Q&A with a former NBA ballboy

Hayesfan · Nov 8, 2009

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a1w3c/iama_former_nba_ballboy_ama/

Q: Who was the biggest jerk NBA player you ever came across? How was he a jerk?

A: Kevin Garnett; no competition there. One of the biggest assholes I've ever come across, he'd yell at us whenever we didn't pass a ball to him during warmups, and basically get pissed if we didn't constantly submit to his personal whims. I think he's single handidly responsible for my hatred of the Celtics

Q: Did you ever get any of the players angry?

A: Haha yeah I got Linus Kleiza angry once. The players shoot hoops on the court before every game and the ballboys rebound for them; I was rebounding for the Nuggets (the team he was on at the time) and accidently threw a ball at his face (he was practicing layups and I was passing to Allen Iverson who was practicing 3's). He fell to the floor and was out for like 40 seconds, the whole team was glaring at me afterwards.

Q: A friend, who sat courtside at an NBA game, said he was amazed at the amount of talking that goes on during an NBA game (players, fans, refs).

I'm sure the players argue calls all the time but what else do they talk about? How much profanity is there? Who are the worst offenders? Any funny stories?

I would pay extra to watch games on TV with court side microphones...

A: That's a good question and one that really surprised me on my first day of the job; there actually isn't much profanity on the court itself; players talk about the same amount that you would hear on the networks (except for profanity which is bleeped out, but its pretty rare). The BENCH on the other hand, pretty much talks throughout the game, kind of interesting to listen to actually cuz they definitely don't hold back on any words and say whatever they want. What they talk about depends alot on teh team; teams with bad chemistry (ie indiana) don't talk much at all, while young teams like NOLA or crazy ones like denver joke around alot. Kenyon Martin i remember specifically; he bashed shawn marion alot the first time he came here. You can tell from the demeanors of the players that they're really used to everything thats going on, and that alot of them don't care too much about the result of the game.

Oh and funniest story was prolly on court actually when the suns and hornets had this epic 2ot game, cp3 got thrown down by one of our players for some reason (i dont remember exactly what happened anymore), slid a bit, a kind of lay on the ground in a crumpled heap. Everyone started booing cuz they thought he flopped and the refs were gonna give him the call, but then he just jumped right up and yelled "THAT AINT NO FOUL!" in a classic New Orleans accent and everyone started laughing.
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So yeah, take it with a grain of salt... but if you're bored it's something to pass the time.

RedRedemption · Nov 8, 2009

Evidence that Kevin Garnett is an *******.

kikimama · Nov 8, 2009

KG still picking on smaller people, haha...

david_rocket · Nov 8, 2009

Nice article!

LosPollosHermanos · Nov 8, 2009

Garnett doesn't come up as a surprise at all....

BrooksBall · Nov 9, 2009

I found this exchange somewhat humorous:

pubis_membrane: Has Kobe Bryant ever Tried to Ride Your Hershey High Way?
permalink

nbaballboy: Lol for all you Kobe haters he's actually one of the nicer guys in the league, along with the entire Spurs team which consisted of prolly the most down to earth people I've seen on a pro team. Coming from a die hard suns fan that means quite a bit

pubis_membrane: Sounds like you enjoyed the ride...

Convictedstupid · Nov 9, 2009

Pretty cool stuff.

showtang043 · Nov 9, 2009

interesting thing about kobe that builds off of this article i met him in the houston all star game, he was by far the nicest adn chillest guy out of all of them, this was not infront of media or anyone so itwas pleasant surprised and I have been a big fan ever since

Easy · Nov 9, 2009

You can tell from the demeanors of the players that they're really used to everything thats going on, and that alot of them don't care too much about the result of the game.
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That got my attention.

hasan08 · Nov 9, 2009

I have actually heard a few stories about kobe being a really nice guy.

I havnt been a fan of him because he kills the rockets but then again he kills everybody.

Also shaq is a nice guy(met him twice and both times he was extremly nice)

Hakeem obviously has been a really nice guy and I know many people have met him and have had a good experience.

Rafer and battier were nice as well when I met them.

tim562 · Nov 9, 2009

Confirmed Garnett is an A$$hole.....

chila · Nov 11, 2009

so,this is a suns ballboy. good job by him

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