When Jake Soriano was a kid, he and his brother would play basketball at the garage of their family's home in Sacramento, California.
They started their game, though, a little different than probably most kids on the block did in the early 2000s. Jake and his brother would time their jump ball to the start of a Sacramento Kings game on TV. They watched their favorite players and emulated them while playing basketball.
"And we'd pretend like we were Chris Webber, we'd pretend like we were Peja Stojakovic and Mike Bibby," Soriano told NBA.com Philippines while mimicking a jump shot.
Jake Soriano is just like you and me -- and not just because he wanted to play basketball. For one, he's Filipino. His mother hails from Pampanga and his father from Dagupan. His family moved from the Philippines to the United States before he was born and has lived in Sacramento since.
And like most Pinoys, he is an NBA fan with a true passion for the game. He had players he idolized and copied moves from. The difference now is that he works in the Kings organization -- far from his and his brother’s pretend days in their garage. From copying C-Webb, Peja, and Bibby, he now regularly rubs elbows with the likes of De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, and Harrison Barnes.
Soriano is currently a video producer for the Kings, creating content for the organization’s various platforms. He is entering his fourth season as part of the video production team.
"It's been a dream of mine to work in the NBA since I was young," Soriano said. "Every single day I try to make sure I live my fullest life being on the court with the guys. And you know, [the] behind-the-scenes access I get to do with the Sacramento Kings."
Soriano's passion for working with the Kings stems from his love for the game at a young age. His parents have always been huge fans and their TV constantly had Kings games on.
"Every kid's dream is to make it in professional sports and of course me growing up as a small kid in the community, I've played basketball all my life. That's all I've known," he said.
And like most Filipinos, his height disadvantage, among other things, made him realize that his hoop dreams were a long shot. But he pursued a different dream.
"I kinda found a passion for film and I was able to incorporate that with the game of basketball so I started to make mixtapes out of high school of my favorite friends and some of the local talents around my area," he said.
Jake says developing relationships with the players is one of the best things about his work. (Photo courtesy of Jake Soriano)
Soriano started working as an intern with the Kings during his last semester of college at Sacramento State University while finishing a degree in video production. He loved creating YouTube videos of himself and the world around him. The Kings saw potential in him and decided to bring his skill set to the organization. He began working under the social media team, learning the basics of creating content for an NBA squad before getting a full-time gig as a video producer.
At just 24 years old and three seasons under his belt, Soriano still gets a kick knowing he's working with the team he grew up watching. The surrealness -- from making mixtapes of his friends to creating videos for professional basketball players -- isn't lost on him. From watching Kings basketball on TV as a kid to actually following and filming the team as an adult? He's living the dream.
"Like I said every time, every day is a dream because this is my dream organization to work with," he said. "I'm just lucky to be here."
That's also why Soriano was understandably starstruck when he first started his job. His hands would shake holding the camera every time he got in front of some of the best players in the world.
"They're NBA players, right? And you don't know what to do. The first thing you wanna do is get their signature right? You wanna get a picture or something," he said.
But Soriano shook off the jitters and the nerves and began to realize and enjoy the best perk of the job. It's not just being in the same room with NBA players, traveling with them, eating the same food, or riding the same airplanes. Those are all blessings in themselves, but there is something more for Soriano.
"I think the highlight of it all is to get to know the players on a different level," he shared.
Soriano learned to appreciate the players on a personal level especially when he traveled with the team inside the NBA bubble in 2020.
"I got to sit down and have conversations with them and realize that they're just people like you and me. They're approachable, they have problems, they have mental issues, they're just very, very talented at playing basketball," he said.
The best part of the job is being in the NBA, but getting to know the players trumps all, he added.
"A lot of people around the world just think that NBA players and professional athletes are just there to perform or to entertain," he went on. "But they don't really realize that they're just like people, like you and me. So I think the best part [is] where I could just create relationships with the players, the coaching staff, and everybody in the organization."
He realized with a level of introspection that the stars he used to watch as a kid are just like him. In effect, he knows his responsibility as a video producer is to show the audience—through the lens of his camera—that these players are relatable people.
Jake and other members of the Kings organization with Buddy Hield. (Photo courtesy of Jake Soriano)
His immersion in getting to know the Kings came into fruition with his latest project entitled "The Come Up," a long-form video series featuring last season's top rookie Tyrese Haliburton. In the four-part documentary, he was able to show the drive that led Haliburton to become a first-round pick and the willingness of the young guard to be a team player. Deep-diving into a player's life is definitely in the wheelhouse of Soriano.
As Soriano continues to get to know the Kings players, he also sees inspiration in other Filipino-Americans in the NBA. He's a fan of the Utah Jazz's Jordan Clarkson and head coach Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat. He's also excited to get to know Jimmy Alapag, who was recently part of the Summer League coaching staff and now an assistant for the G-League team Stockton Kings.
"It makes me very proud to see representation in the NBA because you don't get to see many Filipino-Americans make it," he said. "So to see them in all different aspects whether it's players, coaches, me working for the organization, it just shows other Filipino-Americans, other Filipinos, that they can make it -- it's a possibility for anybody. Whether you're young, old, your ethnicity, whatever, you can make it in the NBA. And there's a lot of opportunity for that."
Secretly, he dreams of following the same footsteps as Spoelstra who started his coaching journey as a video coordinator and worked his way up the ranks. He doesn't see the actual blueprint yet, but the dream is there and his inspiration is a fellow Filipino-American who made it.
Coaching may seem like a pipe dream for now, but he's still living out his passion every day for the basketball team he fell in love with as a kid. One simple piece of advice he can give to those still finding their dream and pursuing their passion is to express oneself.
"My advice is to just keep creating. I think there's a lot of times we get discouraged seeing other people succeed but you gotta realize that those people were just like you before. And making sure you're being your true authentic self because what I've learned in my time in the NBA, organizations take you in because you are you, you are not trying to be someone else," he said.
"Organizations around the NBA, they take that stuff seriously so whatever you create, whatever you post, whatever you put on your Instagram, make sure it's the best quality and just keep creating. I love to see people who just create because they love it, not because they wanna do it for money or they wanna make themselves look good or out for the fame."
