Tag: hopes

Jewelle Bermillo hopes for fresh start in her PVL return bid

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Libero Jewelle Bermillo is looking to return to the PVL. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Among the 47 rookie aspirants, libero Jewelle Bermillo was the lone player who experienced playing in the PVL when the league was still under semiprofessional status in 2019 with the defunct BaliPure Water Defenders.

Her last PVL action didn’t exactly play out the way she wanted as the former student-athlete from San Sebastian College went viral for the wrong reason when her import teammate Danijela Dzakovic hit her on the nape after a digging miscommunication.

That bizarre scene between teammates has marked Bermillo even until now as she expects to see it again on social media as it will mark its fifth anniversary on June 29.

LIST: Applicants for the first ever PVL Rookie Draft

“The impact is really huge. It’s shocking what happened because it’s the first time it happened,” said Bermillo, who forgave the import right away after she apologized and hugged her after the incident.

“It always comes up. Every month, someone tags me. Especially on June 29 because that’s when it happened, so it’s coming up soon, and someone will tag me again even though it happened five years ago.”

Five years since the incident, Bermillo is hoping to start fresh as she enters the PVL draft and reintroduces herself through her skills and better game in the professional scene.

READ: Danijela Dzakovic gets reprimand from PVL after hitting teammate

“What I brought there is, of course, to be more aggressive, to be more aware of who I’m with inside the court, and the number one thing is communication. Because that’s really what was lost. We had a lack of communication, which is why it happened before,” said the libero.

Reigniting the passion

FILE–Jewelle Bermillo during her time with BaliPure in the PVL Draft 2024

FILE–Jewelle Bermillo during her time with BaliPure in the PVL.

“I hope it doesn’t happen again. I’m really excited because this will be a big help to us, having this reinforcement so we can level up more or bring [the experience] to the national team, and improve our volleyball community even more.”

A lot has changed since Bermillo last played in the PVL. Her previous team is no longer part of the league while the league has grown into a 12-team field.

After playing for the Lady Stags and for Biñan in the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association, Bermillo believes joining the pros is still her calling.

“This is my calling.  I want to try to rediscover my passion from before. Maybe now is the time for me to play again.” said Bermillo. “Nowadays, everyone, even the rookies, are really skilled. I can’t say anything because even though they’re rookies, their skills are already at a professional level.”

“I want to enhance or develop my skills further so I can contribute more to the team, wherever I end up playing,” she added.

Seeking to return to the PVL as a pro this time, Bermillo brings her learnings from San Sebastian coach Roger Gorayeb, who also scouted players in the combine for Capital1. 



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“Coach just told me to showcase the skills I’ve learned from him, and of course, whether I get picked or not, not to be ashamed. I should just show who I really am and the skills I have,” Bermillo said. “

“The experience I had with Coach Roger during college, I’ll bring everything I learned from him to the pros. I hope to improve on what I learned from him so I can contribute more to whichever team I join.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick hopes to create great content with LeBron

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JJ Redick speaks after being introduced as the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers NBA basketball team Monday, June 24, 2024, in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

EL SEGUNDO, California — JJ Redick says his extraordinary hiring as the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach means the end of his podcast with LeBron James.

Redick hopes they’ll be able to produce much more compelling content next season in a new incarnation of their partnership, chasing an NBA championship together with the Lakers.

The Lakers formally introduced Redick as their coach on Monday, which also happened to be the 15-year NBA veteran’s 40th birthday.

In a news conference with general manager Rob Pelinka at the Lakers’ training complex, Redick humorously embraced the unlikeliness of his extraordinary hire as he looked across a gym filled with team employees, media members and some of his new players.

“I have never coached in the NBA before,” Redick said with a straight face. “I don’t know if you guys have heard that.”

READ: NBA: Lakers hiring JJ Redick as their new head coach

Redick’s coaching experience is confined to volunteering with his sons’ youth teams, but he plans to overcome that yawning gap with encyclopedic basketball knowledge, personal charisma, an experience-packed coaching staff and an eagerness to innovate.

“This process has been surreal, to say the least,” Redick said. “I take this responsibility very seriously.. … The Lakers have some of the most passionate fans around the world, and the expectation is a championship, and so it’s my job to deliver a championship-caliber team. That’s what I signed up for.”

Redick also said he got this opportunity with no help or advice from James, who must decide this week whether to exercise his player option to return to the Lakers next season or to become a free agent.

Although Redick didn’t break any news, he spoke extensively about the way he hopes to deploy James next season with the Lakers — including shooting more 3-pointers to capitalize on his high percentage.

