren Ritualo at the end of the semifinals series. Villanueva was the eventual Best Player of the Conference. To make matters more wayward, with about a minute left in game 6 of the Finals series, Yap failed to promise the Giants a possible turnaround for a game 7 or a championship title as he missed a supposedly easy layup to cut Redbull's 4-point lead. Consequently, the Giants submitted to a 4-2 series conclusion. As a comeback, in the classification round of the most prestigious conference, Philippine Cup, he recorded 34 points to devour the Sta. Lucia Realtors and even broke it with a career-high 37 points to beat crowd-favorite Barangay Ginebra. At the near end of the round, he was a one-man offensive force, complementing the Pingris-led defensive end, and winning against the powerhouse team TNT. [8] . The victory put the Purefoods team to an automatic best-of-seven semifinals slot. The semis series turned out to be another historic comeback for the Purefoods franchise with James Yap's offensive, Kerby Raymundo's leadership, and Marc Pingris' defensive heroics.

After the accumulation of player statistics at the end of the semis, Yap edged out teammate Kerby Raymundo and RedBulls' Enrico Villanueva for the Philippine Basketball Association Most Valuable Player award. This acknowledgement made him, at 24 years of age, 5th in the youngest players, and 2nd (since 2002 MVP Willie Miller) as a sophomore to have won the individual award. He was the statistical leader and garnered more than 7000 combined votes from players, 4-man committee and media, almost 5000 votes away from the rest of the candidates. All annual awards were distributed minutes before the Game 4 in the finals series [9] -- a game which portrayed the MVP sinking in 5 of his 7 attempts from beyond the arc and 6 of his 8 attempts from the charity line. He was also named to the Mythical First Team alongside teammates Raymundo and Roger Yap, and on-court rivals Enrico Villanueva and Lordy Tugade.

2005-2006 Sophomore season: (57 games) 36.4 mpg, 17.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.2 spg, 0.4 bpg, 2.1 TOpg, 2.7 fpg

Yap's sudden popularity in the professional league could not be denied in only his second season -- a year which put him local sportswriters [10] spotlight for the second time around. To attest was the jampacked coliseum chanting "M-V-P!" in the background of the 2006 Philippine Cup Finals Game 6 -- the hype that was when Yap was flawlessly dishing in charity stripes with less than two minutes away from the balloons and confetti falling.

[edit] Personal life

Yap is married to ABS-CBN host-actress and Purefoods image model Kris Aquino, the daughter of slain former senator, Benigno Aquino, Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino. Yap and Aquino's relationship was rumored as early as 2005 before they acknowledged this on various interviews. By 2006, both have admitted to having tied the knot as early as mid-2005; the actual date of their marriage was July 10 under civil rites kept unknown to the public.

His marriage with Aquino was recently rocked by the revelation of a former receptionist from Belo Medical Group named Hope that she had a relationship with James,[11] which he vehemently denied in an interview with Korina Sanchez.[12]

This eventually led to Kris asking for "space" with the star cager. James denied the receptionist's allegations in a press statement. The issue has since died down after Kris' pregnancy was revealed.

On April 19, 2007 his first son with Kris was born. James Aquino Yap, was born in Makati Medical Center, Makati City at 5:08 pm local time and weighing 4.3 lbs. He was baptized on May 19, 2007 at Don Bosco Church in Makati, with 10 godparents.

[edit] Individual Achievements

  • 2003 UAAP Most Valuable Player (MVP)
  • 2003 UAAP First Five Mythical Team member
  • 2003 Philippine Sportswriters Association/PSA major awardee (amateur basketball ranks)
  • 2003-2004 PBL Mythical First Team member
  • 2005-2006 PBA Most Valuable Player (MVP)
  • 2005-2006 PBA Mythical First Team member
  • 2006 PSA major awardee (professional basketball ranks)
  • 5-time PBA All-star starter (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 -- South Team)

[edit] Team Achievements

  • 2002-2003 Collegiate Champions League champions
  • 2003 Southeast Asian Games Gold Medalists
  • 2004 Philippine Basketball League (PBL), first-runners up
  • 2005-2006 PBA Fiesta Conference, first-runners up
  • 2005-2006 PBA Philippine Cup champions

[edit] Other Monickers

  • Boy Thunder
  • King James
  • Big Game James
  • Big Daddy James
  • Mr. MVP
  • The Man with a Million moves (as quoted by Mico Halili)
  • Man with the big hands

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sunstar "Football was my first love"
  2. ^ Visayan Daily Star
  3. ^ Ubelt
  4. ^ Ubelt
  5. ^ UAAP
  6. ^ Manila Standard: The Future is Ours
  7. ^ Sunstar
  8. ^ PBA
  9. ^ Best of Seven Finals
  10. ^ Manila Times
  11. ^ "Hope speaks out, says James Yap courted her", GMANews.TV, February 24, 2007. 
  12. ^ "James denies affair with Hope, mulls suit", GMANews.TV, February 26, 2007. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Enrico Villanueva		 UAAP Men's Basketball Most Valuable Player
Season 66 (2003)		 Succeeded by
Arwind Santos
Preceded by
Eric Menk		 PBA Most Valuable Player
2005-06		 Succeeded by
Willie Miller
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