So Saturday RAID and I had a decent amount to drink before the game, I ended up having a lot more since RAID was doing the driving around vegas. So there is this guy there, crazy mofo but he cracks me up and hooks me up with some water and food at his cart every year. robgue (cf poster who usually is at SL with me) knows him and he calls everyone scummies..funny guy so I went to him first to get hooked up and I didnt even notice as I was talking to him the guy next to me at the stall is...... Daryl Morey it was a total accident...I turn and go Daryl! and he goes hey man whats going on...Ok so now that I had more than a few I started just talking. I was like so Daryl after all the times I've emailed you and all you remember my name now? He oooooh well I know it starts with a S right and its 4 letters long...cmon now I'm more of a numbers guy than names. I said well then I bet if I gave you my name in binary you would remember it then..I said like 010010 he start laughing binary, then he said "but thats 9 in binary" we had a good laugh. Then I asked him about the whole Ariza jersey issue and he said it would be a safe bet if I had purchased a #1 jersey with ariza on it. and he left after that I said I didnt want to take up more of his time. my blurry pic (thanks RAID way to use an iphone! ) is on my twitter but here is a pic of Morey and RAID So what was cool was we met up with Carl Herrera that day too and caught the games we caught up again with Coach Turner in the lobby area and took a pic Carl and I with Coach T Before meeting Coach T I bumped into David Kahn the GM of the wolves we had a small conversation about Ricky Rubio and the status of Kevin Love since Love was one of "mchale's guys" if he was going to be moved. Kahn said they really want Rubio here and he is really sad nothing was able to get done otherwise he would have been playing here but the buyout is really hard to "navigate" around. He also assured me Love is staying, after all Kahn is a UCLA bruin as well. I told Kahn afterwards that I know they are looking at a head coach and they were talking to Coach Turner and I told him that he better hire Coach T because he is a great coach and a great guy who needs to get his chance in the league. He smiled and said that he hoped that the wolves had fans like me that know the names of the assistant coaches and whats going on with them. I told Coach T that I "put in a good word for him" with Kahn and he started laughing and he said he appreciates the love. After that Feigan came out of the elevator near the entrance to the gym and I went to talk to him, he wanted to shake my hand but his hands were full (laptop and water bottles) we talked about possible moves and all this is what he had to say (best paraphrase): "Daryl assigned a value to Gortat around 3.5-4 million and thats what the Rockets wanted him for and felt if a full MLE was given that would be over paying for an immediate need and they do not want to be hasty. If you look around Daryl is the busiest GM here because everyone is calling him because of a) tracy's contract and also because everyone who has a certain, any agent that knows a center are trying to get at him so they can get their guy on the Rockets or try to strong arm Daryl in a trade. Thats not going to happen." I asked him about the Ariza jersey he said that was correct it was because McGrady had put in the paper work to get his jersey number changed for his Darfur project. Feigan didnt tell me the number, he obviously has written about it since then. I didnt say anything because he said he knew the number but was writing an article soon with the info..so this was Saturday night I think his article was out the next day so he wasnt really leaking info too me but at the same time I didnt want to leak his story out since I believe he was the first to break the number change. So we were getting ready for the Rockets game and who do I see walking in front of me, why its Damon Stoudamire. I called out to him, he ignored me so I called out again and he turned around and said whats up. I told him "Man you KNOW you should have signed with houston back in 98!" He smiled and said "man thats old how you remember that" I said I'm an old rockets fan man! he laughed and took his seat over in the "players/team/coaches only section" During the game whenever Joey D was at the line I yelled over to Coach Respert... for those who dont know he is the bald guy with shorts in the pic below Respert is the player development coach and works a lot with the younger guys to improve their games. I talked to him a bit at one of the games when the Rockets were here in LA and he is a really nice guy. So before joey shot his free throw I yelled out "COACH! Your paycheck depends on this shot he better make it for his sake!" Joey made the