Redick said he didn’t speak with James at all about Los Angeles’ lengthy coaching search until a 15-minute conversation after the Lakers offered the job to him last Thursday. But Redick has spoken extensively with fellow Lakers star Anthony Davis, who was more involved than James in the team’s hiring process.

Redick and James won’t be speaking on microphone together anytime soon, however: Redick acknowledges that he’ll have to stop recording their podcast.

READ: NBA: Dan Hurley turns down Lakers offer, will stay UConn

“For the time being — and hopefully it’s a very, very long time — I am excommunicated from the content space,” Redick said. “There will be no podcasts. We’ll do something when I have a breather from what I have coming up. I’m gonna be drinking from a firehose for the next month.”

The Lakers reached an agreement with Redick last week, about two weeks after UConn coach Dan Hurley turned down a lucrative offer to jump to the NBA from the back-to-back defending national champion Huskies. Neither Redick nor Hurley has ever coached in the NBA.

Redick said he met with Pelinka before the Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley, and he was on broadcast duty for ESPN while the saga played out.

“At no point was my ego or feelings hurt or bruised in any way,” Redick said. “Dan Hurley is a two-time national champion at UConn. I am a two-time 55 Swish League champion in the third- and fourth-grade division. I understood, you know?”

Redick played 15 NBA seasons for six teams as a productive shooting guard after a four-year career at Duke. He became the Blue Devils’ career scoring leader under Mike Krzyzewski.

After he retired in 2021, Redick embarked on a media career. In just the past several months, he started the “Mind the Game” podcast with James while also ascending to ESPN’s top commentary team, working the NBA Finals this month. Yet Redick realized last year that he wanted to be an NBA head coach after interviewing for the job in Toronto, and he has since spoken at length to top coaches about every aspect of their jobs.

Redick’s insightful podcast with James opened many eyes about Redick’s understanding of the game, and his name arose as a viable — albeit unorthodox — candidate to replace Darvin Ham, who had been fired May 3.

Ham was dismissed by Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss despite leading the Lakers to two winning seasons, the 2023 Western Conference finals and a victory in the inaugural In-Season Tournament. The Lakers lost to defending champion Denver in the first round of the postseason, and they won just one game in two playoff series against the Nuggets over the past two years.

“I think in industry in general and in sports in specific, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in patterns of being in a sea of sameness, and doing the same things everybody else is doing,” Pelinka said. “When we embarked on this search, it was really important for us to see if we could do something a little bit different.”



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Lakers players including Spencer Dinwiddie, Christian Wood and Gabe Vincent attended the news conference.

Redick spoke optimistically about the Lakers’ roster, saying championship expectations are “reasonable. I don’t look at the current roster as being that far off from being a championship-caliber team.”

After soaring into PBA lore, Newsome hopes to make the same impact for Gilas Pilipinas

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Meralco Bolts’ Chris Newsome during Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Last week saw Chris Newsome weave himself into PBA lore with a shot that ended Meralco’s long wait for a championship.

But next week will see Newsome test himself once more against some of the best international basketball has to offer, with a bigger role expected of him for Gilas Pilipinas in the OIympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).

“I’m a natural competitor, and I want to see what I’m capable of,” said Newsome, who is seen as a key cog in Gilas’ daunting task facing host Latvia and Georgia in Riga for the final phase of qualification for the Paris Games.

Odds are stacked against Gilas, with Latvia and Georgia seen as the two sides progressing past Group A of the OQT phase which starts July 2.

But Newsome will head to the OQT with confidence at a high level following a performance that keyed Meralco’s triumph over San Miguel and end the franchise’s 14-year wait for a PBA crown.

Important presence

His heroic role, ending with a baseline jumper in Game 6 that sealed the championship, capped off a season in which Newsome has been playing at a level never before seen since he entered the league in 2015.

Much of the credit is on his important presence in Gilas’ victory in the Hangzhou Asian Games, a result that ended the Philippines’ 61-year gold medal drought.

“It definitely helped me going up against [some of] the best in the world,” he said. “It helped me understand where I am as a player and what skills that I have to work on.”

Winning a PBA title and his newfound status as one of the country’s best players, however, can’t satisfy Newsome, who’ll now try to not only put Gilas in a position to give both European countries a run for their money, but also hold his own against the players he’ll go up against.

“Sometimes, I fail. But I’m okay with failing, because I know I did my best,” he said. “Even with this [PBA] championship, I have so much to improve on.”

Gilas is wrapping its short camp at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna, and is scheduled to take on the Taiwan Mustangs of The Asian Tournament on Monday at Philsports Arena in Pasig City.



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Then it’s off to Europe for Gilas for tune-up matches with Turkey and Poland in the leadup to the OQT.