Monday, December 13, 2010

Great Night at Wizards vs. Knicks Game - Meeting NBA Legands

I have Wizards season tickets with my next door neighbor Peter Eelman.  We have two tickets in the 417 section which is upper deck and in the middle.  At less than $15 a game, we got quite a deal.  Friday night Julie and Tim were using the tickets.   I drove them down and was going to just buy a single ticket.  I went to the season ticket holder desk and asked what they could do for me.  They looked me up on their system and said, "how about an $80 seat, seven rows from the court behind the Knicks bench for $50?"  That was a no-brainer.

Below is the ticket and a photo of Walt "Clyde" Frazier speaking to the Wizards/Caps/Mystics owner Ted Leonsis.  They were six feet in front of me.     I wrote multiple book reports on Walt Frazier's classic book on living called "Rockin Steady" until I was told that Lake Braddock issued an official policy would no longer accept book reports on "Rockin Steady" from Dave Edstrom :-)



I went up to the mail level to get a beer and I see this table with names like - Bobby Dandridge, Kevin Porter,  Jack Marin, Kevin Grevey, Freddy "Mad Dog" Carter, Phil Walker,  and Michael Adams.  I asked if this was a pay for autograph session?  I was told, "no, just get in line, grab the autograph sheet and they will all sign for free."  I look over and see five people in line.  I became the sixth.  All of these legends walk by and sit down.  We had time to speak to each of them.  I told Freddy "Mad Dog" Carter that his nickname is one of my all time favorites.  Freddy told me, "and I was the FIRST Mad Dog!" with a big smile on his face.   I then met Bobby Dandridge and told him that I was at the game with my father when the Bullets beat the Sixers.  We had seats right behind the basket.  My dad and I ran onto the court yelling like fools.  I was even interviewed on TV.   My great TV interview was me yelling, "this is great, this is great!.  I told Bobby that I remembered that he was traded to the Bullets because Julius Erving said that Bobby Dandridge was the best defender against him.   When I said that, Freddy said to me, "Bobby NEVER stopped Julius!"  I then said to Freddy, "hey, Bobby got a ring that year and Julius did NOT"  Bobby looked at me and laughed and said, "that's right!"   It was super cool to meet these legends and have a chance to speak to them for awhile.  All the young folks (ok, anyone younger than 50 :-)   just walked by not having a clue how important these men were sitting at the table.

Below is a photo of the table:


From left to right at the autograph table is Phil Walker, Kevin Grevey,  Kevin Porter, Bobby Dandridge,  Freddy "Mad Dog" Carter, Michael Adams,, Garry Witts, and Jack Marin.

Below is a copy of the autographs I was able to get Friday night: