Yooo it's been a year since I was last here! I'm popped my head in briefly here and there but life has taken up all my time, got married and had to cut down on the cardboard, focus on work and starting a family real soon! I'll pick up something special here and there, actually expecting something in the next few days!
Sneak Peek! View from our seats, had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming..got to watch the KING!
If you can guys can recall I posted my Miami Heat experience from back in 2016 when I traveled to San Francisco to watch my team the Heat play the Warriors at Oracle Arena, I met D-Wade, Bosh and my PC Chris Birdman Andersen which was just just out of this world which was shared with you guys in part 1, 2 and 3. This recent trip I just made last month was just on a whole another level! If I could share everything with you guys I'd be writing for days, honestly it was just an out of body NBA experience.
I'll just share some bits hope you guys enjoy!
We all know Wade announced to the world back in September this season would be his swan song, as soon as I heard it 'BOOM' I made the decision I was going to Miami to watch him play for the last time, I wasn't going to miss it for the world. How's that for spontaneous, I had not planned to travel and watch my first Miami Heat home game for a few more years and here we were my wife and I all booked and ready to watch Wade and the Heat play in American Airlines Arena, and it would be my wife's first ever NBA game too!
I had booked the trip to cover 2 home games, 12th Nov vs Philadelphia 76ers and 18th 18th Nov vs LA Lakers, I couldn't have wished for any other visiting teams to watch, ROY Aussie Ben Simmons and...ahem anyone know some dude called Lebron?
When we arrived I found out quickly the Wade wasn't listed as playing...the whole week we were there! He and Gabrielle just had a baby daughter Kaavia Wade, so he was taking time off to spend with his baby. Sad for me but that's life and I was happy for him.
Miami Heat rolled out the red carpet for us. We entered through the VIP entrance past the thousands of people at the front entrance into the arena. We arrived into Miami around 4:30pm due to flight delays and we supposed to meet the Heat rep at 5pm so we could be seated to watch the warm up but we were late and JUST missed the Heat warm up but we bumped into Josh Richardson and Hassan Whiteside in the tunnel returning back into the locker room which was cool!
My wife and I were brought onto the court to take a few photos before being taken to our seats (free tickets!!) just behind us, 2nd row back from the courtside seats!
Seriously it was surreal, our seats were amazing (there was Simmons, Embiid, Fultz), I was finally sitting in American Airlines Arena watching the team I'd been following since Alonzo Mourning was traded there in 1995! THREE Championships were won here! We were so close to the court, Joel Embiid walked right up to the sideline closest to us and gave my wife the 'eye' yes Embiid my wife is beautiful thank you!
Little did I know the Heat had lined up so many things for me during the game 
The first surprise was the Heat called me out of my seat and said I was participating in the on-court entertainment during the next time out, I was like oh no what kind of activity was I doing I hadn't touched a basketball for over a year! I was going to have 30 seconds to hit a layup, free throw, 3-point and half court shot (if I get there!). It was crazy, they introduced me as a Heat Lifer all the way from Papua New Guinea and I was standing there on the Miami Heat court about to shoot some hoops in front of thousands of fans and also televised nationally with the 76ers bench just a few meters away. This was just nuts...once the clock started I just had to pray I wouldn't miss the first layup! I messed up on the free throw but eventually got one and got off two 3-pointers but missed them both.
At half time one of the Heat rep guided my wife and I from our seats through another one of the tunnels and asked us to wait. A camera crew walked out and I was like waaaait somethings about to happen here. My heart started pumping faster I was thinking, man it can't be...could it be....the reason I started following the Heat and and developed a crazy love for basketball since I was 16....
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It was non other than my NBA Hero I grew up idolizing since I was a kid in High School nearly 30 years ago Alonzo Mounring!!!
I had brought all these gifts with me I had commissioned to be made for Zo and Wade to leave with the Heat to pass onto them but here I was able to present the gifts to the man himself...this was definitely one of those 'dream come true this can't be real oh em gee' moment. I met my hero, I wore 33 all my basketball playing life because of Zo!
