2011 NBA Draft Media Opp

Mark, Me & Kevin

    Today I had to work earlier than my usual shift because I was helping out the sports department for the day. The NBA draft is tomorrow night, and today at some hotel in Time Square there was a media day of sorts for some of the top prospects. It consisted of two half-hour segments with 6 players in each. It was just in a big conference room, and the players were set at tables throughout and for 30 minutes various news outlets would just pop a mic in their face and start asking questions. It wasn't quite as crazy as I thought it would be, and a lot more fun than I'd expected. 
     It was Mark, Kevin, the sports intern, and I, and we'd formulated a bit of a game plan beforehand so that we made sure to cover the people we needed. Some of the players that were originally supposed to be at the event ended up not being because of workouts with teams, but I learned that probably wasn't really the reason behind their absence. So, out of the 12 guys there, we ended up talking to 10. We had the guys split up amongst the 3 of us as far as who would interview who, and then of the other two, one would record, and we'd switch off. Two of my guys weren't there, so I only had to talk to two, and lucky for me, Kevin was eager to do the tedious camera work, so I didn't have to. That was awesome because aside when I asked questions, I was able to just kind of observe and take it all in.

Kyrie Irving

Enes Kanter

    So the first person, obviously, was Kyrie Irving. He was in the first half and everyone swarmed him. But when the players walked in, the room became eerily quiet, and when at the different tables to ask questions, it was surprisingly calm and casual. I kind of expected reporters to just be yelling questions over each other--which did happen a few times, but for the most part it was just kind of get in where you fit in. It's also important to note that the players were all brought in by their agents and had obviously been prepped for potential questions and how to go about answering them. Needless to say, no player was going to come out and say "yes I want to go to this team," or "no, I'd hate if this team called my name," so they had to stayed politically correct about a lot of topics. However, some of the reporters asked interesting questions that elicited answers that told more about the players and gave more insight into who they were as young men, versus future NBA stars. Like one reporter, I don't know who he was with, but I heard him ask a couple different people who would play them in a movie, and what it would be like to play with themselves (PAUSE) in 2K for the first time and stuff. 

Tristan Thompson

Alec Burks

     So, I had to ask questions to Markieff Morris from University of Kansas, and Jonas Valanciunas out of Lithuania. I think Jonas was first. When he walked in, either Kevin or Mark were in the process of interviewing someone and I was just observing, and I turned around and ol' boy walked in and he just had uncontrollable swag. #swag lol truly But we did a few other interviews and then went to him. English obviously is not his native language and the poor guy was struggling a bit. He was able to get by with his short sentences of broken English...and then I came along. In hindsight, I felt kind of bad. So, I asked him what he thought would be the most difficult part of transitioning from playing ball overseas to playing in the US. And it was the first time that we'd been standing there that he seemed to be having a really hard time figuring out what to say. So he was trying to say that like the refs and maybe some rules may be the biggest challenge, but it was such a broken sentence and the way he said referees, I wasn't sure what he was saying. So later when I was looking back at the video, I ask the question, he stumbles, he answers, awkward pause, and then my silly ass goes, "...wait, what?" lol and another reporter had to clarify what he was saying. I felt really bad, but I was trying to grasp what he meant, but I was borderline rude about it. So I got that going for me.

Derrick Williams



Kemba Walker

      Then Markieff was in the second session, and as soon as we were at his table, I knew I was gonna have fun with that one. We started rolling in the middle of a reporter asking him what's on his Ipod. So he starts naming some songs, a few by Jay-Z, one was "Can I Live," from his Reasonable Doubt album (shoutout to Cruse). So as he was thinking and naming songs, they all had a similar theme, and in my head I'm thinkin, "alright dude, a kid in your position, and with the songs you're naming, pleeease say Biggie 'Sky's The Limit.' He names another song, and the last one he says is "Sky's The Limit," haha and for those who've read the first few posts of my blog, I'm still addicted to that song and listen to it daily. So I kind of squealed..like audibly, outloud squealed (like a putz) when he said that because I thought it was so cool and I bet he vibes out pretty hard to it given the cards he's playing with right now. So people are asking questions, and someone asks a question about how well he thinks playing at Kansas prepared him for the draft. He answers, and then it was time to strike. I'd been planning for the last week to ask one of the Morris' jokingly how badly they wish they'd gone to Mizzou (huge rivalry, for those who don't know), so once college came up, I fired. I included the video, but first I asked about an NBA rivalry he'd want to be a part of, and if he wished he gone to Mizzou lol. There was a reporter from Lawrence next to me and he loved the bating. Then at the end, before we moved on, I asked about his feelings on playing against his brother in the NBA and whose jersey their mom would wear. Hah, he was cool. Afterwards, at the end of the whole media sesh, I saw him and said a line from "Sky's The Limit," and told him to finish it--hah he did. 

