LOL just assume i was will ferrell and david andersen was paul rudd. the convo went something very similar to this: convo with me and david andersen if someone could photoshop david andersen into a pic of that character from anchorman that would be sick! seriously, that's my memory of him, "its a formidable sent! it stings the nostrils... in a good way."
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ok its past 2 am on the east coast so i'm breaking for the night... hopefully ill get through the rest of them tomorrow... lowry, scola, shane, worrell, adelman, morey, brooks, and brooks still to come... thats no typo... 2 brooks'
This is an awesome thread smoothie. Sounds like the whole team are filled with a bunch of good personalties.
by the way, i got your email, but i've been hosting my brother who's visiting from la... so i haven't had time for much else. if i didn't have to host him i would've had all the pics and the whole story posted the night i got back form the game!
LOL my boy has to keep up his strength! Ain't easy playing the Shaqs and Dwights of the world Some really great pictures, I must say I am jealous! :grin:
I don't remember if i've told this story here yet but..... The Houston @ Cleveland game is pretty much a yearly ritual for me. Anyway, right next to the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland is this really fancy mall with a hotel attached to it that all the NBA road teams stay at. So needless to say, if an NBA player, coach or crew member needs some time to kill before the game that night......well, your hotel is attached to a mall. As of the past couple years, I haven't been going to the mall before the game but one year I did and I ran into Bullard walking around in the food court. He was absolutely perplexed that I recognized him. As if spotting a goofy looking 6'10" white dude in a crowd was tough to do. He was cool about it too -- shook my hand, chatted a bit. Charlie Ward was another completely taken back that anybody knew who he was. We ran into some other players too but the HIGHLIGHT of the trip was my buddy and I playing a prank on Ryan Bowen. My buddy called the hotel front desk, asked for his room and pretended to be Keith Jones saying that he needed him to come to the lobby for some inane reason. Needless to say, next thing you there he is walking around the lobby looking all confused. He paced around the lobby for about five minutes before getting back on the elevator. So what did we do? Ring, ring....."Hi, could you ring up Ryan Bowen's room for me, please?". Yet again, he came down to the lobby looking for Keith Jones only he was nowhere to be found. :grin:
ok so the last 4 guys were the ones i was most excited to meet (lowry, scola, shane, and AB who snubbed me before the game). kyle lowry came out and i almost missed him! out of the whole team, this is the guy toughest to spot. he doesn't look like an nba player. maybe because he's about 6 foot nothing. i asked him how he plays so big in the paint... he said he just goes for the ball when a lot of guys just watch it come to them. i asked him about staying with the rockets after this season. he gave a confident nod without saying anything then i asked for a pic. <a href='http://img684.imageshack.us/i/rockets020.jpg/'><img src='http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3470/rockets020.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> next out of the lockers was shane battier! i was so excited to meet this guy. one of my favorite all time players... he didnt let me down at all. he was one of the nicest, most genuine athletes i've ever met. he came over, shook my hand, asked for my name, thanked me for my support on the road, etc... i thanked him for the job he was doing on and off the court for this team. i also asked if he ever thought about coaching, preferably here. he said he gave it some thought but its too early to start seriously thinking about it. i told him "i understand that, but when it is time to seriously think about it, decide to coach the rockets." lol. he laughed and said ok. great experience here. <a href='http://img63.imageshack.us/i/rockets019.jpg/'><img src='http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/4859/rockets019.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> next up is one of my favorite players... and what turned out to be one of my all time favorite pics... scola with his LUNCH BOX!! lol classic. <a href='http://img85.imageshack.us/i/rockets018.jpg/'><img src='http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/3492/rockets018.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> he looked really tired, probably all the travel of the back to backs, plus traveling on xmas... when i asked for a pic he said "yeah, but it's gotta be fast." he looked so tired that i understood he wasnt trying to snub me since he did stop and take the pic, but obviously didnt stay to chat. i wanted to tell him its like 30 degrees outside and he might not want to leave his chest exposed like razor ramon... but the moment passed... <a href='http://img31.imageshack.us/i/razor1r.jpg/'><img src='http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/9757/razor1r.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/>
i saw aaron brooks and devin harris walking out together talking with some guy about a deal (an endorsement of some sort?). the guy walked a few feet away to leave them to discuss it. they ended up finishing their convo right in front of me! went something like this: devin: seems like a nice guy right? aaron: yeah its a good deal so there i was standing next to a former all star PG (harris) and a PG that didnt even start 82 games yet (AB). who do i ask for a pic? AB of course... and guess what? this guy said he didnt have time for one, then went to talk to some other people for like 20 minutes while i was standing like 10 feet from them the whole time. i understood when he said he didnt have time before the game, but this was BS and i knew it. i still like aaron a lot, as a player for the rockets, but i'm not a big fan of his anymore. i turned to devin harris and said "do you have time for a pic?" he said sure. <a href='http://img51.imageshack.us/i/rockets014.jpg/'><img src='http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/6163/rockets014.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> i snapped a pic with him while aaron brooks, who was too busy for 1 pic, hung out just a few feet away. i asked devin why aaron was so busy he rolled his eyes almost in disagreement with aaron and said "i dont know man, there was time for a pic." i told him "being a rockets fan, i used to hate you when you were with the mavs, but you just won me over." he gave me a handshake and patted my shoulder and said "we could use all the fans we can get." i said "you got that right." we shared a laugh and he asked how i'm a rocket fan from jersey... i said im from ny, just came here to see my team. he said they're lucky to have fans like that, then he told me to have a safe ride back to ny and left. if clyde was there he would've called devin harris "a consummate professional." lol but i didnt give up on my quest to get a pic with a rockets PG named brooks: <a href='http://img200.imageshack.us/i/19754102185726476734100.jpg/'><img src='http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3962/19754102185726476734100.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> scott brooks! woo! i met him at the thunder/nets game on monday. he was on his way to the locker room before the game started and wasnt taking pics or signing anything... i said "i'm a big rocket fan!" he gave me a look like how did i know he was on the rockets... then came and took a pic. came out blurry but it'll do.
