Name: James Carlos Yap
Nickname: James
Played Forward in the UE basketball varsity
Birthday: February 15, 1982
Birthplace: Negros Occidental
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 192 lbs.
Course: BS Business Administration Major in Management

James Yap: Another UE-to-PBA superstar

AFTER Robert Jaworski, Allan Caidic and Jerry Codiñera, now comes another University of the East hotshot who has the makings of being the next Philippine Basketball Association superstar.

Enter James Yap.

An illustrious UE alumnus like Jaworski, Caidic and Codiñera, Yap looms as the next PBA idol and is expected to be among the top first round picks in Friday’s Draft at the Glorietta Center in Makati City.

Big, versatile and possessing one of the hottest shooting hands in the land, the 6-foot-3 Yap shows unlimited potential, Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio said. “He’s definitely a big catch for any PBA team.”

But for the 21-year-old pride of Escalante, Negros Occidental, just making it to the PBA is a ful-fillment of a childhood dream, so being tabbed as the league’s next star is furthest from his mind.

“I’m a bit pressured but I hardly think about it. As long as I can play in the PBA, it doesn’t matter who picks me up. I will give my 100 percent,” Yap told Sports Times.

“I know that I have a lot to learn since the play in the PBA is more fast and physical,” added Yap, who confessed that one of his favorite stars is Kris Aquino.

The Yap clan arrived on Wednesday to give him support during the Draft starting at 6 p.m.

“I’m excited since my family is here. I want them to be proud of me,’’ said Yap, who, incidentally, wears Converse, the same brand of shoes his idols Jaworski, Caidic and Lim used to wear on the hardcourt.

The shooting ace has made it known that he prefers playing for Purefoods, which owns the No. 2 overall pick, since it has a lot of Visayan players like Zandro Limpot, Boyet Fernandez, Peter June Simon and Gilbert Demape.

Yap, however, is keenly aware that his fate is not in his hands because Shell holds the No. 1 pick while its new head coach John Moran has kept the other coaches guessing whom he will pluck out of the rookie pool.

“My playing in the PBA is a new challenge for me. But for now, my priority is playing for Welcoat in the PBL [Philippine Basketball League],” said Yap, who was part of the triumphant RP men’s basketball team that won the gold medal in the 22nd Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

One person who saw him play in Vietnam was impressed with his all-around skills, telling a confidant “this boy [Yap] has long and bright future ahead of him.”

The man? No other than the Big J himself.

Thursday, January 15, 2004
[source: Manila Times article by Joel Orellana]

Who is James Yap?

From UE’s pride to PBA star, to Kris Aquino’s love (with an unknown past)

FINALLY.” It’s the common reaction on the street to Kris Aquino’s announcement that she’s getting married. Whether it’s said out of happiness for the controversial daughter of former President Cory Aquino or relief that it will put an end to her bizarre revelations on national television is another matter all together.

What’s for certain are the following: 1) She’s engaged to be married to Purefoods’ small forward James Yap whom she met in February. 2) He proposed to her in May and she accepted. And 3) they applied for a marriage contract on June 6 and are now waiting for the document’s release.

These were the most significant points to Kris’s very detailed rundown of events that led to her first-ever engagement in her 34 years on Sunday’s The Buzz. Never mind that she said she took a sleeping pill when her former lover Joey Marquez asked her out to dinner during a recent trip to Cebu, because she has “found the love of her life in James.” Kris Aquino is finally getting married and let’s leave it at that.

And anyway, the nation practically knows everything about Ninoy Aquino’s youngest child. Her life has been an open book since she first caught the public’s eye 22 years ago, campaigning for her late father. We all know about her dream of becoming a TV host and movie actress, which she did make happen with flying colors (all Kris needs now is Best Actress award and she’d have done it all). We are well informed about her illicit affairs with married (but separated) men, namely Philip Salvador (the father of her son Joshua) and Joey Marquez, and everyone and everything in between. She told us about them herself.

It’s the groom-to-be that we know very little about. James Yap who is 11 years her junior. He is what this story is all about.

P11-million man

On Sunday, Kris asked for the Filipino people’s blessing on her yet undated wedding to James Yap. She apparently got the go from her sisters Ballsy and Viel, manager Deo Endrinal and The Buzz co-host Boy Abunda, and felt the need to ask the nation’s permission too, seeing that we’ve all been witness to her life story. Again, never mind that she’d tell us everything about her anyway. Kris Aquino is finally getting married and let’s leave it at that.

Let’s give in to her request shall we—the proverbial pagpapaalam in Filipino culture—and size up cager James Yap.

At the start of his PBA career, ‘The Manila Times’ sports reporter Joel Arellana wrote: “After Robert Jaworski, Allan Caidic and Jerry Codiñera, comes another University of the East hotshot who has the makings of being the next Philippine Basketball Association superstar.”

James is a tower at 6-foot-3 and hails from Escalante, Negros Occidental.

He was the 2003 UAAP MVP and promptly got the longest contract and biggest paycheck from among the PBA rookies when he made the crossover from amateur to professional—a childhood dream come true, according to the Arellana report. Selected second overall by the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs in the draft, he was signed on to a contract that is spread over three years and nine months.

And with rumors that he and his fiancée will pursue a pre-nuptial agreement before exchanging vows, it is safe to say that James can hold his own with a net worth pegged at P11 million.

Finally, according to Kris, her fiancé has promised to love her son Joshua like his own and take care of her for the rest of their lives.

The big blank

With a sterling basketball career, and what seem to be very genuine intentions to love and cherish Kris all the days of their lives, then it should be easy for us to grant Kris’s request and give them our blessing, just as we would a member of our family.

However, if we are to really take the whole thing seriously, then we must take note of a mystery that Kris imparted on Sunday—one that may just set fire to controversies in the next weeks and months. She said that before she gave her wholehearted yes to James’s proposal, he told her of his past, which he feared might change how Kris feels about him. Something so serious that she even had to consult her former Hiram co-actor John Estrada “for a man’s point of view. Something that Kris—for the first time—did not divulge bit by bit to the public.

What could that big blank be about the love of her life, James Yap? And if and when we find out about it, will we still give them the unconditional blessing that Kris asked of us all? Will she really finally get married when the secret is revealed?

Wednesday, June 08, 2005
[source: Manila Times article by Tessa C. Mauricio]