Broadway, Beale St. and Basketball
So last week was a milestone, it was my fifth anniversary at Seapine. I remember when I took the job here, I was just a guy looking to make the good times roll again and to hopefully make my way onto Broadway.
Oh wait, that’s actually the plot to Staying Alive. Dear god, is this what this blog has come to, references to a Travolta movie that was directed by Sly Stallone with music by his brother Frank?
Excuse me for a moment.
*Bashes self in head with notebook computer*
Over the weekend I did get to fulfill a lifelong dream though. I had the opportunity to take a free throw on a real NBA court in a real NBA arena. Well, even if it was the Memphis Grizzlies FedEx Forum. (They are currently 15-46 and have the worst record in the NBA.)
Long story short, it was super fun, kind of surreal, and yes of course I missed the shot. I suppose that is just validation that I was smart not put all my eggs into the “Let’s see if I can make it into the NBA” basket.
Although if some NBA GM is out there reading this I’m more than happy to sign a 10-day contract…
Update: The story of how I got to shoot free throws, since it was asked in the comments.
Hmm, I suppose that I did leave out the whole backstory on the free throw. Funny, it is so clear to me, in that I have securely stored in my mind.
My college roommate lives in Memphis and for Christmas Jill gave me a plane ticket to go down and visit him. Part of the weekend was going to be catching the Grizzlies game, hopefully in some manner of high roller fashion. (No $10 cheapo seats for us, holla.)
Anyhow, all our great corporate connections resulted in exactly squat. No luxury boxes, no courtside seats, no chance to start at point guard. Although I’m not sure if that last option would be considered a good thing given the craptastic nature of the Grizz this year.
What did happen though is that we were able to score “Downtowner Night” tickets since my buddy has a house in downtown Memphis. This got us into a pre-game party that didn’t have enough food but had plenty of free beer, game tickets, and then tickets to go shoot free throws after the game. So getting down there was completely legit, by the book, not a single barrier was jumped.
Actually, the security was quite good in that we had more trouble getting OFF the court than we had getting on. By the time we were done messing around on the floor it took us three different tries at three different exits before the guard guarding the exit would let us through.
Guard: “I’m sorry sure, this exit is closed.”
Me: “Ah, right. Well, where do I get out then?”
Guard: “That exit over there is the one you want.”
Me: “Yeah, about that, I just tried to get out there and got the same answer. Although they were pointing at you. Is this some kind of basketball guard/usher humor? Mess with the heads of the customers kind of thing?”
Guard: “I’d keep working on the humor funny man, right after you keep working on the free throw shooting.”
Me: “Err. Saw that eh?”
Guard: *Nods*
Me: “I’ll just go try this other exit now.”
Update #2: Actual camera phone evidence!
The biggest disappointment of the night was that my friend’s wife had taken his digital camera with her to Chicago, leaving us with only a cell phone to capture the event with.