NBA Draft Photos … Finally!
Over the past three days I have spent 24+ hours in an airport. No joke. I have had 3 cancelled flights, slept thru another one, and pleaded with a countless number of customer service representatives to help get my ass from Point A to Point B. Honestly, it’s been insane. Was it exhausting? Yes. Was it frustrating? Yes. But was it worth it? Oh God yeah…
I mean, sure, I may have missed the more important Tuesday night pre-draft party — where I definitely would’ve asked Chris Webber if he were having a “good time out” — but whatever, the SBL guys really did their thang. The interviews they conducted were fantastic so make sure you check them out.
Anyway, I promised some photos days ago so here they are. Note: Schrages, the SBL Producer took this fantastic batch. My thoughts are included. I hope you enjoy … making fun of how I look. Easy now guys. Easy…
After working for a little while, and before we went to the Draft, the guys and I made a quick stop by the NBA Store. Man, this place was ridiculous. They have absolutely every single product you can imagine with some sort NBA or team logo on it. I mean, shirts, sweaters, clocks, PS2 controllers, chairs, tables, coffins … OK, not coffins. But I’m sure you could order one.
I couldn’t get enough of these creepy, over-sized bobbleheads. If I ever I get my own house, these will be my garden gnomes.
L to R: No Idea, No Idea, No Idea. Hahaha… these look nothing like them! (Although I love the little Duncan-deuce that T-Mac’s droppin’.)
That’s me on the left.
On the other side of this wall, you could measure your dick size against NBA and WNBA stars. I whipped mine out and came in just bigger than Rebecca Lobo. Whew…
As you probably know by now, this was what inside Stern’s mysterious black box. It’s a nice ball and has a crazy super grip to it. I could plam the thing easily. Funny part: I started dribbling it around the store a bit, when all of a sudden some employee got pissed. He was all like, “There are only 61 of these in the world, and they cost over $200 bucks”, and blah-blah-blah. I just laughed at him and said, “It’s a ball dude. Jeesh.”
OK, onto the draft. This was the first person I saw when I entered MSG and … yeah, um, I’ve got nothing else to add to this.
Jamie — aka Mr. Irrelevant — posing with two of the NBA’s new balls. (In fact, I believe these are #42 and #43 of the 61 officially made.)
The moment the Raps made the playoffs again. What? Too soon?
Good sign, but he forgot the ‘.com’…
Stephen A., mid cheese-doodle chew…
Me: OK, so you’re the new Knicks GM. What’s the first thing you do?
Headband: We gots to get rid of that BLEEPIN’ Marbury. BLEEP!!! I’m better than that BLEEPA!!!
Me: (Turning back to Mottram) Um, can we use that?
At the start of the 2nd round the NBA handed out these hilarious Russ Granik face things. Somewhere on my camera I have a great video clip of an irate Knicks fan goin’ ape shit on one ‘cuz he thought it was Dolan. Stay tuned for that…
Chris, myself, and Jamie … all drafted out and ready for some Guinessessessessess…
OK, that’s enough. Hopefully this post didn’t crash your browser. Quick reminder for you to check back to see some of the video footage I shot. I don’t know when I’ll get to it, but it is coming. I’ve got Knicks fans going mental, Reddick gettin’ killed by the crowd, and of course, Wizznutzz’s newest import … should be good.
Have a great long weekend everyone. Try not to die.
Comments (10)I Think They Liked Their Picks…
4:00 p.m. — LaGuardia Airport, NJ — Gate A7
Wow. What a night.
Now, before I dive in here, I apologize for not getting to this sooner. You see, the thing is, I somehow found away to sleep thru my 10:30a flight this morning. Yeah, I guess those pints of Guinness really hit the spot after being up for 24 hours straight. Anyway, I’m at LaGuardia right now, eating some fish and chips, so I figure now is a good as time as ever to recap. I figure I’ll do this recap with bullets because, well … bullets kill.
Note: All the photos and video I took will have to wait till I’m home.
NBA Pre-Draft Party, MSG:
- Nothin’ to exciting. Basically just a bunch of rich dudes in suits, standing around, eating sliced beef and cheese tortellini. Oh, Ahmad Rashad rushed by me though. Yeah, he had a crazy piece of bling in his left ear. Must’ve won a big hand from his main man Mike.
- Oh, one cool thing about the pre-draft though: I met my first “fan”. Yeah, this one guy there was wearing a Charlie V Raptors jersey so I struck up a conversation with him. We got to talking and when I told him why I was down, and that I was ‘J.E. Skeets’, the guy genuinely got excited. OK, maybe not excited, but he definitely knew of the site/podcast. That, and he didn’t punch me in the face. So that was cool. Nice guy.