Man... if only Clyde Drexler can do the color commentary on people's lives. In fact, that's what the Rockets should auction off for charity one day: Bill Worrell and Clyde Drexler broadcast a day in your life. Time to ship his ass with McGrady for Chris Paul!!!!!
all of the players were gone at this point but there were still a couple people left to meet. i caught bill worrell. he was a really nice guy to talk to. thanked me for coming out to support. i told him ive been listening to him call the games for maybe a good 10 years now and i can't imagine watching a game without him. he was really happy and gave me a big "well thanks!" i asked if he was jinxing carl on the free throws (if you remember he missed 3 in the first half) he said he might have on one, but carl made his last 6. he asked if i was from here... i said no im from ny. he said "then why did you come out here?" i said it's a lot cheeper than MSG lol. he asked when the rockets travel to ny, i told him sometime in the spring i think. he said "well i sure hope to see you there, it's been a pleasure." <a href='http://img690.imageshack.us/i/rockets010.jpg/'><img src='http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5462/rockets010.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> to my surprise, i ended up standing right next to daryl morey! it was a serious OMG! moment lol. he was with the wife and kids and didnt stop texting/emailing on the blackberry the entire time i saw him. i told him he has a really big following among the fans. he kind of looked surprised and flattered, chuckled and said thanks. i told him we call him the wizard and about the phrase "in morey we trust" he responded with another flattered chuckle. we started talking about the game. he said the travel has been tough on the whole team. he was worried about how they would look tonight, and considered it a trap game since the cavs were up next. he said when the crowd got into it near the end he got a little worried because a 1 possession game can go either way. i told him about countering the "DEFENCE!" chant with my "JOHN WALL!" chant. he laughed and said "should be cheering for him!" awesome moment. i told him i wasnt worried about the game because i've never seen the rockets lose in person (fact) and he said "jeez then we better take you with us to cleveland." i told him i'd be there, just leave 2 tickets at will call. he said his son was like that (never seen the rockets loose) for a while, but he's been to too many games at this point. <a href='http://img686.imageshack.us/i/rockets011.jpg/'><img src='http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3192/rockets011.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> i gave my 2 cents about scola not closing out on yi like 4 times that led to drives and scores. he said rick was telling him all game to play the drive not the shot and he kept forgetting. i wanted to ask about tmac but i didnt want to overstep my boundaries and have it be a conversation ender. so i choose to ask about his "undervalued list." i thought it would be great to add a ton of gas to this trade talk fire that we usually have here. he looked surprised that i knew about it and said he gets paid to keep that stuff to himself lol. i told him that if there are any foreign players that they want to bring over, i'm an ESL teacher... he laughed and said that's yao's job lol! the once-in-a-lifetime convo came to an end when the last guy was ready to leave, rick adelman. morey left as soon as he saw adelman was on his way out. rick was in a hurry, i stopped him for a pic and he said "ok but its gotta be fast!" i heard that from almost all of them... like i said, it seems the schedule really got to them at that point. little did he know that my friend was already pointing the camera at him. i said "it will be so quick, you wont even know we took it." he turned around and FLASH... a pic that is PURE GOLD to photoshop artists: <a href='http://img51.imageshack.us/i/rockets016.jpg/'><img src='http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/32/rockets016.jpg' border='0' alt='Image Hosted by ImageShack.us'/></a><br/> nice face rick! lol he never saw it coming. ...and that was my night! sorry it took so long to upload and resize and type out everything. hope you all enjoyed!