FT I then yelled out "Coach! you can buy dinner tonight! lets hope you can afford dessert now!" Of course Joey missed the next FT and Coach started laughing. Macha and some of the other assistant kept laughing. I kept talking to coach Respert whenever joey went to the line. It was all just fun banter. After the game Morey who was sitting above us came down patted me on the back and said "hey man you were Joey's good luck charm today!" Joey didnt hit too many fts but he had a solid double double that night. After wards I walked over to Coach and he came over and I just said remember me he said y'all come out from LA to watch the games? I said yeah I said I hope he knows I was messing with him and that Joey has shown real progress in his FTs and a lot of that was because of the work he put in. Respert agreed and said a lot of it was in Joey's head, he has good form and a good stroke now but he is losing focus and it becomes a mental thing for him being at the line. In practice he reels off a bunch of FTs in a row, but gametime its different. We shook hands and I said I'd see him tomorrow
we get drinks ALL the time! i wish no he is a sociable person, but i think having met him 2 years ago at summer league when he was a brand new GM (and relatively unknown) and getting to know him then and emailing him back and forth the past 2 years (he doesnt respond to all of my emails, but a lot more than I expected a NBA GM would) we built a "i know who you are I'll talk to you" type relationship.. At first I thought it wasnt him responding but someone else in the Rockets org until he confirmed it was him last year when we met again at summer league. Most GMs will give the general lip service to the fans there or people trying to hit Daryl up for a job since they'll go and talk to him at any time. I think because I was a bit more respectful of his time and didnt try to push anything out of him he gives me more time and info (what little he does...2 years ago he said to me NO WAY we sign steve francis and then we sign him)
So onto Sunday I was hoping to sit right next to Daryl during the Rockets game since there was an empty seat next to him but Tad Brown came and sat next to him and the rest of the other Rockets scouts. Carl Herrera and I sat in the row in front of Morey and RAID and Kwame sat behind Daryl (and next to Joey's girl who was HOT but unfortunately no picture was taken I think RAID was scared of what Joey would do and he is a big man and RAID, not so big of a man) the view of Morey from RAID's seat it was cool being near Morey though during the game he was always talking to one of the scouts and Tad Brown about something. Who is doing what right. As I mentioned in the other thread he was very critical of JT's free throw stroke and was saying he needed to correct that. He got mad at Joey for blowing defensive assignments, Joey is a great defender but loses focus of his man at times and follows the ball since he wants to block shots. He was just gushing over Chase's basketball skill..he said after Chase made a bank shot.."man he has that shot all the time he is soo good at it" then he got mad at the female rep who had called two really bad call on the Rockets in a row...he started "heckling" her i started to laugh he said "HEY ref that was a terrible call dont try to anticipate the foul!" after that he went over to do a broadcast interview for NBATV but this guy also showed up on Sunday for the first time over the weekend also this guy (sorry from my iphone) Lowry looked like he lost some weight. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to him but I was torn at either going towards to talk to him or ask Daryl another question. I was hoping to ask Daryl about Von's future. Daryl came back and sat near us again after his interview but sat future up with Coach Adelman so I knew better than to go up there. I didnt get a chance to ask him during timeouts when he was behind me because he kept talking to Tad Brown at that time. After the game ended Morey went onto the court and into the Rockets locker room he was on the phone as he was coming down so I didnt want to bother him then. I asked coach Adelman though what he thought of his rookies. He just said "well I dont know they did some good but they have a lot of work to go, this if the first time I've seen them play" I asked he didnt seem them practice in Houston he said no he didnt he was back in Oregon after the season so he was seeing them for the first time. I told him to keep up the good work and that he has his work cut out for him next season..he said thanks A bit later Kevin Pritchard was talking to Adelman but I am sure it was just because of their portland ties and nothing more it seems a more personal conversation. I tried to track Morey down later that day to ask him about