2006 NBA Draft, MSG Theatre:
- I had planned on live-bloggin’ the draft from my seat, but the WiFi didn’t work. It was probably for the better though, because it allowed me to get a whole lot of video footage. (I’ll I try to package that over the next few days with JD.)
- Our seats were dead center, maybe 20-25 rows back? Even though Chris disagrees, I was positive I was sitting next to poker star, Phil Ivey. The “green room” for the draftees was down front, stage left. The ESPN guys (Bilas, Stephen A. Smith, Greg Anthony, and Dan Patrick) were on the other side. Stuart Scott’s desk was a little up ahead of those guys. I couldn’t really see him though — yeah, even when I made my eyes go ‘lazy’ — because a camera crane was in the way. Oh well.
- Bargnani goes 1. No surprise there. I immediately thought of Wesley and his oil, water, and chocolate analogy. I hope he’s wrong.
- Oh, weird moment. After having Stuart Scott tell them weird facts about their moms and watermelon and shit, the picks were escorted along side the crowd, behind a rope. While Bargnani was leaving, fans near the rope started booing him and then started up a “U-S-A! chant”. Incredible.
Damn! I just found out my flight home has been cancelled. ARGH! I gotta go figure this mess out. More to come on the draft later. Obviously. This is getting ridiculous…
Comments (19)Chris Webber Likes ‘Old School’
“Our fourth and final baller of the evening rolls in The Room. It’s Chris Webber. He’s very not sober, which makes this one of the greatest SBL interviews ever. He talks about his favorite jersey for about five minutes, then at the end of the interview says that I’m “the brains of the operation,” then yells to me, “You’re my boy blue!” It is maybe the highlight of my life.”
Yeah, THIS is the type of stuff I missed last night! Single tear…
Bloggers at the Draft Party [Saved By The Blog]
[Exclusive! Exclusive! Exclusive! Make sure you listen to Webber’s SBL interview, live from the Toyota NBA Charity Stripe Party at the 40/40 Club last night. Yeah, apparently C-Webb has like 300 “favorite” jerseys. Who knew?]
Comments (8)Taxi Driver Predictions…
2:57 p.m. — 75 Rock, Manhattan, NY
As I said earlier, my taxi driver — I think his name was Wesley — was absolutely hilarious. We talked about a lot of weird things, but mostly we got into dissecting the NBA Draft. His straight to the point, one-sentence answers were killin’ me in the backseat so I decided to try and scribble down his thoughts. So, here they are, my picks and Wesley my taxi driver’s thoughts:
1. Toronto — Andrea Bargnani
“What! #1? Dude’s tall, white and foreign, not a good mix. That’s like mixing oil, water … and um, chcoolate. Hahaha… bad shit, man.”
2. Chicago — Tyrus Thomas
“Hops. Straight-up hops. If the moon was made of cheese, he’d jump up and taste it.”
3. Charlotte — Adam Morrison
“Now that white boy can ball. Ain’t he the one with diabetes though? Not good that shit. My nephew had diabetes and all he did was drink orange juice.”
4. Portland — Brandon Roy
“Rookie of the next five years.” (Me: Huh?) “Five, baby. Five!”
5. Atlanta — LaMarcus Aldridge
“You can’t teach height.”
6. Minnesota — Rudy Gay
“Gay.” (Dead silence for like 15 seconds…) “His name is Gay.”
7. Boston — Randy Foye
“Is he a 1 or a 2? You know? That’s important. You gotta know this stuff.”
8. Houston — Shelden Williams
“That guy is one scary lookin’ kid so he must be good. (Me: Huh? What you mean?) Come on, when you’re that ugly, you know you ain’t wasting no time looking in the mirror. That’s time saved to be shootin’ jumpers in the gym.”
9. Golden State — Patrick O’Bryant
“O’Bryant! Is he Irish? (Shaking his head…) Bono!”
10. Seattle — Cedric Simmons
“I hope he’s good, ‘cuz then we can call him ‘The Entertainer’.”
11. Orlando — Rodney Carney
“That boy’s another athletic freak. I’d like to say he’s a monster, but that just seems mean, ya know?”
12. New Orleans — Ronnie Brewer
“THE BREWSKY!” (Me: Hahaha… is that it?) “Yeah, I like him. Watch out for him.”
13. Philadelphia — Marcus Williams
“That makes sense ‘cuz AI will be gone by December. They need a new PG. Makes sense.”