I was shocked when he pulled out a custom Miami Vice jersey with my name of it and number 33!!! He signed it and as he gave it to me he asked if he could have my Papua New Guinea flag...for a moment I was thinking to myself did Zo just ask for my flag? Don't know why he wanted it but I gave it to the man!
While I was still buzzing and it la la land I was asked to follow the film crew and told they were about to go to air live outside next to the court while the game was being played. I was about to go live on air during the televised game!! So if you watched the game you would have seen my mug being interviewed!
Fox Sports tweeted and posted the video on Facebook too
We got beat by the 76ers 124-114 but I have to say I had the most incredible day of my life! And an incredible jet lag! We didn't really sleep for over 35 hours, had to deal with the time zone difference and I couldn't sleep after the game, we left American Airlines Arena around 11pm (we were taken to the studio for a tour, car park etc), I was too pumped up with excitement.
There was so much more that happened that night and what the Heat did for my wife. We also went to the Lakers game that same week which was just freaking crazy! Having Lebron in the house was hysteria as you can imagine. Lebron did his thing dropping his season high 51pts and had an easy win against us 113-97 but again we had no Dwyane Wade, but hey I got to see Lebron play what more can I ask for! And saw Magic Johnson there too thanks to my wifes eagle eyes!
I have a photo with Lebron James....behind me!!
There was 5 minutes till the end of the game and I was really disappointed to see so called Heat fans streaming out of the arena..I mean come man support the team win or lose and the King is in the house! I was the one and only game that the Lakers were visiting Miami. Just crazy.
I have heaps more to share but I'll save that for the next post. Trust me it's pretty crazy
Didn't get to watch Wade play though, I won't lie I was disappointed and deep inside I would say quietly devastated and so was my wife for me, that's the reason why we made this epic trip. But after all the Miami Heat did for us I am forever grateful, money can't buy the experience we both had during the 1 week we were there...I felt like Miami and the organisation were my family, felt like home. Even though I didn't meet Wade the Heat did something to make it up to me...until next post!
The gem in my collection, actually my entire Zo collection means more now that I met the man, talked to him, gave my flag to him
Sneak Peek! View from our seats, had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming..got to watch the KING!
If you can guys can recall I posted my Miami Heat experience from back in 2016 when I traveled to San Francisco to watch my team the Heat play the Warriors at Oracle Arena, I met D-Wade, Bosh and my PC Chris Birdman Andersen which was just just out of this world which was shared with you guys in part 1, 2 and 3. This recent trip I just made last month was just on a whole another level! If I could share everything with you guys I'd be writing for days, honestly it was just an out of body NBA experience.
I'll just share some bits hope you guys enjoy!
We all know Wade announced to the world back in September this season would be his swan song, as soon as I heard it 'BOOM' I made the decision I was going to Miami to watch him play for the last time, I wasn't going to miss it for the world. How's that for spontaneous, I had not planned to travel and watch my first Miami Heat home game for a few more years and here we were my wife and I all booked and ready to watch Wade and the Heat play in American Airlines Arena, and it would be my wife's first ever NBA game too!
I had booked the trip to cover 2 home games, 12th Nov vs Philadelphia 76ers and 18th 18th Nov vs LA Lakers, I couldn't have wished for any other visiting teams to watch, ROY Aussie Ben Simmons and...ahem anyone know some dude called Lebron?
When we arrived I found out quickly the Wade wasn't listed as playing...the whole week we were there! He and Gabrielle just had a baby daughter Kaavia Wade, so he was taking time off to spend with his baby. Sad for me but that's life and I was happy for him.
Miami Heat rolled out the red carpet for us. We entered through the VIP entrance past the thousands of people at the front entrance into the arena. We arrived into Miami around 4:30pm due to flight delays and we supposed to meet the Heat rep at 5pm so we could be seated to watch the warm up but we were late and JUST missed the Heat warm up but we bumped into Josh Richardson and Hassan Whiteside in the tunnel returning back into the locker room which was cool!
