i got to shake hands with every player in attendance tonight... sans one or two. the sucky part was they were instructed NOT to sign any autographs. i ran into kenny smith in the theater lobby. he was politely waving people off for signatures, but saw me in my rocket championship t-shirt and agreed to a quick signature on a mini ball. inside the theater gundy and mark jackson were texting other people during every commercial break. when the theater cleared out mostly (after the first few picks in the second round) it was quiet enough for them to hear everything the fans yelled towards them. i threw out "who are you texting jeff?!" and he replied with a "what does it matter?" so i went on to tell him to "text me!" if i didn't have 4 friends with me, not one person would believe this, but he had me shout my number to him as he wrote it down, then called from a blocked number and asked me what i was doing. i told him he needs to let mark talk more. he laughed and said he had to go, they're coming back from commercial. (greatest moment ever). mark jackson blew a kiss to someone in the crowd as she got up to walk away. i asked her as she passed my isle how she knew him. she was his mother! so the guy sitting behind me asked if she would take a picture with him. she did, and he proceeded to get marks attention with "your moms gonna be on my facebook!" mark and jeff found that pretty funny. and finally (i just realized this isn't going in chronological order), when the guy who was calling the names in the second round (silver) came out, i started a "we want russ " chant. this was extreemly popular and lasted for about 7 or 8 picks. nba spokespeople came to our group and said they would give us a free draft hat if we cheered for silver. we proceeded to boo them (much to the delight of the Ny crowd) then continue with our "we want russ" chant. sorry if this comes off as a rambled mess. it's 2am here and i've been working all day / at the draft until now. if i could get my friends to email me the pics in a timely manner, i'll post them.
we chanted a lot of things. i started "action jackson!!" (which provoked a shimmy) and "let mark coach!" (which seemed to really touch him, he pounded his chest and pointed at me and my friends). jeff seemed to agree with that too, nodding his head. "we want russ" was the most fun though. the nba spokespeople tried to buy us off by giving us draft hats to cheer for silver. that just made us want russ more! lol. the one spokeperson actually told me "c'mon guys, you're really fu*!ng me over here!" which cracked us up... then made us chant for russ. i shouted to bilas during a commercial break (when it's quiet enough for them to hear individual fans) "you messed up my mock!" he kind of shrugged with his palms up and shook his head." as for the cheese doodle guys. those are the same guys that do the stephen a smith sock puppet. i met them last year (we sat together) and we met up this year again.
Wait. JVG called you during a commercial break from a blocked number and said "what are you doing?" LMAO
This is freaking awesome. You need to put this in the Dish or GARM or even the hangout instead of stashing it away here cause that story is just TOO good.
I believe those draft hats worked, because I could hear people chanting "Adam Silver...Adam Silver" for a few picks in the 2nd round.
there was one group of teenagers (that were trying to get the draft hats... and in fact succeeded. of course i thought about getting the draft hats, but then he showed me he was holding a JAZZ HAT! ugh. my friend goes "get that thing out of here! he's a rocket fan." i realized later that in the crowd of silver lovers was in fact a few jazz fans, now wearing their new hats. when their cheers for silver took over we turned our heckles to them... dubbing them "silver's mormon's" in a pretty loud chant. we were sitting right in front of jay bilas who cracked a smile on air when we did that.
How do you guys even know them?? Good story though. Did JVG know you're a Houston fan [nvm, just realized you wore your Rockets jersey]? Did anyone scream anything to Stern regarding the whole betting scandal or rigging games? I know I would've, but that would probably get you kicked out.
the thing is, during the first round (when stern is there) the place is packed. thousands of people screaming. they can't hear you. then i would say about 25% of people left after the knicks pick, and then most people left after the first round. by the middle to the end of the second round there were less than 100 people there... all moved up to the stage... those guys can hear anything you say to them.
Russ Granik was the Deputy Commissioner for 22 years. He used to come on for the 2nd round on a regular basis. Adam Silver replaced him and I think that last year's NBA draft was the first one he participated in.
