BuzzerBeater
01-17-2009, 04:55 PM
(This is the post I said last week I'd make when the pictures were available)
Last Friday I got the opportunity to meet the rookie sensation George Hill. In anticipation of the meeting, my son David bought me a Spurs basketball from the AT&T Center so that we could get him to autograph it. That was my hookup, David's station arranged for fans to meet the newest Spur at the radio station for a Q&A session, David asked if I would like to go and I said "are you kidding?!!!
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/havona0869/dadghill2.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/havona0869/hill-basketball-web2.jpg
David (aka DJ Quake) was asked to set up his turntables and mix tunes there to charge up the atmosphere while directly above him a big monitor showed some of #3's best highlights from past games.
When George came in, I expected him to feel inhibited because the room was small and we were a group of 12 or so but uh-uh, he was engaging, upbeat and not at all shy, giving us great answers to our questions like "which Spur does he look up most to on the team" - Jacque Vaughn
He also said he has a lot of respect for Finley since he went through a lot to lose weight so as to stay competitive.
Another question was "What's the biggest difference between Indianapolis and San Antonio?" - George said how he can go outside in shorts and not freeze to death, also, he feels safer here than there, that he notices that difference.
"Does he always eat healthy and stay away from junk food?" - he said he eats anything and everything but he has stopped drinking a lot of soda, and has a special weakness for chicken pot pie.:lol
When it was my turn I asked him how on earth did he play so effectively with injuries, recalling how he played with a broken foot one time in college and scored 19 points and then he broke his thumb at training camp with the Spurs but played several games with that injury; he said that he plays through the injuries and that with Tony out he had no choice but try to be successful since the team was counting on him.
Someone then asked him about later on down the road, would he ever leave the Spurs to go play for more money elsewhere.
Surprisingly, he said that he's seen what getting too much money has done to many players as regards the lack of motivation to keep playing well after the big new salaries kick in. He seemed to also want to get across to us that he basically is the same now that he was in high school and college, didn't want to fall into the same traps that a lot of young players do when they cope with playing in the NBA, and impressed us further by saying that one thing his grandfather told him was for him to be a man of his word.
Then he volunteered to explain how much money is paid in taxes salary-wise by NBA players, that out of 80 million dollars almost half goes to the government so he's not really that rich with his present salary as the rest of us rolled our eyes making him smile, he was enjoying the teasing.
That was when he said that living up north, there is that "element" that "goes after" those that have money, thus his appreciation of that not being the case living here in San Antonio, according to George.
After taking a snapshot with him, I thanked him for bringing a ready-to-go game at a time that we really need it since we had Tony and Manu out. Then he went to David's dj rig and asked him questions about his mixes.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/havona0869/ghillquake2.jpg
Last Friday I got the opportunity to meet the rookie sensation George Hill. In anticipation of the meeting, my son David bought me a Spurs basketball from the AT&T Center so that we could get him to autograph it. That was my hookup, David's station arranged for fans to meet the newest Spur at the radio station for a Q&A session, David asked if I would like to go and I said "are you kidding?!!!
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/havona0869/dadghill2.jpg
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/havona0869/hill-basketball-web2.jpg
David (aka DJ Quake) was asked to set up his turntables and mix tunes there to charge up the atmosphere while directly above him a big monitor showed some of #3's best highlights from past games.
When George came in, I expected him to feel inhibited because the room was small and we were a group of 12 or so but uh-uh, he was engaging, upbeat and not at all shy, giving us great answers to our questions like "which Spur does he look up most to on the team" - Jacque Vaughn
He also said he has a lot of respect for Finley since he went through a lot to lose weight so as to stay competitive.
Another question was "What's the biggest difference between Indianapolis and San Antonio?" - George said how he can go outside in shorts and not freeze to death, also, he feels safer here than there, that he notices that difference.
"Does he always eat healthy and stay away from junk food?" - he said he eats anything and everything but he has stopped drinking a lot of soda, and has a special weakness for chicken pot pie.:lol
When it was my turn I asked him how on earth did he play so effectively with injuries, recalling how he played with a broken foot one time in college and scored 19 points and then he broke his thumb at training camp with the Spurs but played several games with that injury; he said that he plays through the injuries and that with Tony out he had no choice but try to be successful since the team was counting on him.
Someone then asked him about later on down the road, would he ever leave the Spurs to go play for more money elsewhere.
Surprisingly, he said that he's seen what getting too much money has done to many players as regards the lack of motivation to keep playing well after the big new salaries kick in. He seemed to also want to get across to us that he basically is the same now that he was in high school and college, didn't want to fall into the same traps that a lot of young players do when they cope with playing in the NBA, and impressed us further by saying that one thing his grandfather told him was for him to be a man of his word.
Then he volunteered to explain how much money is paid in taxes salary-wise by NBA players, that out of 80 million dollars almost half goes to the government so he's not really that rich with his present salary as the rest of us rolled our eyes making him smile, he was enjoying the teasing.
That was when he said that living up north, there is that "element" that "goes after" those that have money, thus his appreciation of that not being the case living here in San Antonio, according to George.
After taking a snapshot with him, I thanked him for bringing a ready-to-go game at a time that we really need it since we had Tony and Manu out. Then he went to David's dj rig and asked him questions about his mixes.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk79/havona0869/ghillquake2.jpg