The Final Score: Thailand Slammers GM was a former Ateneo Blue Eaglet

At the end of Joboy Tuason's playing career in 2005, he was heartbroken.

Ateneo, with a twice-to-beat advantage, had just lost twice to UP in the UAAP Juniors Final Four. Joboy, a graduating senior, stood side-by-side with his Ateneo teammates as they faced their stunned crowd. Fighting back tears, he raised his right hand, clenched his fist and tried to sing the school song, but couldn't.

"Joboy was a high-flyer, open court athlete and loved to slash through defenses and finish at the ring," Marco Benitez, a Blue Eaglets assistant coach during Tuason's stint, recalls. “He was like a young Cyrus Baguio."

Crushing thoughts raced inside Joboy's head. The Eaglets’ season was over. His season was over. Since he battled chronic knee injuries and wasn't a highly recruited player, he begrudgingly knew his playing days were over as well. He lowered his head, forced himself to keep his fist in the air, and stared at the floor of the Araneta Coliseum through watery eyes.

"Of course, playing basketball as a profession would have been great, but at the same time, I have to live by the cards I was dealt with. So after high school, I decided to just focus on academics,” Joboy, general manager and assistant coach of the Sports Rev Thailand Slammers in the Asean Basketball League, shares. “But even though I stopped playing and concentrated on my studies, I always dreamed for a job that was closely tied to sports and traveling."

Tuason's room inside the Tarawadee Apartment in Bangkok is a makeshift office. Documents are scattered on the kitchen counter. There are scouting reports for Slammers Head Coach Joe “Jellybean” Bryant on the bed. A copy of Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball" rests on a shelf. There's a laptop on a small, foldable wooden table.

Joboy, who left Manila to work in the ABL one year ago, laughs when he describes his "dream office" located along Ramkhamhaeng Road. Yet he is dead serious when he says that writing game plans, evaluating players' performances, negotiating contracts and managing logistics for the Slammers is a dream job.

"I miss my family, friends and things I was just used to, like home-cooked meals and just the Filipino way of life, but I love and enjoy my job here in Thailand," Joboy, who finished his Psychology degree with Cum Laude Honors in Ateneo, admits. "Sometimes I catch myself saying, 'I am getting paid to do this?' Ever since I was a kid, I have always had a passion for sports and traveling. With the ABL, I get paid to do both."

When Joboy’s playing career ended eight years ago, he was a dejected teenager. Today, he’s a grown man, happily reunited with the game, thankfully reconnected to sports. He sits beside coach Bryant on the bench and appears totally immersed in basketball anew. He’s on the court. He can’t hide the happiness on his face. It no longer feels like the end. It feels like a beginning. - AMD, GMA News