Paul's 2007-08 Basketball Thread

[spokanehound]

03/01/08: NCAA Basketball – Santa Clara Broncos @ Portland Pilots (WCC)
Chiles Center - Portland, OR

This wasn't supposed to be an autograph outing at all, but it kind of fell into my lap so I'll post something about it quickly. I was in Portland this weekend visiting my brother who goes to school there, and there was a WCC basketball game a few blocks from his off-campus house. I went and met up with a high school friend currently on the pep band and watched the game. Near the end of the second half, there was an announcement about the entire Portland team signing after the game. I laughed about it (the Pilots are usually the conference's doormat) but I figured why not, free autographs right? They were giving out team posters so I got a couple signed. There isn't really anyone notable on the team other than Luke Sikma, son of Jack Sikma, and Nik Raivio, younger brother of former Gonzaga player Derek. The signatures are in black because, well, I didn't bring a Sharpie to the game!

Portland
Entire team 2/2 posters

[spokanehound]

03/02/08: NCAA Basketball – Oregon Ducks @ Oregon State Beavers (Pac-10)
Gill Coliseum - Corvallis, OR

I wrapped up my weekend in Oregon by making the 75-minute drive down from Portland to the town of Corvallis to check out the "Civil War" game against Oregon. I had my Oregon State custom cards plus a few Oregon Ducks leftovers to get signed. Upon getting to Corvallis I just barely missed the Oregon bus as I saw the last of the team entering the south end of the coliseum. The game itself was interesting - Oregon State hung in for awhile but eventually the Ducks overpowered them and won. There were easily more Oregon fans than OSU, and the student section was only about 3/4 full.

I went down to the court after the game ended in hopes of knocking out as many autographs from both teams as I could manage. The interior of the Coliseum is set up strangely, similar to Memorial Coliseum in Portland. The locker room doors are in hallways connecting the lower level of seating with the main concourse - there are alternate ways out of those rooms to the outside, but after the game most of both teams came back out onto the court. A couple of the OSU players made positive comments about the cards, saying they'd never seen them before. I got Josh and Seth Tarver but did not see OSU's best player, Marcel Jones, come out to the court. After getting most of the stuff I needed signed inside, I headed out to the bus where Pat (slate187) was getting players to sign floorboards. Nice to finally meet you! I got Kenny Payne to sign a couple cards as he headed out to the bus. The players came out in bunches but they all stopped and took care of autographs for whoever needed them... definitely one of the best signing Pac 10 teams.

Overall not a bad way to end a great weekend in the Willamette Valley. After this game I made the drive back to Seattle, getting back to my apartment at 2:45AM. Hence my not posting until tonight

Oregon
Kamyron Brown 1/1 card, 1/1 4x6 (luckydog 1)
Malik Hairston 3/3 cards, 4x6 (Baadn10tionzz 1, luckydog 1)
Maarty Leunen 2/2 card, 4x6 (Baadn10tionzz 1, luckydog 1)
Churchill Odia 1/1 card
Tajuan Porter 1/1 4x6 (luckydog 1)
Kenny Payne 2/2 cards

Oregon State
Sean Carter 2/2 card, inside program
Rickey Claitt 1/1 card
Calvin Hampton 1/1 card
Calvin Haynes 2/2 card, inside program
Marcel Jones - didn't see
Josh Tarver 3/3 cards, program cover (Baadn10tionzz 1)
Seth Tarver 4/4 cards, inside program, 4x6 (Baadn10tionzz 1, luckydog 1)

[spokanehound]

04/13/08: NBA Basketball – Dallas Mavericks @ Seattle Supersonics
Hotel - Seattle, WA

