INQUIRER Sports

SACRAMENTO? With their thrill fading over Manny Pacquiao?s historic seventh title belt in as many weight divisions, Filipino-American sports fans are again turning their fancy to a momentary fling?football?and to an old flame?basketball.

The short National Football League (NFL) season is rushing through rain, sleet and snow towards its seventh week, with top echelon teams Denver, Indianapolis, New England and New Orleans on top of the standings in the American and the National conferences.

Meanwhile, the NBA has barely started its marathon with defending champion Los Angeles in a position to give its rivals a rude welcome back to the league.

Lately, action off the court has garnered more attention than the grueling grind to the world finals come May or June.

Byron Scott, the NBA?s coach of the year only two years ago, has been fired by the owner of the slow-starting New Orleans Hornets. Don Nelson, after firing disgruntled forward Stephen Jackson to Charlotte, seemed poised to call it a career after a long association with the Golden State Warriors.

The upheaval in the world?s premier professional tournament hit closer to home today when the Maloof family, one of the most active NBA owners, made a startling announcement. To renew emphasis on the struggling Sacramento Kings, the Maloofs are dissolving the WNBA Monarchs franchise.

The move hit Sacramento like a thunderbolt. Suddenly, the purple brick road traveled by the Monarchs to the WNBA world title in 2005 reached a dead end.

?I am shocked,? said Fil-Am Soledad Montemayor, a former girls? high school and collegiate standout, in response to the Monarchs? disbanding. ?It?s like a family dying so suddenly.?

Bad news hit harder at City Hall. Alleged sexual misconduct that has dogged Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson for years has resurfaced with the release of a Congressional report last week.

The former NBA star allegedly arranged a payoff of $1,000 a month to a young woman after she accused him of touching her inappropriately years ago. The accusation was contained in a report on the firing of a federal inspector who had been investigating Johnson?s nonprofit Hope organization for improper use of federal grant money.

Johnson, who Fil-Ams helped get elected as the first African-American mayor of California?s capital, is an active NBA supporter. He has recently formed an advisory group to build a new NBA stadium to replace ageing Arco Arena, home of the Kings.

(Percy Della is a former Manila journalist now based in Sacramento, California. He contributes regularly to Inquirer Sports.?Ed)