After a VERY stressful 36 hours in attempting to get my partner, John Karalis (a.k.a Boston) and friends from the east coast to All-Star wknd in Dallas, Boston finally went wheels down just about the time I was standing in section 102 at the Rookie-Sophomore game chatting with Roger Mason Jr. of the San Antonio Spurs (who asked “Why don’t the Cavs want ME?” LOL). Finishing up with Rog (@MoneyMase on Twitter) I witnessed a spectacular dunk by his teammate DeJuan Blair that almost made me fall over and certainly made me lean to watch the replay. (See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1717sc1a_s) The entire arena ERUPTED and rightfully so. I had yet to see this kid in action but after that dunk I hope that he gets invited to the dunk contest next year and that the Lakers see San Antonio in the playoffs I’d love to see how he and Andrew Bynum square off.
After waving at Kevin Love *(sighting #2 of 5 for the weekend) and watching Tyreke Evans get his trophy, I shouted out to Russy (Russell Westbrook) who threw me something of a cross between a gang sign and a “peace out”. Hmm….ok.
I made my way across the street to the W to retrieve my Blackberry. I had left it with the concierge in hopes of it being charged up during the game only to find they wouldn’t let me into the building without a room key. After intense insistence that I wasn’t going away without my phone, one of the staff recognized me from earlier in the bar (go figure) and graciously offered to go in and get it for me. As I waited in the freezing cold, I surveyed the crowd clamoring to get into the lobby bar (yes, the ground floor LOUNGE). I turn around and who is standing shoulder to shoulder with me? My little Nater-Tot, Nate Robinson. I apologized for bumping him and he said “Oh no, you’re good.” (The first of many pleasant exchanges for the evening). I said “That was pretty funny down on the court earlier. I actually think you might have called the HE a SHE on that trivia question but the jury’s still out.” He laughed and said “for real? Uh oh.” With that they lifted the velvet rope and he turned and said “See you in there?”. Little did I know what the night had in store.
The “doorman” (a.k.a. Gestapo #2) came back with my cell phone only to find out they hadn’t actually charged it at all (no tip for any of you!) and I was sent on my way. I walked across the street to The Boardroom, where I was to attend one of many parties hosted by the wonderful people at 944 Magazine. I was hoping to confirm my guestlist status since I had not heard back officially. I ran into Ms. Jennifer Marnach herself, who I had been speaking with in order to procure the invites. She assured me that we were all set for each and every party. Fantastic. I could already picture Boston’s face when I tell him “Oh and we’re going to Paul Pierce’s party too….. and no, you’re not wearing your Truth jersey.” J
I arrived to the hotel with just enough time to change clothes and head out to the ESPN party at the Ghostbar at the W Hotel. While I briefed him about the rookie-sophomore game and the egregious amount of parties we were expected to attend, he rifled through our swag bags that I had picked up from the T-Mobile people that afternoon. Inside were not only our tickets for every event but brand new MyTouch phones for each of us already set up with a year’s worth of free service. WOW. Thanks T-Mobile.
Boston attempted with his giant banana hands to set up a few programs with the touch screen as we sped over in the cab to the W. Upon arrival, our great friend Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) came down to usher us thru the velvet ropes and escort us upstairs. Standing in the elevator bank were Ric Bucher and Tim Legler. We looked at each other and went “Oh this is gonna be a good night.”
Chatting with Jemele in the elevator about Super Bowl and discussing how difficult it was to land invites to this shin-dig, we were informed that it was open bar and there were buffalo wings if we got hungry. Boston and I exchanged a look and proceeded to form a mini-huddle. I said “I’ll take the bar if you get food.”….. and BREAK.
We get off the elevator and it was the most overwhelming display of people we’d always wanted to meet and some we already knew. First person I see in the corner booth? Nater-Tot Robinson…..in a different shirt! This is now the 3rd shirt I’d seen him in within 3 hours. We made eye contact, he waved me over and I said “Are you fixing to get another outfit goin’ before we all head to Kenny Smith’s party?” He replied “Oh NOOOOO, this party’s at capacity, I’m stayin’ right here.” I played it cool again and said I was going to the bar but I’d be back.
The place was BUZZING. There were 2K10 stations set up in the booths, hors du’erves being passed, a pop-a-shot getting all kinds of attention next to the dance-floor and Stuart Scott doing some kind of jig that resembled the Elaine Dance from Seinfeld. Just sayin’.