Von but he just hung around the locker room "door" (the side of the court but its sectioned off so only team can go there but you can see everyone over there standing around before/after games) I ended up sending him an email..hopefully he responds if he does I'll post what I can here if nothing has happened to Von by then. After that RAID and I went home Carl Herrera and Kwame i think may be still at the games today? not sure it was a lot of fun meeting them there that day. Oh I also talked to Scotty Brooks on saturday but I was more telling him congrats on the Thunder and all not so much Rockets related that is all...a great weekend I keep telling you all to keep making it out next year its always a blast out there
he does but I dont know if he has a username or what, he very well could but just be a lurker, I've had a Rockets official email through the board in the past and their username had 0 posts to it and all. get it right its So Young not Soon Ye...I'm still waiting on my song oh just to give a quick thing before we went to the game RAID and I were wating a pizza hut express in the Hotel and in my druken stupor I hit on this Korean girl who was visiting from Korea and vacation in LA named So Young..i dont remember why I started talking to her or what but I got her number RAID says I should call her ASAP
Some of the coaches, athletes, etc. will goof off with fans there. When Rudy T was at one of the summer league games, he was mobbed by people. He took the time to shake people's hands and say hey on the way out. The most interesting thing to watch is how players and agents (?) try to buddy up next to coaches, gm's, etc. If you ever get a chance and want to just hang out and enjoy people watching, the summer league games are great to see and maybe get within handshaking distance and interact with players, coaches, etc. that you would otherwise never even get to hear live. It sure as heck ain't for the basketball games usually. When I went out there, I sat behind and heard Sam Mitchell talking with someone else (Kevin McHale I think it was) ripping into players. I mean seriously... picture you're sitting in the bleachers and on the row of right in front of you is Kevin McHale. Damn. I shook Rudy T's hand as he walked by and thanked him for the effort they put into the rings (cheesy, but I didn't know what else to say). He smiled a huge smile and gave a handshake. The guy acted like he gave a damn. I appreciated that. And of course, I unleashed one of the worst periods on this forum when I started, fed and fueled the Malick Badiane saga. Lots of neat stuff at summer league games not involving basketball if you hang around. You should go if you get the chance.
Can't see this stuff in Cali...thanks...too many Kobe lovers out here. Gawd, Morey makes Feigen look like a Jenny Craig commercial! What did DM think of Artest, BTW?`
Sitting at Pizza Hut and watching an intoxicated Yoyo hit on a random chick was entertaining to say the least. The best part was seeing her warm up to him (for some unknown reason), give him her info and acting like she was honestly looking forward to hanging out - classic. Well played, my friend
Yoyo can answer what it's like in Vegas - I've never been to the one in Vegas. The ones I went to in Minnesota and Long Beach, they have about 3 rows of seats or so separating you from the players' benches, but those coaches, players, agents, etc. are wandering around the stands a lot of times or there're so few people in there, you can scream out at them and they'll hear you. If you're lucky you'll see some of them sitting in the stands somewhere, but they usually move down so they're not bugged to death sometimes. The best part, though, is you're closer to the coaches and execs than you'll probably ever be at a game unless you're sitting right behind the bench at a real game.
yeah and no there are two gyms games are played at in vegas in the smaller Cox Pavillion you can sit anywhere int he gym you want but the two sides of the gym is split in four sections. The last section of each side of the gym is sectioned off (with yellow tape) for team officials/players... the ends of the baskets is where the media sit. You can walk anywhere and sit anywhere in the stands. the first row though at cox pavillion is reserved for people who buy courtside tix (75 for the day as opposed to 25 for general admission) usually the players sit in the sectioned off area and team officials when their team is not playing so they arent bothered. but since its at the end when their team is playing the officials move to somewhere a lot closer to the middle of the court to get a better angle. in the larger Thomas and Mack Center its a similar concept except since there are seats behind the basket that area is sectioned off of players/officials
