UPON my retirement from California state service in 2010, I was ceremoniously sent off with several framed memorabilia now hanging on my library wall at home in Candon City, Ilocos Sur.
These included a signed photograph from then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and letters from other politicians, including Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, the capital of the Golden State.
The testimonial from Johnson, a former NBA player had a special meaning. Needless to say, his message helped me return to my other life as a sportswriter after toiling with fellow civil servants in Sacramento for 26 years.
I knew nothing about his private life, but like everyone else in government information work, I came to know Hizzoner as a media-savvy, high-octane and responsive public figure.
As the first Sacramento native ever elected the city’s mayor, Kevin disliked partisan politics.
As leader of the national mayors’ association, he rubbed elbows with dignitaries of all sorts, up to President Obama and appeared on his way to statewide office, including governor.
And so it was disconcerting to hear recently that Johnson’s rise to political prominence has come to a screeching halt. In the wake of molestation allegations against him, he announced he wouldn’t seek a third term at City Hall next year.
Johnson’s decision was triggered by the emergence of a video via Dave McKenna of the sports website Deadspin of a woman named Mandi Koba. She claims to Arizona police that Johnson, former Phoenix Suns point guard, sexually abused her in the summer of 1995 when she was 16 years old.
The mayor, always considered a distinguished NBA alum, has not been charged and is currently not facing any criminal charges for the alleged incident that happened 20 years ago.
Johnson’s accuser, now 36, told reporter McKenna, Johnson paid her $230,600 “to never speak of him again to anyone other than a priest, a therapist or a lawyer.”
“Politics is a game that throws out dirty things along the way and you’ve got to take hits on the chin,” Johnson told the Sacramento Bee newspaper after he decided to explore other opportunities beyond elective office, for now.
McKenna continues to ply his trade for Deadspin and has not been banned by the NBA. Meanwhile, Bee reporters who wrote copiously about Johnson’s fall continues to be welcomed at City Hall.
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Locally, the same can’t be said for Snow Badua, the Spin.ph reporter who was banned from all PBA activities for tweeting and reporting about an alleged affair between a high-ranking league official and a model.
The PBA’s snow job on Badua is simply absurd, says a league beat reporter.
“I think (Commissioner Chito) Narvasa was way out of bounds in his handling of the case.”
Fortunately for Badua, the PBA is not a last resort, although he continues to crank out league stories. Some players and team officials reportedly still talk to him in defiance of a gag order from the front office.
I asked PBA media bureau chief Willie Marcial twice via e-mail for a Badua update, and if there has been a change in the league’s stance on the Spin.ph scribe, which has a chilling effect on the sportswriting community.
As of this writing, no response was forthcoming from Marcial.