In what will seem like a marathon post will not actually be a marathon post. Since I am off from school for the week, I can now finally catch up on what I did over this past weekend.
As seen in my title, I had a busy weekend with autographs this past weekend. Since this week is our winter break at school here, I decided to branch out and to try something different since the Pistons are out of town for the week.
Saturday I finally got out of my lazy mode and decided to go check out an Eastern Michigan University Basketball game. I went mainly to get the Assistant coach Carl Thomas who ironically has a couple cards out and they were sent to me for a 50/50 I had to get done. I figured this would be a simple graphing trip on campus here 5 minutes from my dorm room but that all changed at halftime when they announced a suprised guest I recognized was an former NBA player. Before I share that story, here is the results from the EMU game I had:
MAC Basketball: Eastern Michigan vs. Southeast Missouri State 2/23/08
EMU Eagles
Carl Thomas 14 cards (7 of these are not mine.) (Carl: "I know I smiled when I saw you had these cards kid. Your the first person that I have signed these cards for." Me: "So you never seen any of these cards before???" Carl: "I actually have. My parents have alot of them at home." "Thanks for making my day kid." Me: "No problem.")
.......Now the surprise guest and the story
This game I was at, I was able to get a seat near the tunnell where all the EMU players go in and go out of the tunnell and all that. Near the end of the first half, They had a group of 5 older guys line up near the tunnell for a halftime presentation. I was looking at one of them real hard since that I recognized him before but didn't remember from where. It did look like an NBA player to me. I was looking at him real hard thinking all of these questions in my head. When they lined them up and all that, one of the guys said the name "Grant". They didn't say the last name and that did ring somewhat of a bell to me.
So at halftime, it turns out that they were honoring the EMU basketball team from the 1987-88 season. They had 5 players out there and 1 former assistant coach. The name was finally revealed; Grant Long. Yup that's right a former NBA player that went to school here was present at this game. After hearing the name, I decided to race back to my dorm room to find any cards I might have of him. Luckily my base cards were very organized and I found 7 cards I had of him ready no problem. It happened so fast that I had no time to get them on a binder page.
In what seemed like the fastest 5 minutes of my life lol, I made it back to the arena for the 2nd half and 5 minutes went by already. I ran into another one of the former players from that team that was honored at halftime, and he directed me to where he was at. I went up to him, showed him my stack of cards asking if that is him and he started signing away. Here is that result:
EMU Eagles BONUS GUEST
Grant Long 5/7 cards!!! (Me: "You thought no one would have these cards of you." Grant: "Yeah I knew someone would I seen them before." Me: "You were one of my favorite NBA players I watched growing up from the 1990s. I miss the NBA from the 1990s. What do you think of the NBA today compared to when you played in the NBA back in the 1990s???" Grant: "The game is evolving. There is alot more media access to the game then there ever was before. Kid 100 years from now, the game of basketball will still be the same no matter what. The only thing that is changing is that the game is evolving.")
That is all I have to share result wise for this game. Carl Thomas was in a good mood over seeing the cards which I guess is a good thing. I ran into a former EMU player and Detroit Piston unexpectedly. I am glad to finally have his auto in my Pistons collection. Thanks for looking!!!
NBDL: Fort Wayne Mad Ants vs. Utah Flash 2/24/08
Went to Fort Wayne,IN yesterday to check out the Detroit Pistons minor league affaliate the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. As I said in my previous EMU thread, the Detroit Pistons went out of town for this entire week so I decided to buy a ticket for this game and try something new. With seeing that the Utah Flash has the NBDL's top prospect, it made me more likely to want to go to this game. Fort Wayne is 2.5 hours from my dorm room here at school so this trip almost felt like going to Cleveland and back again last season. With a 2.5 hour trip I made down and back in one day, here is what I raked in result wise:
Utah Flash
Morris Almond 20 cards!!! (He signed these cards real fast. Before I was able to finish talking with him, he was all done with the cards. I swear he is the fastest player I seen sign 20 cards for me. No one I ever encountered in the Frontier League has signed that many cards so quickly lol. I also got a pic with him as I think he will be back in the NBA someday for good.)
Kyrylo Fesenko 1 3x5 Index card
Brian Jackson 1 card
James Lang 1 3x5 Index card, 3 cards (Also ended up getting all 4 of his friendship braclets after the game!!!)
John Millsap 1 3x5 Index card
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Earl Calloway 2 cards (1 goes to a friend)
Ron Howard 2 cards, 1 3x5 index card (1 goes to a friend.)(Also got his wristband after the game!!!)
Cory Minnifield 2 cards (1 goes to a friend)
Cheikh Samb 1 card, 1 binder page (Signed the binder page better then he did the card. The auto came out ugly on the card.)
Eric Smith 1 3x5 Index card
Rod Wilmont 2 cards, 1 3x5 index card (1 card and 3x5 index card goes to a friend.)
The Mad Ant 2 cards (1 card goes to a friend.)(Don't ask me why I put this up I know lol...)
Jaren Jackson 22 cards!!! (Was in a really good mood after he started seeing my first page of 16 cards. He told me honestly that he has seen the pages of 16 cards before and has also had people bring him 20 cards to sign. I am not the first one to have him do 16-22 cards for me and that is a fact. It was a great conversation that I had with him. He also asked where I came from and telling him that I came 2.5 hours from Michigan for this game actually had him in a good mood to sign for me!!! It did brighten his day and he thanked me for coming so far away to this game!!!)
That is all I have to share result wise from this game. Jaren Jackson has to be one of the nicest former NBA players that I have met. I am just surprised he doesn't collect his own cards but does admit to the enjoyment of seeing them and signing a ton of them for alot of people. This has to be one of my best weekends I ever had for getting autographs!!! Thanks alot for looking!!!
