Tim Kawakami is 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 highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

for the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

edition of ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

'', a subscription-based,

sports journalism Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of t ...

website. 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 started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

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 A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

, communicated on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, and had a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

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. He also appeared regularly on television on

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the San Francisco Giants, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquar ...

Early life

Kawakami was raised in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and moved to Burlingame. His grandfather owned ''The New World-Sun'', a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Japanese-language newspaper. Kawakami attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, 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 primar ...

''.

Career

Kawakami interned at the '' Philadelphia Daily News'', and became their

beat writer Beat reporting, also known as specialized reporting, is a genre of journalism focused on a particular issue, sector, organization, or institution over time. Description Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with th ...

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

in the late 1980s. 'He joined the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' in 1990 and covered the Los Angeles Rams before moving to

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

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 Pac-12 Conference. Established in 1919, the program has won a record 11 NCAA titles. Coach John W ...

in their national title season in 1994–95. He became the beat writer for the Los Angeles Lakers 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

team through the Shaquille O'Neal– Kobe Bryant era. Kawakami was interested in becoming a columnist, but the ''Times'' filled their opening with

T. J. Simers T. J. Simers (born September 2, 1950) is an American sports columnist who worked for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1990 to 2013 before accepting a position at the Orange County Register where he worked until accepting a voluntary buyout. He att ...

. Kawakami left for the ''Mercury'' 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'' is 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 former ...

'' 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. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication and even face-to ...

"). He began a podcast series, “The TK Show”, in 2015, when he also began a recurring segment with Ray Ratto called "But Seriously" on

's ''Yahoo SportsTalk Live''. Kawakami left ''The Mercury'' in July 2017 to become the editor-in-chief of the

edition of ''The Athletic''. ''

SFGate The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'' 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 Mercury News people