My gin and tonics arrived and I made my way back towards Boston who was surprisingly easy to spot considering the crowd of past, present and future players considerably taller than him negotiating their way through the room. I see him standing with someone in a baseball cap and what looked like an ascot (yes, an ascot). I finally realized when I got to them that it was our old friend Lang Whitaker from Slam Magazine. He had been stuck back east as well and had quite the ordeal getting to Dallas despite procuring a private plane.
After a few quick words with our friends, I got to work on the room. I went back to talk to Nate, as promised, and he was every bit as welcoming at the first 3 times I’d seen him that day. In the midst of our discussion I asked him for his blessing on the nickname I’d bestowed upon him (“Nater-Tot) and his eyes got huge. I believe the words that came next were “That’s f***ing AWESOME. I love it. Where’s my phone, I gotta tweet dat.” He then proceeded to hand ME the blackberry and write a message (which everyone has probably seen by now) along with my Twitter name for proper credit. Just as I was about to send it he said “Wait! You can’t send it yet. I gotta finish it so people know it’s from me. You know what I gotta put, right?” I of course replied “Word AAAAAAAP” with a little gangsta lean and he busted out laughing.
After Nater-Tot and I had our moment, I surveyed the room and discovered the party was a virtual who’s-who in the sports world. Athletes, current and former, included everyone from David Lee (who Boston swears he’s “just as tall as”) and Kevin Love to Alonzo Mourning and Hasheem Thabeet. I pulled Kevin Love aside and asked “hey, do you still have your Twitter?”. He replied: “No they made me get rid of it. They didn’t like me being funny.” Shaking my head in confusion I said “Ummm, they have MET YOU, right? I’ve covered you since your Bruin days and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that you’re always good for a laugh.” He shrugged and said “I don’t know. I kinda miss it though. It was a good outlet.” I shook my head and said “I don’t think they wanted the competition if you ask me.” We kibitzed a little while longer about life in the NBA, how tough the training is, girlfriend status, etc and then parted ways with a hug and a promise to keep in touch.
I reunited with Boston across the room just in time for everyone to make a spectacle out of this short guy making his way thru the crowd with a bedazzled hat on. Oh yeah, it was Spike Lee. The girl next to me almost passed out. Seriously. He was really the one person I didn’t making a big deal of. Go figure.
Just when you thought the party couldn’t get any bigger or better, waiters came out of nowhere with giant plates of waffles circa 1am. HUGE Belgian style waffles, complete with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips for accompaniment. As Lang Whitaker would say: “Aww yeah, Shawty.”
We skipped the waffles but made our way into the back of the party where we had a quick chat and exchange of numbers with Stephen A. Smith (or his assistant/sister, as the case may be) and then plopped down to admire the crowd. Little did we realize, 3 feet from us was Chris Tucker and walking over to HIM was Mark Curry (who is a lot taller in person). I then went off on a mission to find Ms. Jemele Hill who I bet $500 that should wouldn’t go over to Chris Tucker and recite a certain line from Friday that we love. She was nowhere to be found but on my way back I ran into (literally) Brent Barry who was incredibly nice and offered to exchange numbers with me for a future appearance on the show. SCORE!
Just as I was about to go find Boston, up comes Bucher and Legler. DOUBLE SCORE. Legler was a tad tipsy but 100% HILARIOUS. He might be my new favorite person. He and Bucher were cracking jokes and Legler was attempting to seduce the bartender into 1 more drink despite it being past 2am. Hugs were exchanged all around and promises were made to meet up the next day. Legler shouts “Call me AFTER noon. Definitely not waking up til at least lunchtime.” Classic.
Making our way out of the party we finally had a few moments to speak with Arthur Triche from the Atlanta Hawks. We had heard so much about him after Lang was embedded with them for a story this season. He lived up to all the hype and humor we’d heard about and hopefully will grant us some time with a few of his boys as the season progresses.
Exiting the building we heard that LeBron James had just arrived and was upstairs at one of the 2K10 setups. How we missed that, I’m not sure but at 2:30am we were fully spent and needing a rest. Lots to report on for Saturday and we had been looking so forward to seeing what Nater-Tot had in store.
STAY TUNED!
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