Tim Kawakami is an American sports journalist for '' The San Francisco Standard''. Previously, he was a

sports columnist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

for the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

''. In addition to his print column, he maintained a blog, communicated on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, and had a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

series. He was named the California Sportswriter of the Year by the

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports P ...

in 2013. In 2017, he joined ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories ...

'', a subscription-based,

sports journalism Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

website, becoming the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

for its

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

edition.

Early life

Kawakami was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, and later moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and Burlingame. His grandfather owned ''The New World-Sun'', a Japanese-language newspaper in San Francisco. Kawakami attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, where he got his start in sportswriting with ''

The Daily Northwestern ''The Daily Northwestern'' is the student newspaper at Northwestern University which is published in print on Mondays and Thursdays and online daily during the academic year. Founded in 1881, and printed in Evanston, Illinois, it is staffed prim ...

''.

Career

Kawakami interned at the ''

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Dail ...

'', and became their beat writer for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

in the late 1980s. He joined the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' in 1990 and covered the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...

before moving to

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

in 1993. While continuing to cover boxing, he began covering

UCLA Bruins men's basketball The UCLA Bruins men's basketball program represents the University of California, Los Angeles, in the sport of men's basketball as a member of the Big Ten Conference. Established in 1919, the program has won a record 11 NCAA Division I Men's B ...

in their national title season in 1994–95. He became the beat writer for the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

in 1998–99, covering the

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team through the

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

–

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise, spent his entire 20-year career with t ...

era. Kawakami was interested in becoming a columnist, but the ''Times'' filled their opening with T. J. Simers. Kawakami left for the ''

'' in the mid-2000s, writing a Page 2 column and later a regular column. Kawakami started his "Talking Points" blog in 2006. He once said, "I love the energy of the blog world", which ''

The Big Lead ''The Big Lead'' was an American news blog. The website mainly covers sports news, although it also touches on a varying degree of other news topics ranging from politics to pop culture. Launched on February 24, 2006, it was co-founded by forme ...

'' called a rarity for a mainstream media member in 2009. He also started using

in 2009, and developed a reputation for blocking users from seeing his posts for offenses such as telling him what to do, making racist comments, or laughing at him (e.g. "

LOL LOL, or lol, is an initialism for laughing out loud, and a popular element of Internet slang, which can be used to indicate amusement, irony, or double meanings. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widesprea ...

"). He began a podcast series, “The TK Show”, in 2015, when he also began a recurring segment with

Ray Ratto Ray Ratto has been a San Francisco Bay Area sportswriter since the 1970s and a sports columnist since the 1980s. A lifelong resident of Alameda, California, Ratto was a Senior Insider for the TV station ''NBC Sports Bay Area'' (''formerly Comcas ...

called "But Seriously" on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area's ''Yahoo SportsTalk Live''. Kawakami left ''The Mercury'' in July 2017 to become the editor-in-chief of the

edition of ''

''. He joined '' The San Francisco Standard'' on September 13, 2024, together with fellow ''Athletic'' journalist David Lombardi. Kawakami said his departure stemmed from a desire to prioritize local sports coverage, a focus he felt was shifting at ''The Athletic'' in favor of a broader, national perspective. '' SFGate'' wrote that Bay Area media circles generally considered him to be "credible, fair, and tenacious".

References

External links

Kawakami's "Talking Points" blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawakami, Tim Living people American male journalists American sports journalists American journalists of Asian descent American writers of Japanese descent People from Burlingame, California Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Northwestern University alumni Sportswriters from California The Athletic journalists The Mercury News people