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good read, sounds like a heck of an experience
here are some takeaways though
interesting word choiceHe looks like he wants to eat my girl (taking the picture) but was a great dude.
...or two days with the love of my life! (The Spurs,...not the girl!)
This may sound stupid to some Americans or especially San Antonians, but I want to tell you about my NBA-Global experience, as its the first time I saw NBA players that are not called Dirk Nowitzki. Since I'm a Spurs fan since 93/94 it was really great, even though I was with my girlfriend with the relationship basically broke (thats another story, since some on this board even called her "a keeper").
First of all let me get two things straight:
1) I was sad about the loss to Alba, but it doesn't mean anything.
2) Some of the Spurs players didn't seem to be very nice people, but I don't blame them as they would have been stuck immediately had they started signing stuff or gone without bodyguards. If it would have been e.g. Heat players, I'd call them s, but I don't blame the Spurs maybe because I love them, maybe because I just know how Pop, Kawhi and others are.
My girlfriend and I traveled to Berlin a day day earlier to have a good time (we booked months ago) and went right to the NBA-Fan zone. I nearly passed away, when George Gervin was sitting there. He is a nice guy that took some time taking pictures and signing stuff. I thought about him signing the '14 championship shirt but instead audibled for a picture with him
..moments later I decided that he can have his autograph on the championship shirt, but he already was leaving, beeing ready to pass a street...So a bodygurad got me off of him, which was fine.
In the evening my girlfriend and I just went for a walk and when we came along Ritz Carlton, she said: "Do you know, if they are in here?" and I replied "Probably, it would make sense"...Just when I said that I was like "Whaaaaaaaa, Kawhi is leaving the entrance!" and my girldfriend thought I was kidding (he is her fav player)...I ran over to him and begged for him to sign the Champs-Shirt. He was Kawhi like we know him. Some non Spurs fan would have called him bad words for beeing in kind of a rush to get away, not saying a single word...but hey, he signed the shirt and after he did that, I realized that several other fans were standing behind me trying to get their stuff signed (these other fans probably lingered around the Hotel and surely he thought I was doing the same). By the way, he had a girl with him and it was weird how she reacted to me and the other fans. She was laughing as if she never was with a famous person. Not sure if it was his girlfriend or just some kind of manager. I don't think he is walking around with some random groupie, but she surely reacted like one.
I feared to piss him off with a picture request and my girlfriend (with the camera) was lost anyway not even passing the street to the hotel(ouch). We randomly went along and it was accidently in the same direktion Kawhi was heading. He looked over and it was the "Hey guys, you are not following me are you?" look so we tried to go somewhere else, which wasn't easy. We later saw him in a Starbucks with some more fans around him. I think he is a nice guy, but I don't get which players are using bodyguards at what times.
(I thought about making a "Hey Josh Davis!" joke but forgot about it and that may have been a good thing)
Regarding the Shirt: The Finals MVP on that shirt makes sense, but at this point I decided, that only Pop and the Big3 could join them, as I was aware of not getting the whole team anyway. Whats better? "The Shirt with Kawhis autograph" or the "Shirt with Kawhi, Elliott and Matt Bonner on it? Yeah, Coach B you are not ruining my shirt!
Moving further I was seeing a big medium skinned guy and couln't say if he is a Spurs guy or not (It's not that I don't know the players, but you can get confused with the Cotton, M. Green, Holland guys and some random Berlin basketballers. I thought: "No, he even is with some kind of basketballer girlfriend...probably from Berlin".... NO! Thats Becky Hammon and Ime Udoka!I hesitated just too long and didn't ask them to take a picture with me. That was stupid as Becky is one of my favs and they may have found it cool, that someone recognizes them. After teaching my girldfriend who Becky is, I even tried to find them again but without success (they went into a huge mall).
Later saw the black ref with the dog face (I'm too lazy to look up his name, but he usually isn't a good ref for the Spurs) and was wondering, if it's really him. (yes, he was as he was refing the game)
Next day (the athmosphere now was better beween my girlfriend and I...thanks to a fantastic Hotel breakfast), we went to the Fan-Zone again. After a while I saw Sean Elliott coming over. Let me tell you, that this dude was basically my first fav player back in the early to mid 90s. It was him and The Admiral, but as a wing player (which I was at that time) you naturally tend to go with similar players and not the big dudes. So lets call him my first fav! They were doing some stuff on the court (knockout, king of the hill, ballhandling drills with Sean etc., asking Sean a question) and every time they asked the audience if someone wanted to participate I wanted to join, but they seemed to look for kids and when they didn't find some, they didn't see me anymore. At one point (Question/Ballhandling) he looked over to me for several seconds, as he was saying "Just come over" but only he, me and my girlfriend recognized that. I would have asked him about the comeback from Detroit or the kidney thing just to show, that I'm a long time Spurs fan. When he was finished on the court, he came over and was the nicest person you can imagine. He shook my hand, and I told him about him beeing my fav 21 years ago, him beeing a huge part in making me a Spurs fan. I said "Thank you so much!" and he replied "I have to thank you."...and it seemed like he meant it! Let me just tell you this: If someone ever loses a bad word about Sean, he has beef with me.