[Note: listen to my accented when I say "college baaasketball" --yikes! AND look at his face and eyebrows as he processes me asking about going to Mizzou; comedy.]

All of the Lights

From Frying Pan

From Frying Pan

     Saturday morning I woke up thinking that I had to get ready for work, but as I came to and realized that it was, in fact, the weekend, I rolled over and faded back into my dreams with the biggest smile. I'd never been happier that it was a Saturday morning. After spending the day on the couch, I headed into Manhattan to meet Vikki and a friend of hers. First off, her friend, Francesco. He actually also goes to Mizzou, and he's this delicious little Italian man piece, with an even more delectable Italian accent. Yeeeeeaaaah! So, the three of us went to Frying Pan, it's an old lightship docked at Pier 66 on the Hudson. My friend Jenna had included it on an A-Z Guide to NYC that she provided me, and within just a few minutes of being there, it was apparent why. The place was great. It was dark when we got there, so we got a few drinks and found a table and the view was just amazing! We went upstairs and were completely surrounded by lights. On one side there's the west side of Manhattan as far as the eyes can see, behind us there's Jersey, Jersey City and Hoboken, off in one direction you can see lights from a bridge connecting the two aforementioned, and in the opposite direction just more lights. The coolest part was probably one ittttty bitty light off in the distance that was the light of the flame held by Lady Liberty herself. It was beautiful. 

From Frying Pan

    When I get to catch sights like that, like being in Colorado and seeing the mountains, or in Costa Rica and seeing volcanoes, I always wonder if the locals take it for granted and become immune to the beauty that they're surrounded by everyday. I guess I probably don't marvel at the Sears Tower quite as much as a first time visitor would, but, I don't know. So there's something to ponder over. 
     We weren't there for too long because Vikki had to work and I'd been planning to just head back home, but me and Francesco figured we'd hang out and find something to do. So we walked Vikki to work and then moseyed around the Meatpacking District looking for a place to eat. We ended up at Pop Burger. It was an experience. The two slider burgers I had were delicious, and so were the fries..they were those kind of long, thin fries that like...are darker and not just cleanly sliced, but they're kind of messy looking. It doesn't matter, they were good! But, as we were sitting waiting for the food, I noticed that there's a club there too. I should've taken a picture. But so you walk in, and as you walk straight back, you either step to left and one side of a little divider, you order a burger, OR, you step to the right and past the bouncer and head into the club. I had a hard time conceptualizing the appeal of a club in a little burger joint. But I guess it's the curiosity and the mental fixation on the blatant juxtaposition of dirty, greasy, and swank and classy that drives people to places like that. Cuz God knows that now I'm curious and wanna check this place out.

View from apt

     After food, we stopped by Francesco's apartment to clean up and head out to meet some of his friends. His apartment had the cooolest view. It was somewhere in the W 30's and like, the exterior walls of his apartment were all glass; floor to ceiling. And from the balcony connected to his room, off in the distance you could see the Chrysler Building, and Time Square, and THE MOON! I haven't seen the moon since I've been here until last night. That's not normal! So I appreciated that sight more than any. But his whole apartment building was awesome, there were observation decks and a Japanese garden on one floor and stuff. Cool place.

View from apt

This one had a bikini top:
the rest didn't

     Then we took a taxi a few blocks up to 54th and went to The Volstead. Francesco works at the United Nations here in the city, so a lot of his friends and coworkers from work were at The Volstead, so that's who we met. It all started off pretty cool because as one of the bouncers took my ID to check it, he laughed and told me he went to NIU. HEYYY-OOOO!! Never too far from home! The Volstead was fairly small, but a cool ambience. There were gogo dancers in pasties and booty-shorts on random elevated surfaces and in random corners dancing. Hah, kind of threw me off for a bit. It was a cool place though. I eventually got pretty tired, so I took a taxi back to Vikki's and passed out there. Along the way, the taxi driver took 5th Ave from about 50th to 29th st, and I was taking mental notes of all the places I need to visit next month when my Momma Bear comes to town ;)