NBA fans in Seattle (who actually still care about the Sonics) have suffered through quite a bit this season to say the least. The team was terrible on the court all season long, which is just how the pack of lying weasels who own the team wanted it to go down. I was busy this Sunday but still made some time to go down and hound the visiting team before what could be the last home game in Sonics history. I only had a few cards for this outing so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I got to the hotel pretty early and found the regulars already lined up by the ropes. As it turned out everyone wanted to come out for the last home game of the season so the number of graphers swelled to about twenty, which wouldn't be much in other cities except the hounding space was so small that people were stacked two to three deep. I was near the back too so getting stuff done would have to test my reach-over skills. Graphers were talking about the possibility of this being the last NBA hounding day in the city for awhile. The first player out of the hotel was the one I needed most: Jason Kidd, on a Sports Illustrated. While a couple dealers were double-dipping on him, I was trying to stretch my clipboard out to get him to sign, which I finally did. I got some other guys who were doing mostly one apiece given how large the crowd was; it also didn't help that it started raining, so only part of the crowd was covered from the elements. One of the last players to come out was Dirk, with a goofy grin on his face. He started signing with his own black pen, and I was one of the last guys to get him. To save space on my album I had put two Dirk cards on a page, and one Stackhouse. Note to self... never do this kind of thing again. Dirk signed my Stackhouse card, getting half of his already sloppy signature on the card and half on the album... totally brutal. I'm not even counting that as a graph in the totals below, it's that bad. Things didn't get much better from there. Avery Johnson did sign for a bit but couldn't stick around too long, and left before I could get him. To wrap up this fairly mediocre Mavericks outing, Mark Cuban hurried out of the hotel and said the bus was waiting on him. Overall this was an alright day but definitely somber for basketball fans in this city. I couldn't go to the final game, but heard that it was the most well-attended game in a long time and that Gary Payton signed up a storm there (figures) from his seat in the front row. Oh well, there's always next season... (wait a sec... aw, crap!)

Erick Dampier 2/2 cards
Josh Howard 1/2 cards
Juwan Howard 1/2 cards
Eddie Jones 1/1 card
Jason Kidd 1/1 SI
Tyronn Lue 1/2 cards
Dirk Nowitzki 0.5/3 cards
Antoine Wright 1/1 card
Mark Cuban 0/1 running late
Avery Johnson 0/1 signed, but only got about to about half

[spokanehound]

06/16/08: NBA Basketball - "Save Our Sonics" Rally
U.S. Federal Building - Seattle, WA

The showdown between the city of Seattle and the filthy Sonics owners started in federal court today, and the grassroots "Save Our Sonics" group organized a rally in front of the courthouse. Sonics greats Gary Payton and Xavier McDaniel were supposed to show up and show their support for the cause. I got to the rally about half an hour before the player appearances, and wasn't really sure where to be. There was a roped off path for attorneys and court people to walk through. I got a spot at the front of the ropes in the middle of the plaza, which was almost completely packed with about 3,000 fans. After hanging out there for awhile I realized the organizers' microphone was actually back by the street corner, so I took a chance and went over there hoping that the organizers wouldn't move the speeches back to the steps of the federal building. Luckily this didn't happen - when the speeches started I was very close to the action. Spencer Hawes, a Seattle native, spoke first. I immediately kicked myself for not bringing anything for him. Next up was Xavier "X-Man" McDaniel, one of the Sonics' stars from the mid-80s, and finally Gary Payton (who had to stand on top of a newspaper dispenser so he could address the crowd). Seattle media was in front of me, but after they got their scoop they made a hasty exit out of the packed crowd. When they interviewed McDaniel on the local Fox station, I had to duck a little so my head wouldn't be in the bottom of the picture! I got the X-Man to sign first, and gave out a nice graph. At that point, Gary finished his interviews and started signing a few. I knew this probably wouldn't last long, so I got in good position and after some strategic maneuvers in the crowd I was right in front of him. Right after he signed mine (he was using the same black Sharpie for everyone), he started saying he had to get going. GP signed some more as he made his way out, and then crossed 7th Avenue while three dozen or so fans followed him wanting autographs or handshakes. The Glove continued to walk and sign for several blocks until he got to the Westin Hotel. I didn't really feel like trying to double him up since there was a crowd following him (and in a couple of cases crossing against a green light and holding up afternoon traffic). I'm glad I got GP and hope there's basketball here next season, however unlikely that may be.

Seattle
Xavier McDaniel 1/1 card
Gary Payton 1/1 card

I shot some video of Gary Payton signing as people followed him for a few blocks... I would have gotten more if my camera had not run out of memory:
YouTube - Gary Payton: Save Our Sonics Rally