For about half an hour he took a lot of time signing stuff, taking pictures etc. When going back to the hotel (which was like 200yards away) he stoped every few steps to sign more stuff...He probably needed half an hour for those 200yards. No offense to George Gervin(which was cool too), but Sean took way...WAY! more time.
My girlfriend and I decided that we need to take the route along the Ritz Carlton again (maybe we would get lucky again) and about 30 fans where standing there so we joined. Whoops! Until now, I felt like a regular fan but that passed the line to beeing a groupie. I didn't care, as I knew that only the Spurs can make me a groupie. , Bruce Sringsteen, Michael Jordan and Obama could have come bye and I wouldn't have had felt as excited as for Manu, Boris etc. We stood there for about 2 hours. First Pop, R.C. and some coaches where leaving a bus without stoping for the fans (It's Pop!
(I know how stupid I look on this picture...And I don't care)
He looks like he wants to eat my girl (taking the picture) but was a great dude. Some of the "Fans" asked who he was, which pissed me off.
I realized that some of the fans didn't look like Spurs fans...and after someone asked us about Lady Gaga, we saw its some weird melting pod of GaLadyga and GoSpursGo fans. Funny situation.
Manu entered the Hotel but didn't take time for the fans. Again, no blame!
Some other Spurs fans told us about meeting Patty and so on...We told them about The Iceman and Kawhi. It was beautifull meeting other Spurs fans (none of them for as long as me, but one of them since '99) as there are none except of me and my girl in the 100.000 habitants town I'm living (when watching game 7 of the '05 Finals I was the only Spurs supporter in the whole bar...which was fantastic!!!).
Some old fat dude in ruggish green clothes and a cap passed bye and I just said " , is that Don Nelson Sr.?" Nobody seemed to see what I was seeing...We made eye contact an he was gone before I had the guts to ask him. Half an hour later I saw him sneaking into the Hotel again (no chance to ask him now) and finally I'm 100% sure it was him (does anyone know why he could travel with the Spurs?).
Splitter passed by too, bit only signed one cap and was gone. He didn't seem to be a nice person but once again: If he had stopped for more than 2 seconds, he would have lost half an hour as he was without bodyguards. I don't blame him at all.
Boris left and took some time but there where so may fans surrounding him that we couldn't take a picture before his bodyguards told us to back off as he wanted to "go for a short walk". 20 Minutes later a Pizza guy was delivering 2 Pizzas to the Hotel. I told him, that Diaw already left.
Becky and Ime entered the building (probably they are just hanging out together, but could there be more?) but I was to slow to get to them (nobody other than me cared about them).
So that was that...We waited for the team to leave but eventually had to leave as we had to meet swith some friends.(if someone here was there too, plz tell me when they eventually left and if they where in a rush or took their time...the guy at the entrance...in the backround of the R.C. pic told us about 5:30pm).
As most of you should have seen the game (and I haven't read the game thread yet), I think I'll just say these things:
- Nice to see them using a regular season rotation. I was prepared for some heavey Cottin/Davis/Daye/Ayers stuff. If not for a close game, it probably would have been the plan though.
- Becky only in second line
- The Spurs didn't seem to be allowed to run fast breaks.
- The Spurs where not used to some heavy offensive rebounding by Alba, which in combination with the "No fastbreak" think was hard to overcome.
- Especially on defense, the Spurs didn't do anything. Sometimes no rotatios and footwork at all. Pop didn't seem to care about that end of the court even when Kawhi didn't run back after a missed shot.
- Kawhi seems to have improved ballhandling
- Belinelli probably will play a bigger (playmaking-)part this season
- Ayers was Errors at his best
- Manu was 90% Turnobili and only the final 10% Ginobili
- watching TP9 in person is fatastic as you get a better feeling of that speed
- Baynes tried to do to much and was sacked
- Cotton was and I hope they try to survive the Patty less time with more CoJo+Belinelli
- the chokejob will help them more than a win
- hated the Alba fans, but don't blame them for celebrating their team.
- Feld like a lost playoff game afterwards...That was my first Spurs game ever...maybe the only one in my lifetime...And they lost!
Let me just say: Thank you Spurs! I felt (and behaved) like kid for these two days again. Add the girlfriend thing and you have the two most emotional days of my whole life.