Next up for me: Minnesota Timberwolves over in Cleveland this Friday....
As seen in my title, I had a busy weekend with autographs this past weekend. Since this week is our winter break at school here, I decided to branch out and to try something different since the Pistons are out of town for the week.
Saturday I finally got out of my lazy mode and decided to go check out an Eastern Michigan University Basketball game. I went mainly to get the Assistant coach Carl Thomas who ironically has a couple cards out and they were sent to me for a 50/50 I had to get done. I figured this would be a simple graphing trip on campus here 5 minutes from my dorm room but that all changed at halftime when they announced a suprised guest I recognized was an former NBA player. Before I share that story, here is the results from the EMU game I had:
MAC Basketball: Eastern Michigan vs. Southeast Missouri State 2/23/08
EMU Eagles
Carl Thomas 14 cards (7 of these are not mine.) (Carl: "I know I smiled when I saw you had these cards kid. Your the first person that I have signed these cards for." Me: "So you never seen any of these cards before???" Carl: "I actually have. My parents have alot of them at home." "Thanks for making my day kid." Me: "No problem.")
.......Now the surprise guest and the story
This game I was at, I was able to get a seat near the tunnell where all the EMU players go in and go out of the tunnell and all that. Near the end of the first half, They had a group of 5 older guys line up near the tunnell for a halftime presentation. I was looking at one of them real hard since that I recognized him before but didn't remember from where. It did look like an NBA player to me. I was looking at him real hard thinking all of these questions in my head. When they lined them up and all that, one of the guys said the name "Grant". They didn't say the last name and that did ring somewhat of a bell to me.
So at halftime, it turns out that they were honoring the EMU basketball team from the 1987-88 season. They had 5 players out there and 1 former assistant coach. The name was finally revealed; Grant Long. Yup that's right a former NBA player that went to school here was present at this game. After hearing the name, I decided to race back to my dorm room to find any cards I might have of him. Luckily my base cards were very organized and I found 7 cards I had of him ready no problem. It happened so fast that I had no time to get them on a binder page.
In what seemed like the fastest 5 minutes of my life lol, I made it back to the arena for the 2nd half and 5 minutes went by already. I ran into another one of the former players from that team that was honored at halftime, and he directed me to where he was at. I went up to him, showed him my stack of cards asking if that is him and he started signing away. Here is that result:
EMU Eagles BONUS GUEST
Grant Long 5/7 cards!!! (Me: "You thought no one would have these cards of you." Grant: "Yeah I knew someone would I seen them before." Me: "You were one of my favorite NBA players I watched growing up from the 1990s. I miss the NBA from the 1990s. What do you think of the NBA today compared to when you played in the NBA back in the 1990s???" Grant: "The game is evolving. There is alot more media access to the game then there ever was before. Kid 100 years from now, the game of basketball will still be the same no matter what. The only thing that is changing is that the game is evolving.")
That is all I have to share result wise for this game. Carl Thomas was in a good mood over seeing the cards which I guess is a good thing. I ran into a former EMU player and Detroit Piston unexpectedly. I am glad to finally have his auto in my Pistons collection. Thanks for looking!!!
NBDL: Fort Wayne Mad Ants vs. Utah Flash 2/24/08
Went to Fort Wayne,IN yesterday to check out the Detroit Pistons minor league affaliate the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. As I said in my previous EMU thread, the Detroit Pistons went out of town for this entire week so I decided to buy a ticket for this game and try something new. With seeing that the Utah Flash has the NBDL's top prospect, it made me more likely to want to go to this game. Fort Wayne is 2.5 hours from my dorm room here at school so this trip almost felt like going to Cleveland and back again last season. With a 2.5 hour trip I made down and back in one day, here is what I raked in result wise:
Utah Flash
Morris Almond 20 cards!!! (He signed these cards real fast. Before I was able to finish talking with him, he was all done with the cards. I swear he is the fastest player I seen sign 20 cards for me. No one I ever encountered in the Frontier League has signed that many cards so quickly lol. I also got a pic with him as I think he will be back in the NBA someday for good.)
Kyrylo Fesenko 1 3x5 Index card
Brian Jackson 1 card
James Lang 1 3x5 Index card, 3 cards (Also ended up getting all 4 of his friendship braclets after the game!!!)
John Millsap 1 3x5 Index card
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Earl Calloway 2 cards (1 goes to a friend)
Ron Howard 2 cards, 1 3x5 index card (1 goes to a friend.)(Also got his wristband after the game!!!)
Cory Minnifield 2 cards (1 goes to a friend)
Cheikh Samb 1 card, 1 binder page (Signed the binder page better then he did the card. The auto came out ugly on the card.)
Eric Smith 1 3x5 Index card
Rod Wilmont 2 cards, 1 3x5 index card (1 card and 3x5 index card goes to a friend.)
The Mad Ant 2 cards (1 card goes to a friend.)(Don't ask me why I put this up I know lol...)
Jaren Jackson 22 cards!!! (Was in a really good mood after he started seeing my first page of 16 cards. He told me honestly that he has seen the pages of 16 cards before and has also had people bring him 20 cards to sign. I am not the first one to have him do 16-22 cards for me and that is a fact. It was a great conversation that I had with him. He also asked where I came from and telling him that I came 2.5 hours from Michigan for this game actually had him in a good mood to sign for me!!! It did brighten his day and he thanked me for coming so far away to this game!!!)
That is all I have to share result wise from this game. Jaren Jackson has to be one of the nicest former NBA players that I have met. I am just surprised he doesn't collect his own cards but does admit to the enjoyment of seeing them and signing a ton of them for alot of people. This has to be one of my best weekends I ever had for getting autographs!!! Thanks alot for looking!!!
Next up for me: Minnesota Timberwolves over in Cleveland this Friday....