The 64th NBA season tipped off tonight.
Matt and I used to go to a lot of games and we still manage to make it to a few nowadays. Back in college, through an artful manipulation of both Ticketmaster practices and Staples Center security lapses, we were able to meet quite a few NBA players. At the time, I started collecting most of their autographs. At one point I started framing all of these, but it sort of became quite a project and I've yet to properly enframe and display the whole collection. Hopefully I'll someday get around to it.
Anyway, here are a few for now that have yet to make it into frames...
Carmelo Anthony. Team USA Summer Camp. Las Vegas, 2006.
Joe Johnson
Andre Igoudala. We met him at a game his sophomore season. This kid has been killing it under the radar for so long. If he ever escapes Philly he'd be a beast on another squad.
Kevin Durant. Every expert and analyst thinks this guy is going to run the league for the next decade. Unbelievable scorer and he's super humble, which is pretty much unheard of amongst guys at his level in the NBA. This was from another Team USA scrimmage in Vegas - also on here, Tyson Chandler, Deron Williams and J Kidd.
Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic. Met these guys at the Palms hotel a few years back when they were both still with the Kings. This is actually signed on a Jack in the Box hiring flier. Long story, maybe we'll get into that on another future blog post.
Gilbert Arenas. Before the knee surgeries and before the gun charges.
Carlos Boozer. Back in 03 when he was still with the Cavs.
Richard Jefferson. This was actually signed on my ticket from NBA All Star practice. My boy Sam and I literally snuck into Saturday's practice session and when security tried to kick us out someone handed us these comped tickets in order to let us stay. Anyway, later that day we ran into Jefferson and Luke Walton out in Culver City - another long story...
And of course, the one and only, Yao Ming. Back from foot surgery this season and ready to take the league back over. I feel sorry for everyone who counted him out - you'd think they'd know better than to underestimate the Chinese.
