14 and 15th

7-14-10
Today, I went to subway (again) and got picked up by Greg and Co. We headed to the Venetian to buy Blue Man Group Tickets for that night at 10PM. But before that, we headed out to Summer League for my 3rd time.

I saw Brook and Robin Lopez sitting courtside and was pretty excited. Brook WAS one of my favorite players because I used to watch Stanford basketball, I like Centers, and he was on my fantasy basketball team this year. But wow, I went up to them, and asked for a quick picture with them. They didn’t even turn to look at me, they just stared at their phones, and Robin said “Nah”. They continued to mumble something (Kyle thinks they said that they will sign something instead), but wow, they are complete ass-wads. I am definitely no longer a fan, but I’m a fantasy sports whore, and will probably draft him again if I have to.

We also saw Al Harrington sitting courtside. I was going to ask for a picture, but he was talking to lots of people at the time. No problem though, he seemed to be really happy. He was all smiles, joking with people, and just looked like he was genuinely having a good time. Chris Webber was doing the NBATV announcing for the 2nd game I believe, cool to see him. We also saw Derrick Rose sitting courtside wearing a Dodger hat. And yes, he does look every bit as dumb as he does on television (“think you got what it take?”).

John Wall was signing! The first day I saw him, he did not sign anything for any fans. But today, he was signing for fans for a long time. To the point where there were no fans waiting to get things signed. I had him sign two 8x10s for me. But my greedy tendencies kicked in and I wish I had about 8 more pictures to get signed. We also saw Wesley Johnson (4th overall pick) in street clothes. He was extremely nice and signed my 8x10 and took a picture with me. There was this fat geeky kid who had a shit-ton of 8x10s of all the players, and Wesley signed about 7 of them in a row for him. So yeah, rooting for Wesley Johnson this year.

We were sitting by the entrance to the locker rooms today, and every so often a player would come out, and throw his jersey or shoes at some little kids. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to get any. Oh, and after the 3rd quarter, we were asked to participate in the entertainment by playing this “jersey switch “ game on the court. All 4 of us participated, and we beat the other team of 4 people, and we each won $10 giftcards to the NBA store. cool

After summer league, we ate in the food court at Venetian and saw the Blue Man Group at 10PM. I really like the show. It was very entertaining and very interactive. It was definitely worth the $50 or so it cost. (student discount)


7/15/10
Today, we had lunch at Serendipity 3 at Caesar’s Palace. I had the NY hot dog, and it was pretty awesome. We again headed to NBA summer league for my 4th day. The day was a lot less action-filled than yesterday because there were no real huge names walking around. However, Chris Webber was back. Russell Westbrook and Brandon Jennings showed up for John Wall’s game. I got a picture with Russell Westbrook, but I didn’t approach Brandon Jennings. Portland was the last game, and I got Elliot Williams’s (1st round draft pick) autograph.

John Wall was very unimpressive, I knew he had a bad game but was very surprised to see that he shot 4-19 or something like that. He had a very ugly 21 points. But damn, Jeremy lin stole the show. He had the whole crowd rooting for him. He had a breakaway dunk which got the crowd going. He almost had an And 1 which was called an offensive foul, and the crowd starting boo’ing louder than I’ve heard in all 4 days. He even defended John Wall pretty well. One time they were isolated on the wing, and Jeremy defended him very well and forced John to throw up an ugly jumpshot, barely touching the rim. I was very disappointed in John Wall’s body language. It seemed very clear that as soon as he didn’t have a “good” game, that he sort of gave up and wasn’t trying as hard. He seemed embarrassed that Jeremy Lin was attracting the attention of the fans.

After summer league, we went to the M Casino for their buffett. Supposedly, they won an award for the best buffett in Las vegas. We started to wait in line and it seemed pretty long. I proposed to Nick that we make a bet regarding what time we will be seated. We set the rules and they were: As soon as the cashier touches our credit card, is ‘the time’. The bet was only $5, and we played rock-paper-scissor, loser sets the line, the winner picks over or under (before or after). I lost, and debated for a good 5 minutes, It was 8 O’clock I think, and I decided to set the line 8:47. All I was hoping for was that he didn’t insta-choose the before or after. I at least wanted to make a decent line, and make him think about it. Fortunately, for me, he did have to think about it, but eventually picked the before. (side note, Greg and Kyle chose 8:43 and 8:45, so I was happy about that). But unfortunately, the line started to move pretty quickly. So obviously, I wanted a buy out, there was a zero percent chance that I would win. But then, Nick offered this proposition: I could buy 5 minutes for every dollar, up to 20 minutes. I debated, but took his offer. At this point, the new time was 8:27 and I still had the over, I could lose $9 or win $1. Long story short, we get served at 8:28. Lame story

Dinner was pretty good, with all you can drink beer and wine. After dinner, we all decided to play some “johnny lodden thinks”. It’s basically me betting with person A on what person B thinks of something. For our first bet, Nick and Kyle bet on what I thought the capacity of the buffet was. I looked around and did a little calculation, and set my number at 266 I think. Nick took 300-ish and kyle took 500-ish, so Nick shipped the $5. However, the actual capacity was 1,062 I think.

One of the more memorable bets was “how many sexual partners has Kobe Bryant had?” We had Nick set the number, and Kyle and I bet on it, wager-ing style. Nick set his number and told Greg. But, Nick being Nick (unpredictable), we concluded that it could be 2 (wife and girl he raped) to 400 and nowhere in between. I think I took the over, but his number was low (less than 10).

For our last bet, we decided on my favorite bet of all time, the ‘how many days,months,years would you give up off the end of your life to spend a week with you dream girl?’. I don’t want to use names just in case this person doesn’t want their answer to be public. So we decided to ask Nick. . I took the under on 3 and a half years, Kyle took the over. His answer? 12 years. Lost that bet, got swept in my own game.

Bet $30 on the under, angels vs. Seatle, lost that one