Charlotte Hornets Social Media Buzz Queen is Pinay

Re-posting a story from 2016 as the old website where I used to write does not exist anymore along with the articles and photos.

I had been covering the league from the Hornets and I finally managed to have an interview with her during the 2016 Playoffs in April 2016. Like Kemba Walker, she has since left the Hornets to pursue another posting outside of basketball. You can follow her on her Twitter: @Eryn. She posted the image of the original article of her Instagram post.

Charlotte, North Carolina - Remember that time when Michael Jordan took over the Charlotte Hornets Twitter account? That was in October 2014 and every basketball fan especially Filipino hoop junkies went crazy when they saw His Airness go on Twitter.

He had an assist pass with that selfie coming from the team's Social Media Manager, Eryn Gradwell and would you believe that she is Filipino.

"I was with him the entire day. He was trying figure out how to take his selfie. I was trying to show him, 'raise it up a little bit, smile, turn your head a little bit.' It was really fun," Eryn said about that day when Sports5 chatted with her during a downtime in covering the Hornets.

Eryn is all praises for the basketball legend that Filipinos adore.

"Fantastic working for him. He is incredible. He is such a great boss and a great person to be around. He is all about the team, all about the focus and energy. It's great to have a former player, the greatest of all time arguably come in and be the chairman of the organization. Because he knows what it takes to be from a player's perspective. Now as the chairman, he knows what it takes to be in the front office and to make decisions that is best for the team and for the organization as a whole."

"He's also very involved with the community and making sure that we are reaching out to Charlotte and to our fans around the world. I couldn't really ask for a better chairman. He's great.

Social Media Buzz

"I always wanted to get into sports," Eryn pointed out as the reason for being

As a graduate of Elon University in North Carolina majoring in Broadcast and New Media, Eryn found a path that led her to the sports broadcasting world. She first interned at ESPN, and upon graduation found work as production assistant helping kickstart the social media campaigns of ESPN U, the division handling the college programs of the sports network.

"I fell so in love with social media campaign with ESPN U, I wanted to make this a full time thing. So, when the Charlotte Bobcats had an opening for social media coordinator, I jumped at the opportunity and I got the job," she narrated.

Eryn is in her fifth year with the Charlotte Hornets having joined the team prior to the 2011-2012 season and when the franchise held the Bobcats moniker.

"Kemba Walker was a rookie then. His rookie year was my rookie year too."

Adding, " When I took on the role of social media coordinator here, we had a Facebook and a Twitter. That's it. We had I think about 50,000 fans on Facebook and not even 50 thousand fans on Twitter. Now, across all of our platforms, we have over 2.5 million. It's pretty cool how much growth we have seen in my time here.

Admittedly, she confesses that there really isn't a big Filipino community following the Hornets.

"When Jeremy Lin came here though, he brought a lot of Asian fans into our Hornets family. It was nice to see it.

Eryn is hopeful that more Filipinos will follow Buzz City when the new season begins, "It's great now that we've come to our own. We realized our true identity. It took us a couple of months with all of these changes to the team. Everyone has gotten to the groove, knock on wood, barring any injuries. We're doing great. It is really exciting to be a Hornets fan. And if you are not a Hornets fan, now is the perfect time to become one.

Growing Up Pinoy Style

Eryn is proud of the fact that she grew up with in the presence of Filipino grandparents in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

"It was a amazing. My grandparents, I cannot praise them enough. They are the most popular Filipinos I have seen in my entire life. They throw parties all the time. They're very, very into the Filipino community where they live in Virginia Beach," Eryn said of her maternal grandparents, Juan and Rosario Mangosing, who are from Zambales.

Memorable for her are the gatherings with her cousins and other relatives.

"Pretty normal for a Filipino family to always get together. There is always a reason to celebrate. And so, my grandparents always instilled that in me, we celebrated everything. We're very, very close. There's always  the whole Filipino buffet everywhere that we go.

One of the her favorite dish is the sweet rice cake or biko that her grandmother prepares.

"It's the most amazing. I always make sure that every huge occasion that we have, that she makes sweet rice cakes for me every time. When I come home, sweet rice cake, please. I also love cassava."