Bienvenidos a la sección de Blog Squad en Español, una colección de artículos de opinión, de periodistas, artistas y especialistas en básquetbol alrededor del mundo, quienes han querido compartir sus pensamientos acerca de la NBA. Aquí podrás consultar las columnas de opinión de cada uno de nuestros invitados especiales.

Los puntos de vista expresados en Blog Squad en Español representan únicamente la visión de quienes escriben en ella. No representan la posición de la NBA.com/español, de la NBA o de alguno de los equipos de la liga.

Charlie Villanueva #31, Forward, Detroit Pistons He is the son of Dominican immigrants and was raised in Queens, New York. At the age of 20, Charlie was selected seventh overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors. He appeared in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and was named to the All-NBA Rookie First Team... After a solid first year performance, Charlie was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks where he played through 2009 before being signed by the Detroit Pistons.

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Bienvenido
Charlie Villanueva. Diciembre 21 del 2009
Que pasa mi gente? This is Charlie V. publishing my first blog posting for the 2009-10 NBA Season, all done through the new section of NBA.com called “ene-be-a”, which for most of you that already speak Spanish like me, understand that it’s the pronunciation of “N-B-A” en Espanol. I think this is a really cool idea and I’m happy to be a part of the growing evolution in having more and more Latinos in the NBA, especially for Dominicans. We’ve dominated the MLB, now it’s time to come up in NBA. Shout out to my fellow Dominicans Al Horford and Francisco Garcia.

I’m going to be providing you guys with real talk, behind the scene, personal thoughts, and entertaining content for your reading. Though both my parents are from the Dominican Republic, I was born and raised here in the U.S. (New York City), so I’ll be writing mostly in English with some Spanish. We call that “Spanglish” growing up in Queens, LOL. I’m happy to finally have a place for us bilingual speaking Hispanics. It doesn’t matter if you were born here or outside the U.S., if you have any Latino background or influence in your life, nba.com/enebea is where to be at.

Keep reading below for more blogs from Charlie.

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New Home, New Boss
Charlie Villanueva.
I’ll tell you another spot where to be, at least for me, is right here in Detroit, with my beloved red, white, and blue Pistons. I’m so happy to finally have a place where all parties understand each other and they’ve implemented a traditional winning mentality. I give all due respect to our GM, Mr. Joe Dumas. Joe is mainly the reason why I decided to come to the Pistons. Not to take away from my previous teams, Milwaukee and Toronto, which have all been great experiences for me, but here in Detroit … I never been on a team that the GM is so down to earth and initiates the effort to have a personal relationship with his players on and off the court. I never seen a GM show up at every practice and will sit down to observe every move. Believe it or not, I see Joe Dumas as a father figure and the leader of our group. I’m happy to call the State of Michigan my new home. I signed a 5-year deal with the team and I’m hoping in making a pivotal impact to the team and the community of Detroit during my stay here. I purchased a home here and I’m looking to stay and making Detroit the home where my career excels to that next level. God willing with such great teammates and coaching staff, we can bring back the championship back to Motown!

For more information, please visit the official website of Charlie Villanueva: www.CV31.com

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Sorry Charlie
Charlie Villanueva.
It was bad enough when Commissioner Stern announced the Social Media policy a few weeks ago, which I call the “Charlie Villanueva Rule”, LOL, it prevents players from twittering during games; and as well as 45-min prior or after the game. I’m actually for that rule now. As most of you might know by now, I help Twitter become trending amongst fellow NBA players after my halftime tweet. At the time, I thought this was going to be a new level of communication, a new way to interact with fans during real time game action, but oh well… sorry Charlie. It’s bad enough that got taken away, but on top of that there some other reasons fans are telling me “Sorry Charlie”.

The Pistons are off to a pretty decent start, considering all the injuries. I would not have believed you if you told me, sorry Charlie but 5 of your top 6 scorers in the team will be injured at different points of the beginning part of the season. My UConn boys Rip Hamilton missed 22 games, Ben Gordon missed like 7-8 games, and one of our other leaders, Tayshaun Prince has missed like 22 games. To add to the damage, yet again, “sorry Charlie”, but I recently broke my nose a couple of games ago vs. Atlanta. I only really missed 1 game, but it’s just an inconvenience to play with that mask. I had successful surgery done, but it still hurts. Now I’m here making my best impersonation of Richard Hamilton by wearing a plastic mask on my face in every game, which again guys, I do not like it. It’s like playing with a hand on your face constantly. I’ve been adjusting to it as best as I can, but I can’t wait to take this off. I have to play with the mask for another 3-4 weeks. On top of all this, here we go again, “Sorry Charlie”, but yet another player gets injured, Will “Dynamite” Bynum recently hurt his ankle and has missed a few games thus far. With all those injuries, we still manage to keep an 11-14 record, which isn’t great, but not bad. We won our 5 of our last 7 games. I’m hoping we can keep up that same positive winning mentality going. I think it’s something to still be positive about regardless who tells me “Sorry Charlie”. J

Note: Don’t forget to follow Charlie V. (@CV31): www.twitter.com/CV31

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Christmas with Mi Familia
Charlie Villanueva.
I’m looking forward to this Christmas. I’ve yet to complete my Christmas shopping, but I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m in a nice new home, great new team, but more importantly, I get to spend this Christmas with my family. I have a bunch of family flying out to Detroit for the holidays. I can’t wait to see them, especially when it comes to my mom. I will be the first to admit, I’m a mama’s boy, LOL. My mom is my everything. I’m thankful I can look forward in enjoying my time with her and the rest of family. When it comes to Dominicans… food like plantains, music like merengue, and sports like baseball are all part of our culture, but on top of the list has to the importance of family. I value and cherish my time with the familia.

I wish you all a feliz navidad y prospero ano nuevo. Take care ya.

For more information, please visit the official website of Charlie Villanueva: www.CV31.com