My wife and I were brought onto the court to take a few photos before being taken to our seats (free tickets!!) just behind us, 2nd row back from the courtside seats!
Seriously it was surreal, our seats were amazing (there was Simmons, Embiid, Fultz), I was finally sitting in American Airlines Arena watching the team I'd been following since Alonzo Mourning was traded there in 1995! THREE Championships were won here! We were so close to the court, Joel Embiid walked right up to the sideline closest to us and gave my wife the 'eye' yes Embiid my wife is beautiful thank you!
Little did I know the Heat had lined up so many things for me during the game
The first surprise was the Heat called me out of my seat and said I was participating in the on-court entertainment during the next time out, I was like oh no what kind of activity was I doing I hadn't touched a basketball for over a year! I was going to have 30 seconds to hit a layup, free throw, 3-point and half court shot (if I get there!). It was crazy, they introduced me as a Heat Lifer all the way from Papua New Guinea and I was standing there on the Miami Heat court about to shoot some hoops in front of thousands of fans and also televised nationally with the 76ers bench just a few meters away. This was just nuts...once the clock started I just had to pray I wouldn't miss the first layup! I messed up on the free throw but eventually got one and got off two 3-pointers but missed them both.
At half time one of the Heat rep guided my wife and I from our seats through another one of the tunnels and asked us to wait. A camera crew walked out and I was like waaaait somethings about to happen here. My heart started pumping faster I was thinking, man it can't be...could it be....the reason I started following the Heat and and developed a crazy love for basketball since I was 16....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It was non other than my NBA Hero I grew up idolizing since I was a kid in High School nearly 30 years ago Alonzo Mounring!!!
I had brought all these gifts with me I had commissioned to be made for Zo and Wade to leave with the Heat to pass onto them but here I was able to present the gifts to the man himself...this was definitely one of those 'dream come true this can't be real oh em gee' moment. I met my hero, I wore 33 all my basketball playing life because of Zo!
I was shocked when he pulled out a custom Miami Vice jersey with my name of it and number 33!!! He signed it and as he gave it to me he asked if he could have my Papua New Guinea flag...for a moment I was thinking to myself did Zo just ask for my flag? Don't know why he wanted it but I gave it to the man!
While I was still buzzing and it la la land I was asked to follow the film crew and told they were about to go to air live outside next to the court while the game was being played. I was about to go live on air during the televised game!! So if you watched the game you would have seen my mug being interviewed!
Fox Sports tweeted and posted the video on Facebook too
We got beat by the 76ers 124-114 but I have to say I had the most incredible day of my life! And an incredible jet lag! We didn't really sleep for over 35 hours, had to deal with the time zone difference and I couldn't sleep after the game, we left American Airlines Arena around 11pm (we were taken to the studio for a tour, car park etc), I was too pumped up with excitement.
There was so much more that happened that night and what the Heat did for my wife. We also went to the Lakers game that same week which was just freaking crazy! Having Lebron in the house was hysteria as you can imagine. Lebron did his thing dropping his season high 51pts and had an easy win against us 113-97 but again we had no Dwyane Wade, but hey I got to see Lebron play what more can I ask for! And saw Magic Johnson there too thanks to my wifes eagle eyes!
I have a photo with Lebron James....behind me!!
There was 5 minutes till the end of the game and I was really disappointed to see so called Heat fans streaming out of the arena..I mean come man support the team win or lose and the King is in the house! I was the one and only game that the Lakers were visiting Miami. Just crazy.
I have heaps more to share but I'll save that for the next post. Trust me it's pretty crazy
Didn't get to watch Wade play though, I won't lie I was disappointed and deep inside I would say quietly devastated and so was my wife for me, that's the reason why we made this epic trip. But after all the Miami Heat did for us I am forever grateful, money can't buy the experience we both had during the 1 week we were there...I felt like Miami and the organisation were my family, felt like home. Even though I didn't meet Wade the Heat did something to make it up to me...until next post!
The gem in my collection, actually my entire Zo collection means more now that I met the man, talked to him, gave my flag to him
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