Warriors forego fireworks, Pop explodes his own

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA—(Authorities have confirmed the death of a 59-year-old Filipino woman at the height of the Wine Country wildfires last week. The daily Napa Register newspaper reported that Sheriff’s officers discovered the victim’s body in a burned house near Soda Canyon Road in Napa Saturday. While positive identification has yet to be made by the county coroner, the fatality is presumed to be Teresa Santos, a caretaker to the homeowner, Sally Lewis, 90, who was found dead with her. Jaime Ramon Ascalon, deputy consul general of the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco said consular staffers are in touch with Santos’ family and are helping coordinate the return of her remains to Manila. News is scant about the plight of close to 14,000 Filipinos in fire-ravaged Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. But according to Ascalon, sketchy information said three houses owned by Pinoys have been destroyed by the blazes that have killed 41 people, ruined 6000-plus structures and scorched more than 250,000 acres.)

In deference to people suffering from the fires, the Golden State Warriors opened the new NBA season without the elaborate pyrotechnics display that would have preceded their 122-121 loss to the Houston Rockets at the Oracle Arena Tuesday night.

In another inaugural tip-off, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics, their Eastern Conference archrivals, 102-91, at home behind LeBron James’ 29 points. The game was marred by the gruesome ankle injury to Celtic forward Gordon Hayward.

In the past, the Warriors have entertained a national television audience with fireworks that surpassed the typical opening night show, but decided that such a display would not be appropriate at this time.

Minus the fireworks, fans—including Pinoys—still enjoyed the evening’s festivities as team members received their championship rings from NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Thus the Warriors formally became the NBA champions since downing the Cavaliers for the second time in three NBA finals last summer.

While Golden State decided to forego of the rockets, San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich ignited his own with a scathing broadside against President Donald Trump.

The vocal Popovich, lashed out Monday, calling Trump a “soulless coward” for lying about former presidents not calling families of soldiers killed in action.

Trump, while defending his slow response to the deaths of four US soldiers in Niger earlier this month, claimed that most of the presidents who came before him never called relatives of fallen soldiers.

“If you look at President Obama, and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said Monday. “I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I am able to do it.”

Four of Trump’s predecessors have said they always phoned grieving Gold Star families.

Popovich told The Nation magazine’s sports editor Dave Zirin Trump was a “pathological liar” and a “soulless coward” and wanted to make sure the comments were “on the record.”