Last edited by mudyez; 10-09-2014 at 02:40 PM.
good read, sounds like a heck of an experience
here are some takeaways though
interesting word choiceHe looks like he wants to eat my girl (taking the picture) but was a great dude.
Great experience man, congratulations and thanks for sharing. I'm gonna watch them here in saturday and i hope i can get to take some pics with them but i have no idea if there is a fan zone organization here...
I guess the Fan-Zone court is traveling with the team.
I just checked Danny Green and Sean ****** will be in some mall tomorrow but too bad i can't go as i'll be working.
I was there... working 2 blocks away from Potzdamer. I can only say that at 7pm, there was no one left :/
Yeah, at 7pm I already saw them warming up in the O2-World.
I'm pretty sure, they left the Hotel between 5-6pm but I'm wondering, if I missed out on some autographs/pictures or if they just were in a hurry (because it was raining at that time).
Just saw that it really was Don Nelson Sr. ...in these clothes nobody (but me) recognized him.
Yep and at 7pm I rushed not to miss the gameYeah, at 7pm I already saw them warming up in the O2-World.
I'm pretty sure, they left the Hotel between 5-6pm but I'm wondering, if I missed out on some autographs/pictures or if they just were in a hurry (because it was raining at that time).
Sorry can't say if you missed some autographs/pics... but it seems you had a good time though!
I am from Berlin and I hated the Alba fans as well ... it only takes minutes, especially when you sit where normally their hardcore fans are placed. They took this way too serious ... booing is not necessary only because you prevent a fastbreak by fouling the opponent.
As I sat behind one of the baskets I really cold not see how fast TP really is, but it was astonishing how he is able to navigate through traffic and finish.
Good stuff, glad you had a good time!
The booed when the Spurs held the ball to run the clock down at the end of the period. That's just ignorant.
yup ... sadly German fans have too much soccer DNA in them which might explain their behavior ...The booed when the Spurs held the ball to run the clock down at the end of the period. That's just ignorant.
nice read mudyez I'm glad you had a blast
just a quick comment about body guards, it's a procedure imposed by spurs organization and probably insurance during this kind of event. I've met Spurs players in France travelling for personal stuff and they don't have body guards following them around unless organized encounteers with the fans but they are never alone or very rarely.
Tony Brothers does look like a dog.
Thanks for sharing your experience man!
Dude you have bad teeth
And lol RC looks like he wants to kill the photographer
Speaking of that pic with RC .. photobombed !!!!
Awesome story.
Awsome... I am kind of jealous... Slovenia is a bit far away
Probably last chance in Europe to see this legendary team before they break up
Det photobomb
Thanks for sharing! Very entertaining. Just shows how tight Don Nelson and Pop really are. Sean ****** is probably THE BEST Spurs ambassador.
Good read!
Maybe mudyez could do it better if he posting some pics of his girlfriend, too. She seems a good Spurs fan and we should promote the camaraderie on ST
However...great story!
Spurstalk just is too much of a dark place to post pictures of other people than yourself. I'd do it, if our relationship wasn't that complicated at the time and I will always be proud of making her a great Spurs fan (just made her watch any playoff game and some regular season games for the last 3 years...made hear read a lot of columns regarding die Spurs...gave her some 1990's magazines with Timmy in it and so on and so on...add the legendary Tribute vid and she was "die hard").Good read!
Maybe mudyez could do it better if he posting some pics of his girlfriend, too. She seems a good Spurs fan and we should promote the camaraderie on ST
However...great story!
BTW.: Was hoping some of the european fans here had the same experience or even visited the Fan-Zone or Hotel too. Told some good Spurs fans about Spurstalk but remembered later, that new accounts are a problem. Thats too bad, even though I understand the whole troll thing.
Last edited by mudyez; 10-10-2014 at 01:22 AM.
actually had a similar experience. i was coming back from Maui (this was 2006, right after Spurs or Manu blew it which kinda ruined the vacation). While waiting at the terminal, the flight from Dallas arrived and first off the jet looked exactly like Don Nelson. I was positive it was him but he was much taller than I realized. Of course my cousin reminded me he was an ex player. Apparently he owns a lot of property in Maui and spends most of his time out there.Just saw that it really was Don Nelson Sr. ...in these clothes nobody (but me) recognized him.
thanks for the updates. wish I had been out there to experience it.
Don't feel bad. I did the exact same thing at Half-Price Books here in Dallas about ten years ago. I was walking out the door and we almost bumped into each other, said excuse me, let each other pass. I told my wife in the car, "Damn, that looked just like Don Nelson, but he was really tall." She said, "He's a basketball guy, right?" at which point I remembered him nose-to-nose with Karl Malone, and realized it had been him. Sort of wished I'd at least said, "Excuse me, coach" or something.
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