14. Utah — Hilton Armstrong
“Ah man, you gonna put him in Utah? That hurts man. He doesn’t deserve that. Nobody deserve that. Utah sucks.”
[Note: My taxi driver was not a cat.]
Comments (10)Red Sparrow, The Eagle Has Landed…
10:44 a.m. — The Time Hotel, Manhattan, NY
Here! Need food. Going to go meet the AOL guys for breakfast. Had a hilarious cab ride over from LaGuardia. Talked with my cab driver about the Draft, immigration, the Mets, sex in advertising, and “respect”. Amazing. I’ll explain more later. NYC, baby! “It was all a dream…”
Comments (3)Skeets vs. The Flight III
5:33 a.m. — Toronto Pearson Airport, Lounge J … again
Ah, back in ol’ Lounge J. Probably my favourite lounge of them all. Yeah, fantastic WiFi, comfy seats, good lighting … it’s a commuter utopia I tell ya.
In about an hour, I’ll take another shot at this crazy phenomenon called “flight”. Pray for me.
And oh, thanks to everyone who left the positive comments late last night/this morning. They really helped in putting that razor blade down. Thanks.
OK, time to get my flying face on.
Comments (5)Wow, New York Sure Looks A Lot Like Toronto…
7:30 p.m. — Downtown Toronto. Yeah … f’n TORONTO!
11 hours at the airport.
2 cancelled flights to New York.
1 very, very, VERY sad J.E. Skeets.
Honestly, I’m lost for words. (Extremely rare.) I can’t believe the opportunity I just missed out on, all because of some piss poor Eastern Seaboard weather. Sigh x a million…
Now, if you’ll kindly excuse me, I’ve got myself a Mother Nature to go rape.
Update: 8:37 p.m. — The Living Room
OK, I’ve settled down a bit and no one got hurt. (It was consensual, I swear.) Anyway, I’ve decided I’m gonna try and do this all over again tomorrow. 6:30 a.m. flight. Keep ‘dem fingers crossed. Night.
Comments (11)The Details Be In Sound…
2:35 p.m. — Toronto Pearson Airport, Lounge Q
Last night — before I decided I was gonna hangout in the airport all day — I went on AOL Sports Bloggers Live to scream like a little school girl about being invited to the Draft. If you want to know a lil’ more about what’ll be going down, then have a listen…
NBA Draft Party Preview [SBL Audio Clip]
[Note: It’s time for Round 2 of “Skeets vs. The Flight.” Let’s do this!]
Comments (2)Ah, Sweet Post Meridiem…
1:13 p.m. — Airport, Still…
I’m throwing all attempts at grammar and spelling out the window. I can’t be bothered. Yeah, if I feel like. Putting a period somewhere it doesn’t belong… well so be it. I saw Spellbound, man; “Um, can you use “loser” in a sentence, please? Is that latin? What’s the root origin?” Bah!
As you can probably imagine I don’t have much new to add over here. I did just drink some water. That was sort of neat. Almost swallowed an ice cube. Whole.
Oh, my draft “incites” have just been requested so I better get started and try to mock this motha’ out. I’ll make sure to post ‘em later so you can all laugh and point at me.
But hey, in the meantime, make sure you check out the ridiculously fantastic Carnival of the NBA over at CelticsBlog.com, and the ridiculously unexplainable TBJ name-drop in Simmons’ new article. (Thanks to everyone who gave me the heads up!)
Comments (4)Ground Stops For Free…
9:28 a.m. — Airplane, Seat 23D
Not off to a good start. My flight was suppose to leave at 8:15, but it’s now 9:30 and I’m still stuck sitting on the tarmac in Toronto. Yeah, rumor has it that there are snakes on our plane. No, apparently there ‘s some type of ground stop in NYC and no aircraft are allowed to depart for there. Anyway, the husky, baritoned voice over the P.A. system is telling me it’ll be another 40-to-45 minutes so, we’ll see. I highly doubt it.
Update: 11:25 a.m. — Toronto Pearson Airport, Molson Pub
I knew it! The flight was cancelled and I’ve had to re-book. Earliest flight I could score was a 3:30. Oh the joy of being stuck in an airport all day. F-bomb! Sigh. I better go eat some chicken fingers before I go all Michael Douglas-Falling Down on somebody’s ass. Be back soon…
Comments (6)About
The Basketball Jones is a NBA blog and podcast, written and recorded five times a week by J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Jason Doyle. Comments, questions and cold hard cash are always welcome and much appreciated. Contact us.
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